--- "Jeffrey S. Worley" <Technoid_at_30below.com> wrote:
> Why is cannibalizing the new printers not an option?
It is, but not a long-term one.
> If you can replace the whole mech with a new one for $19.00 or so...
$4 when I got them.
> ... why not do that?
Because most of the mechs had bad gears, too. So far, my total
count of working gears is very close (+/- 1) to the number I need
to keep the plotters I own working.
At some point, I will not have enough gears. As it is, I spent a wad
of money to buy a pile of spare parts with about 3 good gears. :-(
> Is it that the gears once installed are damages by de-installing them?
> I can see how that could be.
No, but plotters that once had good gears, now have bad gears. They
fail. Perhaps it's thermal expansion problems, perhaps it's stress,
but these gears do not last. The material is so thin at the bottom
of the splines that they develop a longitudinal crack along them.
As other have said, perhaps it's a poor choice of materials or perhaps
it's a poor match of shaft diameter to gear I.D., but for whatever
reason, it's a common problem to this plot engine.
-ethan
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Received on Fri Apr 18 2003 - 12:02:01 BST