The gears I print for 1.5mm arbors seem to have holes that are too small. Perhaps my printer and/or PLA prints "big." The 3mm holes do not seem to have the same problem.
Steve recommends using a pin-vise and a drill bit to widen the holes on the gears so they spin freely. I tried that, but it was quite a lot of work -- I mean more than what I would expect to be normal. So I tried an electric drill. But then I encountered other problems, namely that it seemed that for at least one gear, I drilled out the ends asymmetrically. It would wobble a bit while spinning on an arbor.
What if we just make the hole a bit bigger while printing in the first place? That would also ensure that the holes on each end are aligned as well. I'm trying that now, with the 1.5mm holes printing at 1.57mm. I tried a test with one of the spacers and it seemed to work well.
I'm curious how others have addressed this.
Regards,
Tucker
The variability you are experiencing is the reason why the parts are not designed with upsized holes. Enlarging them to work on your printer might make them too large for another user. And it might only work for that one roll of filament.
Drilling (reaming) the holes seems like the best solution. A pin vice only takes me about 10 minutes for the entire clock. If you need to use a power drill, go as slow as possible and retract the bit often to clear the chips.