Ball Bearing Print-In-Place (Small - 24 mm) by FelixTheWhale

FelixTheWhale

Education>Engineering

Print Profile(1)

All

P1P

P1S

X1 Carbon

X1E

0.2mm layer, 2 walls, 15% infill

Designer

12 min

1 plate

4.3(21)

Boost

195

213

Released

Description

D2.4 cm ball bearing. Engineered for seamless in-place printing, it features 15 tiny balls.

Feel free to print and evaluate its potential - your insights will be invaluable in refining this concept

Please note that initial rotation may be restricted due to the spheres making contact with both the upper and lower layers during the printing. To activate the bearing, exert rotational force on the outer ring. This can be easily achieved by mounting the bearing onto a pen or a similar object, thereby fixing the inner race, and applying moderate force to the outer race to sever the initial contacts.

Applying a small amount of lubricant (example: silicone grease) will improve performance.

Comment & Rating (33)

@mariu5

Print Profile

0.2mm layer, 2 walls, 15% infill

Pretty good. Wished it was a bit sturdier.

The designer has replied

@FelixTheWhale

Thanks for printing, I will try to make one with less play next week. Balls become too sticky with bottom and walls and harder to print when gap is too small

@al0yyy

Print Profile

0.2mm layer, 2 walls, 15% infill

printed out great!

The designer has replied

@FelixTheWhale

perfect ☺️

@floridafoilers

Print Profile

0.2mm layer, 2 walls, 15% infill

Super clean print and rotates. I like the mostly enclosed ball design. The motion feels very “crunchy” and I’ve been rotating the bearing to hopefully break off any small plastic imperfections to make the rotation smoother but it’s still very crunchy. It does “work” though. 👍

@DevilWitness

Print Profile

0.2mm layer, 2 walls, 15% infill

First of all, this is the only real working model that can replace a real bearing. For that part, I would like to give it a 5 start. However, perhaps due to the cheap filament I used, I need to menually roll it somehow 500 times (with pushing it hard) to make it actually spins smoothly. After I try differnt layers hight (from 0.08 to 0.20), different speed and different size, I realized that the problem is on the bottom of each ball. This model doesn't have a support, which means the bottom of the ball has to connect to the circle. The connection is not a big problem, which we just need a little force to push them apart. But due to the connection, the bottom of the ball is not in a good curve. It it somehow 0.2-0.3 mm wider then the original design. And exactly becuase of that, when it starts to roll, it often get stucked. I am finnally giving it a 4 start because I think this problem can be sovled by a slight change to the model and adding support to the whole model. Since I think it can be solved, I don't think it reaches to the "perfect" status right now. (Yes, I am a perfectlism.) I will try to change the model and add the support by myself to try if it works better. If it doesn't, then I will change the rate into 5 starts because it is the best bearing model amout all the models I ever tried so far. If my change does make it better, then I won't change my rate. But I will upload my model version as well as the profile here to share to everyone and you still have the copyright.

The designer has replied

@FelixTheWhale

Hi, thanks for testing this model and a detailed review. It was my first bearing designed for p1p and more proof of concept than actually usable bearing. May I suggest to look at an improved bearing design (there are 3 beds with 3 different bearings, they are also small but have standardized dimensions). It has a detachable support for each ball on a sacrificial layer, and also tighter gaps up to half nozzle diameter. thus I believe it will perform way better for you. I actually used them before got real metallic ones and they performed really well for my harmonic drive print. link: (if you cant open it in app, navigate to my profile) https://makerworld.com/en/models/95530#profileId-101882

(Edited)

@DevilWitness

Replying to @FelixTheWhale :

Thank you very much for sharing that with me. I just got home and tried to add support to each ball in bambu studio, and I just found how hard to add support in bambu lab studio. I will try your suggestion soon.

(Edited)

@RezsuTibor

Print Profile

0.2mm layer, 2 walls, 15% infill

@RC3D

Print Profile

0.12mm - 2 walls

Not the best, not the worst.

The designer has replied

@AneoPsy

Thanks for reviewing, I appreciate the feedback

@francuzik.pl

Print Profile

0.2mm layer, 2 walls, 15% infill

The first bearing that worked on my printer. I used the A1 mini (a profile supporting it would be appreciated) and printed it at half speed, probably with some tweaks I could manage to print it a full speed Breaking the ball bearings free was a chore, but after breaking it in it runs nicely, just has a bit more slop than I would have hoped for