I was looking on Amazon for 26 tooth steel gears for my Artist D extruders. It doesn’t appear there are any. What I found was 36 and 40 tooth gears. Other than the number of teeth, the gears from JG Maker and Amazon seem to have the same dimensions.
Here’s my question: should I not be able to use the 36 toothed gear? Isn’t just a matter of re-calibrating the extruder steps so it feeds the correct length of filament?
I ordered the 36 gear steel gears. I have them but was going to let the bronze deteriorate more before I changed one. Been busy on printing and didn’t want to delay. Personally, I do not think the extra teeth will make a difference. The gear is moving at the same rate of speed. The teeth are more and give more of a bite but does not pull any more filament. Re-calibrating would probably improve the flow setting.
There would certainly be a limit; if you tried to use a 1000 tooth gear, the dimensions of the individual teeth clearly wouldn’t mesh unless the gear was huge. Assuming the gear is the same size, it’s the tolerance of the fit that would determine how far your new gear could stray from the original design. I imagine the tolerances on an extruder are tight, so the difference in geometry may cause excessive wear.
If you try it, I suggest disassembling and checking the extruder for wear after a few days.
I was actually thinking about this yesterday. Originally, I had a concern that having a different number of teeth could affect the E-steps. But, now, I don’t think it’s a factor. I think what realy matters is the gear’s outside diameter. I agree with @vankichline that a really large increase in the number of teeth could affect the gear’s ability to physically grip the filament, but I’m not so convinced that going from 26 to 36 teeth constitutes that large of an increase.
@Lowteck, I look forward to your experience with the SS gears.