Extruder Wear Questions

[Schnupp]

I know the extruder gears take a good amount of wear and im curious to how much is the normal amount. Ive noticed that my printed gears create small dusk particles that gets onto my aluminum extrusions. See pic below.
Also how hot should the extruder motor get? During longer prints its not too hot to touch but its getting close to it.
Thanks!

[AbuMaia]

I don't know how much wear is "too much". I too get the dust on the gears. I think "too much" wear would be where you can turn the large gear in either direction any amount without the small gear turning any.

[usarmyaircav]

I am glad someone brought this up. I decided to print out the small gear, and and accidentally printed it out with 15% infil. Will that work, or is 100% or above a certain percentage recommended?

[gmay3]

Schnupp, it's interesting to see a picture of the dusty gears, I put a drop of "3 in 1" machine oil on my extruder gears when I started and instead of dust I get little more of a paste made from plastic dust and oil. I'm still on my first set from April 2014.

What printer model do you have?

I think it is perfectly fine for the extruder motor to get hot as long as it does not get hot enough to soften or warp any of the extruder parts.

usarmyaircav, as a data point, I believe Colin recommended 30% infill on extruder parts when I asked him. I usually print them with 30% hexagonal infill.