instructables

Broken Gear Repair

by Fab Muchada

Simple way to x broken gear

Step 1: Materials Needed to Fix Broken Gear

you need a plastic steel epoxy, Popsicle stick, any mixing medium for your epoxy mixture and brush and detergent
soap or dish washing liquid.

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Broken Gear Repair: Page 2
Step 2: Cleaning

Be sure that your gear is free from oil and dust. use dish washing or powdered soap and brush to clean the gear

Step 3: Epoxy Mixture

mix the two compound and apply it on the broken area.

Step 4: Curing

wait for an hour to harden the epoxy, since the epoxy is not hard enough and the epoxy is owing slowly, you need
to monitor the owing or moving of the epoxy not to stuck in one area of the gear

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Step 5: Moulding the Teeth

After an hour the resin will going to be hard, just like a clay, position the new mold gear in its gear partner, then
rotate slowly to adapt the teeth of the other gear by the way you need to put some grease on the other gear so that
the epoxy will not stick to the other gear. rotate it slowly till the rotation will t to each gear.

Step 6: Total Curing

remove the gear to the gear box assembly and cure it on a well ventilated area for a day

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Step 7: Cured Epoxy Gear

Install the hardened gear in the gear box, assemble the parts. this gear part belongs to my meat grinder.

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Step 8: Video

Well done, thank you very much. I will keep this in mind for future gears.

They make steel stick epoxy at home depot that would probably work very well on a metal gear
only much less time to set up. You would have to work fast like three to five minutes. It can be
drilled and tapped as well.
Great! Will now use your idea for other "problems" and repairs I work on. Thank you.

You just gave me a temporary fix for my RC. I gunned it one too many times, and the gears tore
themselves apart. The Chinese boat arrives in a week. I only have to wait a day and Revvor'll be
out, skidding in the warehouse or streaking along the road.
sooo yeah. thanks.

I would like to make a mold of the finished gear in case there is another breakdown. Can someone
tell me what kind of silicon or other material is used to make molds? Friends in Scotland were
making molds of fancy wooden objects when doing a makeover on older homes but I don't know
what they were using.
Tedward2

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For a long-term replacement, make a mould from the repaired item, then use that to cast a new
one-piece item, free from the risk of an add-on section breaking away.
Use very thin plastic sheet, saran wrap instead of the grease.

прекрасно, спасибо.

I wish I saw this earlier... :)

Thanks. I'll keep this in mind.
I used your idea and repaired a worn gear on a powered lift chair. It worked out great, saved me
spending $200 on a new motor/gearbox since I couldn't just order a new gear. Thanks.
I did this on my kids powerwheels Jeep. The gear appears to be identical to the one used in this
instructable.... WELL DONE SIR!
Perfect. What if gear is from steel ??

Thumbs-up on that one! The skill quotient involved leans heavily towards that of "timing" and its
due, requisite attention.
Thumbs-up on that one! The skill quotient involved leans heavily towards that of "timing" and its
due, requisite attention.
A clever way to repair some gears!
In step five, you say "After an hour the resin will going to be hard, just like a clay, position the new
mold gear in its gear partner"
Perhaps you meant, "BEFORE the resin has fully hardened, when it has the stiffness of clay,
position the epoxy-coated gear against its gear partner. "
This should be taught wherever there are situations where there may be problems to be solved,
and no Parts at hand...
Gone to my blog.
http://faz-voce-mesmo.blogspot.pt/2015/02/reparar-...
Excellent solution. Bravo

That was EXACTLY what I was looking for, I have to fix a broken gear in my car's rear door power
lock. A new one is way too expensive, and I don't have access to a 3d printer.
I just hope I'll find this kind of epoxy resin here in Italy.
Hi! In Spain you can find in plumbery stores a very good epoxy paste that it's used like cold
soldering. Here it's commercial name it's Collak, but I supose that will be easy to find something
similar in a plumbery store in Italy. It's like a clay with both components in the same cylinder, you
just have to smash it, and it's very quick. Also it's supposed that it has a good mechanical resist.
And use gloves!
Or see if Sugru will work...

Just be sure to use the strongest version of epoxy you can find, and not the "quick steel" which
would set to quickly to mold the gears with. Good luck. I've fixed stuff on cars with epoxy before. It
works unless it's on a part that has to take heat.
Look at the Instructables about repairing portable bandsaw gear:

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https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-repair-the-...
J-B Weld has good strength specs. Good luck.
I have a Buick Lucerne with the same door lock issue.
Solución muy eficiente y simple, gracias por compartir... Nice Solution! :)

nice

I use a needle file set to gently dress each tooth to remove burs, ridges etc. Cleans them up and
smooths out wrinkles from the cling film (instead of grease, which I find a bit hit and miss).
Good instructable, too many people bin stuff with busted gears, kudos for kicking it into the
limelight :-)
Well Done!!! Its help me....:)

Nice, easy, simple fix til you can get or make a more permanent replacement.

perfect and simple

This is just BRILLIANT! you need to put this in a contest ASAP! I would vote for this for sure.

This is just BRILLIANT! you need to put this in a contest ASAP! I would vote for this for sure.

I see that Devcon does not mention using this product to repair plastic, but rather metals.
Plastic repair is a broad subject for there are many types of plastics. There has to be a breakdown
of the plastic at the interface. Most epoxies do not accomplish that. There is only an exothermic
reaction between the resin and the hardener not between it and the substrate.
I learned a lot when I was repairing components on my Fieros. That car used several types of
plastics. Each requiring a particular repair regime.
Then their are the thermoplastics and then there are thermoplastics. One is processed with heat
and is reversible. The other is an irreversible process.
Within these two categories are many types, each with its own characteristics and repair methods.
The adding of metal is not a fix for the epoxy not bonding to the plastic.
There are products that would be appropriate.for your repair.
I do wish you the best.
You can also use mechanical keying. Use a small drill bit to drill holes into the part. Drill at various
angles through the same hole to form an under cut and then the soft epoxy can expand and form a
mechanical plug which physically can't be pulled out without breaking the epoxy or original plastic.
Have you heard of Sugru? It will do this type of stuff as well as much more. I fixed a missing nut on
my drill press and made finger grips on my Mac. I think you'd like it. Your instructions are clear and
well done. Thank you.
Great though Sugru is, it isn't suitable for this. It will mould to the right shape, but it is a firm-to-hard
silicone rubber at the end of the day, & that isn't useful for hard plastic gears!

Steel epoxy sets very hard and doesn't flex, which is what you want for this sort of thing.
you can also use shapeloc/intomorph/friendlyplastic to form a mold, you can cast it off the non
damaged(apply a little lube on the part to be cast, 1/2 let it cool. remove it, clean the gear of any
grease or oil. put your epoxy on it, apply the mold with a little oil on the mold to keep it from sticking
let it fully harden.
Now that your gear is repaired ... why not make a silicon mold so that you can make another when
it goes wrong again? That is nice work.
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It could be a solution to broken gears in my son's toy cars which are impossible to get a new ones.
I wonder how strong the newly casted gears are. Will they last some good 6 months? If not, I'd
better get a new car for my son.
My God! There is hope yet for our civilization!!! This Instructable is just incredible since the problem
that it addresses is a curse that we all must bear. For example, my wife brought an electric pencil
sharpener home from her middle school library and asked if I could fix it. When I saw the broken
plastic gear, which I have seen so many, many times over the years, I ordered her a new one from
Amazon.
I am an engineer and am just blown away by this solution. Bravo! Kudos!
I can't wait until the next thing breaks ?
DAMMIT!! About 6 years ago, I bought a consumer (cheap) slushie machine, and the gear that
moved the frozen drum broke. It was plastic. This would have fixed the broken gear. GOOD ONE!!
I feel your pain this one's a keeper.

You know? This might be the greatest instructable of ALL TIME!!1!

I couldn't begin to tell you how many things I've owned that have been rendered inoperable
because of a stripped plastic gear. KUDOS!!! Sir/Ma'am!@!
Kind of brilliant, if the new teeth hold up. More usual way, but more involved, is to make a simple
silicone mold of 2/3 of gear (the good teeth) then move the mold around and finish the last third
now over good teeth. Then cast with around 70 durometer urethane.
I was thinking the same thing (using the good part of the gear as a mold for a new part). For that
matter, it might be worth trying to combine two molds to cast a completely new piece. That way, if
you're fooling with a gear susceptible to regular abuse, you can always just make a new one.
As to just using a mold on *part* of the gear, I would worry that the "new" part would eventually
break off. Maybe that's not really a problem, but simply recasting the whole gear seems to me a
surer way of producing a long-lasting replacement.
Of course, I'm saying this like I've ever had to do it before. ;-) Still, this instructable is very clever
and a great use for materials most might already have on hand.
My reply was standard practice in the industry except that they were aiming toward a hard cast
gear which would be used as a pattern for an iron foundry.
I tried that a while back with a different epoxie and it didn't hold up very long, the teeth came
unglued again.. How long has this version worked for you? I have a couple of things I need to fix
also and it would be really nice if these new teeth work well and stays actually stuck onto the gear.
Does the section with the "new" teeth break off, or do they simply wear down? I was wondering the
same thing. If the whole new part is breaking off, it may be worthwhile to bore a few tiny angled
holes (maybe 2- or 3mm deep, whatever can be accommodated) into the "old" part of the gear,
allowing the epoxy to fill them and form a "cleat": this creates both a chemical bond and a physical
anchor.
Of course, if it's just that the epoxy is wearing out or breaking down prematurely, you might simply
be looking at having to go through this process as many times as you can stand before just
breaking down and buying the replacement. ;-)
I had the epoxied area locked in well and even pinned using tiny bits of straight pin wire. The teeth
were breaking off the rest of the epoxy. I need a stronger or harder curing epoxy I guess.
Excelente idea.... lo felicito por compartir la tecnica para reparacion del piñon.
Atte.

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Great fix.. One trick taught to me by an old machinist would be using some plastic wrap (Saran like
stuff) to wrap the epoxy on the broken gear right before molding. This helps give you a little
clearance between gears and saves a lot of cleanup on those teeth if in a precision. I can easily
imagine any roughness, peaks, and sharp bits left in the epoxy slowing chewing up the mating
surface on the other gear if it's plastic. If you haven't done any cleanup on that gear beyond what is
in the photo I'd suggest it or at least check that it isn't beating up on that other gear. This is less of
a problem when working with metal but of concern with all fixes where the fix material is notably
harder than the original mating surfaces. When that old machinist showed me this trick he had also
dremeled off the previous broken threads and drilled 2 locating holes to help affix the epoxy
although it isn't necessary for a low speed / low torque application like this (we were working on a
lawnmower that he had made a custom geared setup for attaching a snowblower whose motor was
doa to a PTO). Keep up being awesome.

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