I’m sorry if this has been discussed before!!! I’ve Ben doing a lot of printing using carbonx carbon fiber nylon, and the filament has worn the extruder drive gear down to where it needs to be replaced. Does anyone know about hardened drive gears or at least replacements? Plan B would be to custom build a whole new head, does anyone know of and good aftermarket extruders that would be good to use? I apologize if it’s Ben discussed. Thanks All
Never heard of a gear needing replaced. I’ve printed a fair amount of CF PLA, not nylon. A pic would be interesting to see…
That would be a bit surprising, since the filament isn’t rubbing on the extruder gear. The extruder gear should grip and push the filament without slipping. Although if the gear does slip on the filament, I could see the teeth wearing rather quickly on abrasive filament. If the gear is slipping, there should be a lot of filament dust clogging the teeth, and dust inside the 3DP head. If so, wear a mask. Carbon Fiber dust isn’t good to breath.
You can try contacting Snapmaker support, and get details about the gear. You’ve likely voided your warranty, but they have been known to sell replacement parts. It’s usually cables and heads, but they might sell the actual gear. Even if they won’t sell you just the gear, they might be willing to give you measurements that you can order a replacement in a harder material.
[Edit to add] the Snapmaker innovation seems to mostly be the linear rails and the swappable modules. Most of the 3DP seems derivative from the RepRap Marlin project (see firmware controller code repo). It would not surprise me at all to find out that it uses the same gear that RepRap uses. I have no idea if that’s a standardized gear, but given the extruder logic necessary to change the gear size, I would hope it’s standardized.
My gear has been wearing as well, I’d be interested if there’s a solution.
Hard be imagine that gear wearing. I do notice filament debris buildup every so often that leaves a mark down the center of the gear, but a stiff brush cleans that out.
Snapmaker sells a Lot of spare parts they do not list on shop when you kindly ask the support. They offered me all i wanted recently.
I can confirm that my extruder gear wears on the 3D printing module (A350T in my case).
I use Overture Matte PLA exclusively, and I’ve worn out not only 1, but 4 gears. I have reached out to Snapmaker support to buy the motor independently, and I just replace it each time the gear wears out. It feels really frustrating, since the motor itself is fine. Ideally, I would just replace the gear itself.
That said, I’m happy this solution exists, because the alternative would be to buy a whole new 3D printing module, which is much more expensive.
@sadekbaroudi Can you share how you contacted support? My extruder gear looks worn down and I have been having failed prints because the filament stops coming out and when I open the head unit, the filament is worn down at the gear line - and the gear looks worn as well.
I don’t see an obvious way to contact customer support for a gear (or failing that, motor) replacement.
Ticket:
https://snapmaker.formcrafts.com/support-ticket
E-Mail:
Support@snapmaker.com
Btw., you can coax a bit more life out of the feeder gear wheel:
That’s a great idea. I should have two replacement motors coming soon, but in the meantime, “shifting” the gear over to place the filament on unworn portions of the teeth is a great suggestion.