Life pressure plate (thrust bearing) for a lathe

prusaprinters

Good ideas should be copied and not be re-invented. That's what I thought when I saw a nice solution on YouTube (video unfortunately gone) and needed it for a project, machining thin PMMA discs without a center hole. As one needs a life center anyhow the major part is already there and one only needs a cap over the tip and not as in the video a homemade life center with flat front. Naturally this could be manufactured from metal on the lathe but precise inner tapers deep in a hole aren't easy and at least for me it takes more than a few tries. Why not just print it? PLA is pretty strong and should do the job.I designed 3 diameter discs: 15, 26 and 45mm as that's what I needed. On the spindle side I used a mix from metal and PLA. the rod is machined from a 18-20mm diameter, 55mm long, piece of aluminum. Both ends are machined down to 15mm for ~25mm and one side gets a flat to prevent the PLA disks from rotating. On that side it is also drilled with 3,3mm and threaded M4. This allows the larger discs to be mounted with an M4 flathead screw. For 15mm applications the rod is used on the side without a hole.If one has a similar life center to mine, 20mm diameter and ~32mm long, the attached STL files can be used without modification.When using this method it is wise to not go to high in RPMs and to use moderate cut depth and feed. As a precaution I also use double sided tape to hold the parts in place but a thin rubber layer glued onto the discs may hold the parts equally well.But be warned, it can lead to an attack with ballistic missiles! Use it on your own risk.Material required besides the printed parts:1 metal rod 18-20mm diameter, 70mm long1 flathead screw M4x18-20mmPrint SettingsPrinter brand: Anycubic Mega SSupports: only for 15mm versionResolution: 0.3mmInfill: 15% cubic dual lineFilament material: any but I used PLA