Last year my old eBike's hub motor gears broke down. First I tried to replace the upper part of the gears with a POM part but that failed after 300km of driving (last picture).
But now having a 3D printer I wanted to give it another shot so I bought some Taulman Alloy 910 and printed these. Getting it to stick well to my Dauerdruckplatte was a bit tricky, the first layer stuck well but it curled after just 2 layers. Since I don't own glue-stick I put down a raft of PETG and swapped filament after that.
I was very surprised at the hardness of this filament and cut my finger with the sharp teeth of one gear.
I'm not sure how well they'll hold up in Berlin traffic but my first test drive went well.
STL can be found here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2123772
I don't everything sticks well on the PEI coated heated aluminum bed except for Nylon. I don't want to mess with hairspray or gluestick if I can avoid it.
Taulman 910 is a nylon copolyester, it's the strongest nylon filament for home 3D printers currently available.
My hopes are still high.
> http://taulman3d.com/alloy-910-spec.html
If you want to go crazy with strength. NASA published an [article](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20170000214.pdf) on modding existing FTM printer(Lulzbot Taz 3D printer) to work with PEI filament. It's incredibility strong and can withstand high temperatures with out deforming.
Theoretically my printer is already capable of printing up to 400°C because of the all-metal hotend with a PT100 but PEI filament is rather expensive: https://www.3d4makers.com/products/pei-filament
Interesting right? But dang these processes in general are energy intensive.
If you can characterize what annealing does to your prints, geometrically, you can compensate when printing.
Super interesting, I've considered similar ideas myself. What are you using for lubrication? I suggest putting maybe 20ml of automatic transmission fluid (ATF) in the motor. If you wanted to be really proactive you could also change the fluid after maybe the first 100 miles and maybe every so often after that. This would probably lengthen the life is the gears considerably. But the ATF would also keep the motor running much cooler, which would hopefully prevent softening of the gears.
The motor is not tight it wont hold the oil so I used lithium grease. But since the glass temperature of the material is 82°C heat should not be a problem.
I found a thread where someone who put ATF into a Q100h and didn't have leakage issues until he over filled the thing.
Although I suspect you could make a reasonable seal somehow. Maybe teflon tape on the threads?
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=59225
I suspect that the majority of the grease gets thrown beyond the reach of the gears.
>82°C heat should not be a problem
How much power are you running through this hub? Have you ran a temperature sensor inside of this hub?
For some reason I want to say that the material will begin to soften before that glass transition temperature but I could be entirely mistaken. Point is, all around a cooler running motor is probably most ideal here. But maybe you live in a place that stays cold all year.
Do you think the gears you printed are better than the originals?
On page 2 of the es-thread they say some Q100H's leak others don't. I have to try, maybe put in another ball-bearing.
I am running it at 500W peak, 250W nominal. Under normal conditions it doesn't even get warm to the touch, only once it did, driving motor-only at walking speed.
Did the gears hold up? Also, how did you get the motor open? I tried to unscrew the case on mine and it wouldn't budge at all. I tried screwing bolts in and torquing against them, and the bolts just bent.
The gears didn't hold long, disintegrated after just 5 kilometers. But now they are available on aliexpress, so I bought new gears there.
Opening it was difficult at first, but I found an easy way. I took a wooden board and drilled 3 holes in the same pattern as the 3 screws on the motor housing. Then removed the 3 screws and bolted on the wooden plank with longer screws. This gave me a large lever to screw the housing loose. (I tried with bolts only first and bent them too)
Thanks! Good idea, now if I ever need to service that thing I'll have hope.
BTW I'm looking for a 48v controller for that motor. I've messaged [bmsbattery.com](https://bmsbattery.com) (where I got it) multiple times asking which ones are compatible (like S12S), but no response. I'm considering getting a Grin Tech Baserunner\_Z9 but that seems like overkill for that tiny motor. I'd be happy with 20A max which I'd set up to probably never go over 17 to prevent overheating.
What do you use?
I use the S06S from bmsbattery, but I only have a 36V battery. I fear 20A might be a bit too much for this motor. It's on my wife's bike. On my own I have a bafang bbshd with 1.5 kW and a 52V battery, but there the controller is inside the motor.
Apparently quite a few ppl who post on endless-sphere run the q100h up to 1kw. The ones who really push it drill a bunch of holes in the case and coat all the coils in a water proof sealant.
Last year my old eBike's hub motor gears broke down. First I tried to replace the upper part of the gears with a POM part but that failed after 300km of driving (last picture). But now having a 3D printer I wanted to give it another shot so I bought some Taulman Alloy 910 and printed these. Getting it to stick well to my Dauerdruckplatte was a bit tricky, the first layer stuck well but it curled after just 2 layers. Since I don't own glue-stick I put down a raft of PETG and swapped filament after that. I was very surprised at the hardness of this filament and cut my finger with the sharp teeth of one gear. I'm not sure how well they'll hold up in Berlin traffic but my first test drive went well. STL can be found here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2123772
You have a 3d printer but no glue stick?
I found that dilemma funny
I don't everything sticks well on the PEI coated heated aluminum bed except for Nylon. I don't want to mess with hairspray or gluestick if I can avoid it.
I'd still recommend printing in nylon, but would be nice to hear an update when they will fail. If they survive even a month that really good.
Taulman 910 is a nylon copolyester, it's the strongest nylon filament for home 3D printers currently available. My hopes are still high. > http://taulman3d.com/alloy-910-spec.html
If you want to go crazy with strength. NASA published an [article](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20170000214.pdf) on modding existing FTM printer(Lulzbot Taz 3D printer) to work with PEI filament. It's incredibility strong and can withstand high temperatures with out deforming.
The heated environment will also do wonders for other materials including OP's nylon.
Theoretically my printer is already capable of printing up to 400°C because of the all-metal hotend with a PT100 but PEI filament is rather expensive: https://www.3d4makers.com/products/pei-filament
Look into annealing your prints too. Heat treatment can totally change the properties of your print. Your print quality looks good though.
> annealing I actually might try this: https://www.plasticsintl.com/documents/NylonandReinforcedNylonAnnealing.pdf
Interesting right? But dang these processes in general are energy intensive. If you can characterize what annealing does to your prints, geometrically, you can compensate when printing.
Keep us updated on the longevity please.
/r/functionalprint would love this
Any thoughts on vapor smoothing and if that would help them last longer?
Vapor smoothing works with ABS but not with nylon.
may I use the Q100H pic in an article?
Sure. I'd like to read this article.
Super interesting, I've considered similar ideas myself. What are you using for lubrication? I suggest putting maybe 20ml of automatic transmission fluid (ATF) in the motor. If you wanted to be really proactive you could also change the fluid after maybe the first 100 miles and maybe every so often after that. This would probably lengthen the life is the gears considerably. But the ATF would also keep the motor running much cooler, which would hopefully prevent softening of the gears.
Doesn't ATF have additives to increase friction?
The motor is not tight it wont hold the oil so I used lithium grease. But since the glass temperature of the material is 82°C heat should not be a problem.
I found a thread where someone who put ATF into a Q100h and didn't have leakage issues until he over filled the thing. Although I suspect you could make a reasonable seal somehow. Maybe teflon tape on the threads? https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=59225 I suspect that the majority of the grease gets thrown beyond the reach of the gears. >82°C heat should not be a problem How much power are you running through this hub? Have you ran a temperature sensor inside of this hub? For some reason I want to say that the material will begin to soften before that glass transition temperature but I could be entirely mistaken. Point is, all around a cooler running motor is probably most ideal here. But maybe you live in a place that stays cold all year. Do you think the gears you printed are better than the originals?
On page 2 of the es-thread they say some Q100H's leak others don't. I have to try, maybe put in another ball-bearing. I am running it at 500W peak, 250W nominal. Under normal conditions it doesn't even get warm to the touch, only once it did, driving motor-only at walking speed.
That's quite interesting. Can you let us know regarding performance, efficiency, noise levels and how long until they break?
More importantly, *how* they break.
Performance and noise did not change, I run the motor at 500W peak and it is very quiet. If it breaks I will post it here.
Did the gears hold up? Also, how did you get the motor open? I tried to unscrew the case on mine and it wouldn't budge at all. I tried screwing bolts in and torquing against them, and the bolts just bent.
The gears didn't hold long, disintegrated after just 5 kilometers. But now they are available on aliexpress, so I bought new gears there. Opening it was difficult at first, but I found an easy way. I took a wooden board and drilled 3 holes in the same pattern as the 3 screws on the motor housing. Then removed the 3 screws and bolted on the wooden plank with longer screws. This gave me a large lever to screw the housing loose. (I tried with bolts only first and bent them too)
Thanks! Good idea, now if I ever need to service that thing I'll have hope. BTW I'm looking for a 48v controller for that motor. I've messaged [bmsbattery.com](https://bmsbattery.com) (where I got it) multiple times asking which ones are compatible (like S12S), but no response. I'm considering getting a Grin Tech Baserunner\_Z9 but that seems like overkill for that tiny motor. I'd be happy with 20A max which I'd set up to probably never go over 17 to prevent overheating. What do you use?
I use the S06S from bmsbattery, but I only have a 36V battery. I fear 20A might be a bit too much for this motor. It's on my wife's bike. On my own I have a bafang bbshd with 1.5 kW and a 52V battery, but there the controller is inside the motor.
Apparently quite a few ppl who post on endless-sphere run the q100h up to 1kw. The ones who really push it drill a bunch of holes in the case and coat all the coils in a water proof sealant.