Quentin mentioned that it is best to have both gears of the same material (either both PLA or both ABS). Because the PLA is more hard an brittle than the ABS, it tends to wear the ABS more. I will therefore attempt to print the larger gear in ABS as well.
First I want to print the calibration phantom properly and complete the calibration accurately.
One thing I have also learnt is that fingerprints (any oil) on the print bed is not a good thing. Have your bottle of acetone ready and wipe the bed occasionally. The ABS (only filament I have) sticks to the bed well if it is clean (it is Kapton taped) and I run at 90 degrees (Quentins standard slic3r profile for ABS).
I have a list of parts I want to print - another small gear or two after calibration (to get it exactly round), a large gear, a filament spool holder, a fan mount for the Arduino.
Speaking of fan mount, I changed the extruder drive to one of Quentins drivers (available on his site), it has a slightly higher current capacity than mine, and it runs hot. I need aiflow over the electronics...
I also want to get going under Linux (I have been using Linux for years, dual boot system on the laptop, but I got everything going under Windows). The printer occasionally loses contact and then I have to reboot Windows to see COM14 again.
I just thought about something... We did not drill out the M3 motor mount holes in the extruder. While this works fine, it may be that there is too much axial force on the gear, causing it to fatigue and break prematurely. Drill out the holes, and mount the motor so that there is the tiniest amount of play on the large gear. This should make the gears last longer. One print in ABS seems a bit too short a lifespan.
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