Engaging the gears

Hi,

I was wondering how to best go about the procedure for engaging the gears. Do you push the motor gear tight against the big gear and let them get loose enough "on there own" by turning the gears enough times, after which you fix the motor position? Or does one have to position the gears manually to make sure they don't bind or have too much backlash. I don't know how to do this correct since I actually don't know what too much backlash is. The way I've done it now, is pushing the motor gear against the big one and turning that one until I feel they run smooth together. But at that point I am able to wiggle the big one a bit without it grabbing the smaller gear. Would that be too much backlash? I hope this all makes sence for you to understand my question

They should be as close as you can get them without binding when the filament is in place. Try extruding filament by turning the large gear by hand to feel if it binds. You need to make 11 turns of the big gear to go through all tooth combinations.

A little backlash doesn't matter because the molten plastic is springy so it it takes up the slack when rewinding until the pressure drops to zero, which is as far as you need to rewind. Also the exact rewind distance is not critical as long as it fast forwards the same amount. Not enough leaves strings, too much just wastes time.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Hi Chris,

What exactly is binding? Is that when there's a lot of friction between the gears and it is hard to turn them?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2013 01:30PM by Nilez.

Yes exactly that.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Ok thank you. Then I think I've found a spot where that happens. I'll place the motor a little further away.