Printing quality of gears

[jeffmorris]

I have PowerSpec Ultra 3D printer (Flashforge Dreamer/Creator clone) and Simplify3D software. The black gear was printed using PLA, medium printing quality, 20% infill, and 20% outline overlap. The gray gear was printed using ABS, high printing quality, 100% infill, and 20% outline overlap. The white gear was printed using PLA, high printing quality, 100% infill, and 50% outline overlap. Why does the gray gear look terrible?

gears.jpg

[dunginhawk]

They look rather small... did you have the fan on for the 2 PLA prints but not the ABS print? something that small (if its the size of a quarter which it looks like) may require a fan, even for abs or slow it WAY WAY down

[Alibert]

Hard to see, but your ABS filament could have a too high water content and generate steam bubbles. Try drying it before printing.

Also, it would be helpful for us if you would also mention which settings you used for the printing, as 99% of the printed result depends on those specific settings........

[djprinter]

Probably a temp issue... you'll obviously nailed the temp for the white gear, but different types and colors of filament will need different temps.

[LambdaFF]

For me the answer is in your "high quality" settings for 3 reasons :
- 100% infill and 20%outline overlap : can you see why there would be too much material lying around ?
- even without the above, I think that with 100% infill you take for granted that your extrusion ratio is absolutely perfectly set.
- ABS has a high shrinkage ratio so playing with 100% infill settings is bound to fail for me.

I know that many people "think more is better", but in this case I'd suggest you try a 25% infill and see what happens.

[Geoff]

^ Agree with above.

No need for 100% infill, 50% is even alot. As for the Grey ABS, change temps. All ABS doesn't print at the same temperature. I would lower the temp too.

As for Simplify3D, don't get me started. $100 wasted when I always go back to Slic3r for better print quality, and that cost me nothing.