Ball Bearing - Steel Balls

thingiverse

This Ball Bearing holds eight 7/16-inch precision steel balls in perfect harmony. Print the intricately designed inner and outer rings, along with two robust cages that securely hold everything together with ease. I use a small amount of double-sided tape to bind the cages, ensuring they remain firmly in place due to the cleverly crafted grooves within the rings and the balls that absorb the load. Producing a ball bearing is indeed not exactly what 3D FDM printing excels at. Steel balls are manufactured with incredible precision, down to an astonishing 1/10,000th of an inch, while steel bearings are meticulously machined and ground to match this level of accuracy. Unfortunately, a 3D printer just can't compete with such precision, and the inaccuracies caused by extrusion bulge result in a somewhat rough-running model. You can easily obtain the source code for this design from volumize3d.com. With a few simple adjustments, you can modify the number of balls, inner or outer diameter via variables, and rebuild it to your heart's content.