Linear bearing generator for rods and pipes

thingiverse

Need a linear bearing that fits the bearing balls and pipe size that you have on hand? Then generate and print one using this bearing generator. I've use it to generate slide and ball bearings for EMT electrical pipe and 8mm rod. There are lots of parameters with defaults for most settings. This design requires omdl.The ball bearing have a feed location at the inner track of the bearing. The feed diameter is sized such that it requires a bit of force to insert the bearing into the track. I find it helpful to use a flat-head screwdriver to press the bearing into the track. The feed size and location may be controlled via parameters.NOTE: This is a snapshot release of a part in omdl. Feel free to use the version here, but the most current and maintained version can be found in the source repository. On-line documentation and snapshots for manual installation are available in the omdl-snapshot repository.ParametersThe full documentation for this thing is available on-line.argdescriptionpipe pipe or rod diameter [outer, inner].ball ball bearing diameter.count ball bearing tunnel count.angle ball bearing tunnel angle.h bearing block height.tunnel ball bearing tunnel size.feed ball bearing feed specification.load ball bearing feed load position (0=none, 1=inner, 2=outer, 3=top, 4=bottom).offset pipe-to-bearing alignment offset mode (0=ball-tunnel, 1=ball, 2=ball-tunnel + 50% of gap).delta pipe-to-bearing alignment absolute adjustment.gap ball bearing gap percentage.reveal ball bearing reveal percentage.type bearing type (0=ball, 1=slide).align bearing block zero alignment location. (0=+block_h/2, 1=+tunnel_h/2, 2=center, 3=-tunnel_h/2, 4=-block_h/2)view bearing block internal view (0=block, 1=pipe-tunnel, 2=ball-tunnel). Use, for example, [1, 2] to view multiple.Rendering large numbers of bearing tunnels can be slow for higher $fn. Set view = 0 to bypass the rendering of the tunnels during design integration. Bearing balls are loaded at the interior of the bearing at the top by default, but is configurable.DependenciesThe following are the steps required to remake the examples or build a custom bearing. These steps will install several packages, so you may wish to tryout first on a virtual machine. An X server graphics environment is required and the build has been tested on debian and ubuntu.Setup openscad-amu (OpenSCAD automation and docgen tools)(shell commands)$ mkdir tmp$ cd tmp$ wget http://git.io/setup-amu.bash$ chmod +x setup-amu.bash$ sudo ./setup-amu.bash --branch v3.4 --yes --install$ sudo chown -R $USER.$USER ./cacheSetup omdl (an openscad library)(shell commands)$ wget https://git.io/setup-omdl.bash$ chmod +x setup-omdl.bash$ ./setup-omdl.bash --branch-list v0.9.4 --yes --installThis will take a few minutes to test and build the omdl library documentation.Once complete, the documentation has been installed and can be viewed:View the documentation(shell commands)$ google-chrome ${HOME}/.local/share/OpenSCAD/docs/html/index.htmlTo locate the documentation for the bearing maker, select the installed version and type "make_bearing" in the search window in the upper right corner of the browser page. The module will appear in the search results; select to view.After installing the library and build tool, the temporary files can be removed.Remove temporary files(shell commands)$ cd ..$ rm -r ./tmpA basic bearingDownload the file "hello_world.scad".(shell commands)$ openscad hello_world.scadThe examplesWith the library and build tools installed, the examples can be regenerated as follows:RebuildDownload the file "LinearRodBearingExamples_v1.0_241024.zip".(shell commands)$ unzip LinearRodBearingExamples_v1.0_241024.zip -d lb$ cd lb$ ls$ make clean$ ls$ make allThis will generate all of the example. This takes about several minutes on my eight-thread system. If you run htop, you will notice that the builds happen in parallel, so the more threads you have on your system the less time it will take.The output will be located in build_v1.0/scopes/stl.Information(shell commands)$ make$ make infoMakesIf you build a custom bearing, please help by posting your make!