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How to repair a plastic gear

Today, there are a lot of mechanisms around us where plastic gears are used. Moreover, it can be like toy cars, as well as quite serious things, for example, an antenna lift in a car, a spinning gear, etc. The causes of gear failure can be different, of course, most of them are associated with improper operation, but now is not about that. If you are in such a situation and you have a couple of gear teeth broken, then there is a way out not to pay for an expensive part, but to restore it in a simple way.

Need to recover


  • Waste Toothbrush.
  • Detergent.
  • Two-component epoxy adhesive - cold welding for plastic.

Glue cold welding should be liquid, in tubes. Be sure to look at the packaging so that it is suitable for bonding plastic and plastic parts. Such two-component glue can be bought both in the auto parts store and in the hardware store. If you have any difficulties and you cannot find one, at the end of the article I will tell you how to make a similar analogue.

Restore Plastic Gear


Training


The first step is to prepare the surface of the gear. We wash it repeatedly in warm water with a detergent, actively working with a toothbrush. Our task is to degrease and remove grease from all faces.
After degreasing is done, dry it dry.

Cooking glue


Now prepare the glue. Mix the components in a small piece of cardboard in proportion as in the instructions. Mix well.
In general, before opening the glue, I recommend that you carefully familiarize yourself with its instructions, especially with the time of complete and partial hardening, since this information can differ radically from different manufacturers.
If the consistency is liquid, let it stand for a while until it begins to harden.

Tooth restoration


In my case, a few teeth have been stitched, the situation is fixable. We smear glue on that place which needs to be restored. The glue should be very thick, but plastic.
How to repair a plastic gear

We make such a peculiar tubercle.
How to repair a plastic gear

How to repair a plastic gear

We put the gear on an improvised stand so that the glue thickens even more. Everything is again individual, it took me personally about 20 minutes to make the consistency noticeably thicker.
How to repair a plastic gear

You can speed up the reaction and reduce the thickening time by heating. For example, take a hair dryer and start heating the glue on the gear.
How to repair a plastic gear

Tooth restoration


Now the most crucial moment is the rolling of the teeth. The node where the gear was operated, namely, another gear with which our broken one was directly in contact, should be generously greased with grease, grease or lithol.
Install the broken gear and roll several times over another.
How to repair a plastic gear

How to repair a plastic gear

As a result, another gear rolls the mark on thick glue.
How to repair a plastic gear

How to repair a plastic gear

Now you understand that before rolling the teeth, the epoxy adhesive on the gear should harden to the consistency of hard plasticine.
Thanks to lubrication, the glue does not stick to the other gear.

Hardening


Carefully remove the restored one from the mechanism and leave it for final solidification, usually for a day.
How to repair a plastic gear

In such a simple way, you can quite simply repair broken gears.

How to replace epoxy glue?


If you did not find the glue, I can recommend you to make a slightly similar composition.
To do this, you will need:
  • Epoxy resin with hardener.
  • Cement is dry.

We buy the usual transparent or yellowish epoxy resin with a hardener. These two components are often sold together.
In the proportion specified in the instructions, mix the components to get the right amount of glue. Add cement. Just not a cement-sand mixture, namely pure cement. The proportions are approximately two to one. That is, two parts of glue and one cement. And we mix everything very carefully. The glue is ready, and then everything is as described above.

Watch the video


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Comments (41)
  1. Guest Alex
    #1 Guest Alex Guests May 13, 2018 21:14
    6
    The 3D printer solves such problems in a much more enjoyable and creative way. Yes, it’s not the most powerful and very low-cost 3D shnik, nevertheless, when I enlarge the table to 17 x 17 cm, I print 15 x 15 x 14 cm products. These sizes are enough to print most utilitarian things.
    1. Ilya
      #2 Ilya Guests May 16, 2018 09:52
      2
      Alexey, what programs do you use to create 3D models. Can you tell a little about your printer? what kind of model? What 3D software layouts does it understand?
    2. AND
      #3 AND Guests April 29, 2019 12:10
      0
      For the armless, this method may be nicer, but to call it “more creative” is somehow completely inappropriate. Creativity is something no one has done before you, and the printer is standard technology.
  2. Interesting
    #4 Interesting Guests May 13, 2018 10:27 p.m.
    5
    Author, an interesting idea. Is there any information on how long this gear will last?
  3. Vasya
    #5 Vasya Guests May 13, 2018 23:21
    29
    Poor advice, not a single epoxy has adhesion to the materials of which modern gears are made in household appliances, with the exception of textolites.
    1. Radar
      #6 Radar Guests July 24, 2018 08:38
      7
      Such a gear can be repaired better. The gear is high, so we saw it in half with a thin file (a jigsaw on a tree or a hacksaw for metal with a previously sawn-off tooth bite). We turn the sawn fragment 180 degrees and glue (fuse, mechanically fix) with another fragment. If the thickness of the gear allows, we drill 3-4 holes D 0.5 - 1 mm around the axis (parallel to it) and drive in pieces of wire of a suitable diameter to avoid turning fragments relative to each other. Grind the teeth at the junction. In low-loaded, low-speed devices, such a gear can work for a rather long time, at least until the moment when the necessary spare part is found.
      PS: you can ask around at printer repair offices, they usually have contractors who cut gears from plastic.
  4. Guest Nikolay
    #7 Guest Nikolay Guests May 14, 2018 08:59
    19
    Polyethylene, ftoroplast and some other polymers do not stick at all
  5. Alexander Wolf
    #8 Alexander Wolf Guests May 14, 2018 09:02
    6
    Wonderful! Only one but. Such gears are usually made of vinyl or isopropyl plastics, to which the epoxy components stick very poorly. Therefore, such reconditioned gears will not withstand a large load
    1. sergey astashkin
      #9 sergey astashkin Guests July 9, 2018 05:53
      1
      From vinyl - like vinyl chloride? - No, they don’t do it only for toys; in principle, they cannot work in loaded nodes.
  6. lexx
    #10 lexx Guests May 14, 2018 09:17
    3
    why didn’t they show the result in the work? this glue will fall off the gears after drying under load. 3D printer will only solve the problem of replacing a broken gear
  7. the guest
    #11 the guest Guests May 14, 2018 13:48
    36
    Some here say about 3D printers, as if everyone has access to them. Otherwise, what is this site for? In place of the author, before filling the compound, I would have made a small recess at different angles on the gear with a thin drill.The hardened glue in these recesses will play the role of “latches”, which will give additional strength to the connection with plastic.
  8. Guest Alexander
    #12 Guest Alexander Guests May 16, 2018 16:58
    4
    There is no 3D printer, take a 3d pen, and work the same way
  9. Guest Vladimir
    #13 Guest Vladimir Guests May 17, 2018 20:06
    9
    Well, gentlemen, you are fed up with those who suggest using a 3D printer, a pen. This site offers how to quickly solve the problem. And then at least invite aliens!
    1. Guest Alex
      #14 Guest Alex Guests December 12, 2018 14:27
      1
      there is no 3D printer, is that really a problem, probably already in every muhosransk you can find a person who has a 3D printer and order him to print gear
      1. Vitaliy Nezhelsky
        #15 Vitaliy Nezhelsky Visitors June 7, 2019 2:35 p.m.
        0
        There is no 3D printer in our Muhosransk.
        Here the repair of the part is shown if there is no spare and the device should work.
  10. Guest Leonid
    #16 Guest Leonid Guests May 18, 2018 17:00
    21
    Do not do nonsense. Nothing good will come of it. Checked. The best way is a new gear.
    1. Vitaliy Nezhelsky
      #17 Vitaliy Nezhelsky Visitors June 7, 2019 2:37 p.m.
      0
      it costs 60% of the printer. (we have at least ..) but there’s no place to order it. (no sense.)
  11. gvsp
    #18 gvsp Guests May 21, 2018 16:43
    4
    Similar gears in 90% of cases are now made of polyamide. Adhesion to it in glue will not be very good. If the gear carries some kind of load, and does not turn the arrow in the device, it will not last long. And for a 3D printer, it seems to me that the print resolution is not enough, I will need post-processing.
    1. Rust.
      #19 Rust. Guests May 23, 2018 06:57
      33
      At one time, about 20 years ago, a plastic gear flew in a Japanese tape recorder. By the same method, I cast and repaired it AND ALREADY 20 YEARS IT WORKS !!
      And I want to say to clever people what loads on plastic, if they were beyond the limits, the plant would put METAL! And yet, who has money for a 3D printer, he will go and buy a new tape recorder or something that has broken! This wise guy needs to go to another site !!
      1. Gregory
        #20 Gregory Guests May 24, 2018 16:08
        3
        it can and will work on a tape recorder, but judging by the photo, it’s covered with a gear from the gearbox. Most likely it’s from an electric meat grinder. Yes, they put polyethylene gears on cheap models because of the savings.
        1. Guest Sergey
          #21 Guest Sergey Guests May 29, 2018 18:18
          3
          Plastic gears are put in very expensive models.
          Not for economy, but for the safety of fingers (especially children).
          When limbs get into the meat grinder, the gear breaks instead of the fingers.
          1. Guest Igor
            #22 Guest Igor Guests June 21, 2018 16:59
            7
            A very small child, of course, can put his fingers into the meat receiver in a meat grinder. But only on condition that both parents are complete idiots. Only an idiot can leave a meat grinder connected to the network if there is a child at home and 3 years old from the family.
          2. sergey astashkin
            #23 sergey astashkin Guests July 9, 2018 05:57
            4
            Polyamide gears are strong enough .. and the fingers can twist .. so parents need to watch ..
          3. Yuri Golovin
            #24 Yuri Golovin Visitors November 19, 2018 11:02
            0
            And you try, put your fingers there! Be sure to unsubscribe about the result?
        2. sergey astashkin
          #25 sergey astashkin Guests July 9, 2018 05:55
          2
          polyethylene is not put there .. polyamide. polyethylene in principle in a meat grinder cannot work ..
      2. Yuri Golovin
        #26 Yuri Golovin Visitors November 19, 2018 10:42
        1
        All right! In this way I restored the gear in the wiper gearbox, it has been working for 10 years!
      3. Vitaliy Nezhelsky
        #27 Vitaliy Nezhelsky Visitors June 7, 2019 2:39 p.m.
        0
        in a tape recorder it can and will work for another 50 years .. but in the printer on the stove I don’t know ...
  12. Konstantin
    #28 Konstantin Guests May 28, 2018 16:58
    8
    I recommend either hot pinning the gear at angles so that they do not protrude beyond the surface of the restored teeth, or screw in the screws before smearing with glue. Then the load of this system will withstand much more.
  13. Raisa
    #29 Raisa Guests May 30, 2018 18:50
    1
    Advise how to solder a nose and a handle at a cupronickel pottery.
    1. radar
      #30 radar Guests October 5, 2018 08:36
      1
      Cupronickel coffee pot. To use when soldering cupronickel you need Neusilber solder. You can use copper-zinc solder, which is sold in stores complete sets for refrigerators in the form of strips of copper color. You can use PSR40 - silver solder.Still there is such a recipe: to melt together the Soviet 3 kopecks (1961-90 g) plus fifty dollars until 1927 ... Instead of a soldering iron, you will need to use a torch. flux for soldering universal borax + boric acid 1: 1 diluted in water and boil fluxing hot.
      1. Guest Alex
        #31 Guest Alex Guests 13 january 2019 14:14
        3
        Smelted fifty silver? For the price, how much does it cost, you can buy a new coffee pot!
        1. AND
          #32 AND Guests April 29, 2019 12:03
          1
          and if the coffee pot is even rarer than fifty dollars?
  14. sergey astashkin
    #33 sergey astashkin Guests July 9, 2018 05:51
    0
    Hello everyone, regarding the good adhesion of the adhesive to the surface. First, it is advisable to deeply scratch the surface on which the glue is laid before laying the glue. Then, a special adhesive is sold for preliminary coating of polymer surfaces for gluing. As for the material of gears: for good, they are made of polyamides, and they can be glued together. Gears are not made from PTFE .. from polyethylene too, from propylene - only in children's toys - and their life is short. True, even from polycarbnates, etc. .. but they are no longer better glued ..
  15. autoliga
    #34 autoliga Guests July 19, 2018 20:44
    1
    The wiper motor gear was covered - a plastic gear paired with a metal worm. I had to buy a new wiper motor. No glue can withstand the load.
    1. Yuri Golovin
      #35 Yuri Golovin Visitors November 19, 2018 10:56
      2
      Will endure! Tested on VOLVO gearbox on the tailgate, it has been working for 10 years already!
  16. Guest Sergey
    #36 Guest Sergey Guests October 11, 2018 18:45
    0
    Hello everybody! They talked a lot, they said, but they couldn’t say how to glue it. They didn’t have a mechanical radio-controlled dog, its teeth were cracked (crack). What can be glued together?
  17. Reader
    #37 Reader Guests December 10, 2018 18:53
    3
    In the early 90s, when the vidic appeared, I had to break the same gear in the tape recorder (when I pulled out the jammed cartridge), melted the plastic from the same cartridge and until it froze held the second gear, the teeth turned out good, the tape recorder worked properly and until still alive
  18. Vyacheslav
    #38 Vyacheslav Guests December 13, 2018 23:46
    5
    I did this: There were two broken teeth. In the area of ​​whole teeth, plasticine made a partition covering about 6-7 teeth. Filled with plaster. I removed it from the teeth until the gypsum completely froze. Then. I deepened the place where the broken teeth are not only in depth, but also on the sides. Established a plaster mold. And filled with two-component epoxy glue. Day and you're done.
  19. Kirill
    #39 Kirill Guests January 31, 2019 12:45
    0
    Hello ! Long enough for such a repair
  20. Sergey Molokov
    #40 Sergey Molokov Guests March 8, 2019 12:03 a.m.
    1
    The best composition for this work, superglue (any) and baking soda. Read on the internet, he did it several times, glues any plastic.
  21. Losev Map
    #41 Losev Map Guests March 13, 2019 1:03 p.m.
    1
    great way, use liquid nails instead of epoxy. I didn’t roll it, but simply spread it and then brought out the profile with files. Dead grip didn’t come off, only clicks because Profile did not finish.

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