Did anyone ever find any replacement plastic gears for the often broken gear in the TG16 CD unit?

[lakeflaccid]

I guess I covered most of it in the title. Basically, there are some plastic gears in the TG16 CD units that didn't age gracefully, so they inevitably get brittle and break in most (probably all) of the units. Last time I asked about this, the solution was basically just, "Unless you're willing to build some replacement gears yourself, you're out of luck. They're not sourceable."

Did anyone ever find a solution?

[Tokimemofan]

I guess I covered most of it in the title. Basically, there are some plastic gears in the TG16 CD units that didn't age gracefully, so they inevitably get brittle and break in most (probably all) of the units. Last time I asked about this, the solution was basically just, "Unless you're willing to build some replacement gears yourself, you're out of luck. They're not sourceable."

Did anyone ever find a solution?

There still isn't a drop-in replacement. There are 3 options available that would fix it but they usually require permanent removal of the 2nd gear post and rewiring the motor. If you are really adventurous you can take the gear off and then cut off the remaining cogs on the large ring and use some gorilla glue to mold on replacement cogs. I do mean adventurous because it took me a week of experimentation to get it right. My suggestion is to get a duo and sell your current system. If your system has the original box I highly suggest waiting for a proper replacement. Take my advice, this is one system where you may end up spending more time fixing than playing, only an idiot (like me!) would buy one to actually use.

[xelement5x]

The industrious individuals over at PCEngineFX have come up with pretty elegant solutions. Once of the best known is the replacement offered here: http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=10224.0

Also, if you don't feel comfortable fixing it yourself a lot of the guys there will do the replacement as a repair job (you send the unit in, they fix and test it, then ship it back).

Hope this helps ya, I have a Duo-RX myself but save your old hardware if you can! :)

[lakeflaccid]

Thanks for the input guys. The drive itself is actually sitting in numerous pieces, stowed away somewhere in a tupperware container, so I'm not too afraid to tinker with it myself. I'll probably give fixing it a go at some point. I feel like it's worth at least trying, because the drive itself worked up until the gear broke (so the laser and motor seem to be fine) and I'm too frugal to pay for a Duo.

Also regarding the gear, I wonder how accurate 3D printers are these days. A friend of mine at university says he has access to a nice setup...

[Tokimemofan]

Thanks for the input guys. The drive itself is actually sitting in numerous pieces, stowed away somewhere in a tupperware container, so I'm not too afraid to tinker with it myself. I'll probably give fixing it a go at some point. I feel like it's worth at least trying, because the drive itself worked up until the gear broke (so the laser and motor seem to be fine) and I'm too frugal to pay for a Duo.

Also regarding the gear, I wonder how accurate 3D printers are these days. A friend of mine at university says he has access to a nice setup...

Let me know if your friend can do it.