PLA mechanical pieces for robotics.

Hey RepRap

I'm very interested in 3D printed robotics. Ive watched a lot of videos on various 3D printed robotics projects people have done. However, most of them have metal pieces for the high strength components like rails and bearings. I don't have a printer, but could someone with experience enlighten me to to how PLA parts work on a robot?

Could you print an all PLA gearbox for a motor?

Tanks for the help, you guys rock!

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2013 10:04PM by Xanderjanz.

It's all a matter of size I think. With gear teeth the size of those used on the wades extruded, pla seems very robust. Going much smaller though and you may have problems. This will mean that, depending on what you intend to do, the gearbox may become quite large. That then takes a long time to print. Bit as vik said in another post. If the parts won't be getting hot, then has excellent material propertied for robot parts. BeAings can be eliminated too using constructs like Emmett's gear bearing, however, again, the minimum size that it can be printed effectively will affect what you can do with it. It all comes down to.design.