Printable 608 Ball Bearing

thingiverse

MakerBlock's blog post inspired me to attempt printing ball bearings at home. After buying 2500 4.5mm BBs from Walmart, I discovered that two-piece inner part assembly was difficult due to gluing issues. However, printing the inner part as one piece solved this problem. Though fitting the last two or three BBs required pliers and caused a temporary plastic deformation, it returned to normal quickly. This design makes me wonder if parts designed for 608 bearings could include the outer bearing feature, allowing them to be printed and used with just BBs and grease. To achieve success, I adjusted tolerances to prevent sloppiness and printed four inner parts at once using multiply feature. The outer part required minimal work, while inner parts needed sanding due to messy channel surfaces. Adding BBs was manageable; pliers helped insert the last ones. Greased bearings performed smoothly and tightly, despite not being sealed, making them a viable temporary solution.