July 12, 2024
Description
After seeing some of the gear bearings I was impressed with their designs. So, I played with a few of my own. Then I saw several models that needed 22x8x7 ball bearings, so I wondered if a working gear bearing could be made that small. That resulted in this build. It is 22mm in diameter and is 7mm wide. I decided to make the center hole a 3mm hex. Before printing, I thought I might need to reduce the line width but I was unsuccessful with adhesion with both PLA and PETG. So, I went back to the defaults with a 0.4mm nozzle and PLA, with the textured PEI plate, and to my surprise it printed in both silver silk and white basic. I did select to build with 100% infill which with this small a part, I am not sure it made any difference. When I inserted the 3mm hex driver, gave a quick turn and they broke away without a hitch. The second time I printed I used normal support with one layer of raft. It made for a cleaner look and was easy to remove.
I would love to hear if anyone can modify their build to use these instead of ball bearings. Please provide any details of different filaments and different settings. I had already ordered a 0.2mm nozzle because I didn't think this would actually work. I will probably try it with the smaller nozzle when it comes in.
Good luck and I hope to hear and see some results.
By the way, people have commented that is a fun fidget. Especially if you print it at 200 or 300%
1/30/2024: I added a 3MF, a STEP, and a STL file to add in printing or modifying.
License:
Creative Commons — Public Domain