Are small PETG gears tough enough for setscrews to fasten to shaft?

I am just beginning with my Lulzbot Taz 5, using Gearotic (incredible program!) to produce smallish (1-4 in diameter) gears for quite low-load applications. I want to fasten the gears to metal shafts. Gearotic lets me produce a collar on the gears. For various reasons, I use PETG. I can drill the collar and thread it for a setscrew. But I wonder if anyone has experience in the long-term life of this arrangement. Is PETG strong enough that the setscrew won't eventually strip the thread so the gear comes loose? Thanks for any thoughts!

Tim

I made some gears using PLA, which I drilled and tapped for set-screws
and they worked great !
But you Must have Solid plastic at area of set-screw, (100% infill when printed)
(large diameter set-screws, with large threads, is best)

(Of course those gears are used in a low-speed, low-torque motor application)

Have you considered using threaded inserts ?
Research metal4plastic on this site.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LambdaFF

Have you considered using threaded inserts ?
Research metal4plastic on this site.

---

No, because I'm not familiar with this method, which sounds perfect. But I will research the site you mentioned. Thanks!

Tim

You can find some here :
http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...-printed-parts

Show us what you do with it.

Thanks for that info! Because I am in the USA, shipping from that source would be excessive, but I was able to find much the same thing (and many similar parts) on Amazon over here. You gave me a good idea, and I'm going to order a small assortment and do some experimenting.

Tim

the other thing you can do is simply embed a metal nut.

All the screws holding the quad together in my orange quad Avatar are screwed into 3d printed PETG. ;)

This thread reminded me that I wanted to get some threaded inserts.
I have alot of M3 screws for my RC hobby, so I got a bunch of M3 inserts from HERE just now.
Should be fun to incorporate into printing projects.

easier to just make a hexagonal/octagonal (can't remember) socket for an m3 nut.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ssayer

All the screws holding the quad together in my orange quad Avatar are screwed into 3d printed PETG. ;)

---

Good enough for me! I'll let you all know how it works out.

Tim