Gear Materials
Trade-offs between common gear materials for hobby and prototype mechanisms — plastics, wood-based sheet, and metal.
Material choice interacts directly with module and manufacturing method — a material's minimum reliably-formed feature size effectively sets the smallest module you can use with it, and its strength sets how much load a given module/face-width combination can carry.
3D-printed plastics
- PLA — easiest to print, most dimensionally accurate of common FDM filaments, but brittle and low heat resistance; fine for low-load, indoor, non-continuous-duty gears.
- PETG — tougher and more heat-resistant than PLA, slightly less crisp on fine teeth; a good general-purpose choice for mechanisms that see real use.
- Nylon — excellent wear resistance and a naturally low-friction surface (a common choice for production plastic gears), but harder to print well (moisture-sensitive, warps more).
See Designing Gears for 3D Printing for module recommendations per material.
Laser-cut sheet
- Plywood/MDF (3–6 mm) — cheap, widely available, cuts cleanly; the default assumption in this site's Laser Cutting Gears guide.
- Acrylic — stiffer and more dimensionally stable than wood sheet, but more brittle at fine tooth tips, especially below module 0.5.
Metal (CNC/machined)
Aluminum is common for lightweight, moderate-load prototype gearing; brass machines cleanly and runs quietly against steel or plastic mating gears; steel is reserved for genuinely high-load or high-wear applications where hobby-scale manufacturing methods are usually a poor fit anyway. See CNC Machining Gears for cutter-size considerations that apply regardless of metal choice.