My BB Filled LM8UU Type Bearings

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These bearings use 4.5 mm steel BBs. Copper might work too, but it's been heard that metal differences can cause problems. I printed these on a Printrbot Simple using PLA at .25 layer height and 10% infill. (I've also tried to print them on a Makerbot Replicator 2 with Low Resolution and 10% infill, but they turned out very tight and it took a long time for the BBs to wear into their races before smooth travel was possible.) Dimensions: Short: 23 mm High, 22 mm Outer Diameter Long: 48 mm High, 22 mm Outer Diameter Inner holes are 8 mm in diameter. This should work on 5/16” rods as well. After printing, you might want to use an Exacto knife or 8 mm drill to make sure the hole will give clearance for the rod because the plastic tends to swell into it a bit when printed. The Combined Version is the same size as the Short with parts added to allow it to be used on a Prusa i3 Rework Y Bed. When assembling the combined version, I suggest placing the BBs in the races, then placing the top and bottom on a flat surface, and using a clamp to press them together. (Attempting to twist them together may result in breaking the mounting brackets.) The Short uses 16 BBs. The Long uses 32 BBs. I really liked the concept of using BBs for bearings like in http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:28905, but my attempts to print them out failed. I tried to use Netfabb Basic to repair the file, but still ended up with 739 flipped triangles. So I began designing this version instead. One thing I was hoping to do is create a design that could be modified to make odd-sized linear bearings. Tearing apart inkjets and laser printers has shown many of the rods are 5, 7, and 9 mm sizes which aren't typical linear bearing sizes. I've included the original FreeCAD model files in case you want to also modify the design to fit your needs.