3D Printing Projects 201317 – More Gear Bearings

gearbearings The original gear bearing on Thingiverse was posted with an OpenSCAD model that had the parameterized diameter of 55 mm. From the caster wheel experiments a few design issues popped up. Is there a better configuration of planet quantity and size? Is there a better way to attach the center than the 1/4″ hex hole in the center of the sun gear? Can features be added to prevent warpage of the outer ring during printing?

Here’s a pictorial of some of the tweaked designs and configurations to answer those questions. Some of the gear bearings use a 60 mm outer diameter. Some have larger sun gears. On has a ring and large external hex protrusion for solid attachment. We find the grooves around the outer diameter provide some aesthetics as well as strength and also as a sort of cooling fin to minimize warpage. OpenSCAD was used to develop these variations.

3D Printing Projects 201315 – Caster wheels with Gear Bearings

Caster wheels with Gear Bearings

Caster wheels with Gear Bearings

Some brilliant designs for gear bearings where posted on the Thingiverse. Rather than spheres which are hard to perfect in 3D printing the units use double helical gears (herringbone) so they won’t come apart. The come off the machine in one pieces and are ready to spin! We developed a mounting flange and wheel yoke to test them out. The bearings were from the OpenSCAD model and the flange and yoke were designed in SolidWorks.