Anyone have a 3D resin printer?

[Perry]

From what I understand you can print a much smaller item on a resin machine.

I'm looking to make (or have someone make) a small plastic gear. Approx 3.5 mm diameter. I tried on my PLA machine with a 0.4mm nozzle. No joy. I though maybe I could make a negative of the gear and then fill it with an epoxy to kind of mold a gear but still no joy.

Just a design note, the orignal gear had a square hole in the center. You can guess where the gear failed. Right in the two corners. I can make this square hole after the gear is printed if that is an issue.

Cheers, Perry

 

[Arbutus]

Oh thats very tiny, even for a resin printer. You should know that the cured resin is quite soft and it fractures easily at stress concentration points such as the corners of a square hole and the roots of gear teeth. There may be more durable resins available than the 'ABS Like' and 'Epoxy-like' formulas, but in my experience both of those are too soft to handle any stress at that scale.

 

[Perry]

Thanks for the input Arbutus. I was hoping for an easy fix. I'll have to grind up a cutter and try and make one out of plexiglass....maybe brass.