How long do extruders, and specifically extruder gears, last? I know it is material dependent. Let’s say, best case PLA. Has anyone found any value in Extruder gear upgrades?
I was having an extruder issue, but it was just dirt, but that got me thinking; how long should these parts last? Besides poor performance, what kind of wear do y9ou look for to replace an extruder cover or gears?
On which printer? Old printers has brass gears, some cheap printers even used plastic gears, modern better quality extruder use hardened steel gears.
On PLA they usually last quite a long time, unless you got a lemon or something breaks because of a defect, hundreds of kg of non-abrasive PLA should be possible with a modern extruder.
K2 Plus. Looks like Steel or Aluminum alloy to by eye. So far (one big print in progress) looks like the cleaning did the trick. As suspected, it was just dirty. Thanks for the info. I won’t suspect my gears any more.