ge_rik wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 8:20 pm
Yes, that's the long and the short of it. A bit hit and miss making sure the gears mesh correctly. As the motor block housing is closed, it's not possible to see the gears or make adjustments. I'm now on my fourth variation..... Way one takes around 18 hours to print....
I'm fairly sure you can get transparent PLA filament. Print the test housings using that.......
- if the gear mesh is badly out you'll soon know.
- if you are lucky and the mesh is OK, then the clear gearbox won't be clear after a coat of paint.
You'll probably need to hold everything up against a bright light to see the silhouette of the gears and there'll be so much distortion it will be like trying to read a newspaper through the bottom of a beer glass. Still a lot better than printing bits 'ad nauseum' until you get a gearbox that seems to work.....
Some plastics in transparent form are brittle, polystyrene being an example, and others like ABS and HIPS just can't be made in transparent anyway. I've no experience with PLA, so it may be that once you get a working gearbox, you may need to print one more in solid colour to get the physical properties you need.
Regards,
Graeme