Tag Archives: herringbone gears

3D Printing Projects 201330 – Remade Golf Ball Retriever

Posted on by
1

MB_GBretriever2A friend had a couple of golf ball retrievers that had aged and deteriorated. They liked the performance but of course were broken beyond functionality. 3D printing to the rescue. As the design proceeded we realized the assembly could be printed as one pre-assembled piece. Other features included a flared pin to hold the inner ring from falling out and a hex recess for accepting a nut for the mounting MB_GBretrieverscrew. To get  a good pin some sacrificial supports were developed that were removed after printing.

The assembly was designed in SolidWorks and printed in ABS.  The Maker community has requested it be posted to Thingiverse. That is the plan but if you’re itching to try it you can download the .STL here. It is also the signature application for a Maker event at the Cumberland Business Incubator Labville. Read about it here.

3D Printing Projects 201317 – More Gear Bearings

Posted on by
Reply

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

Posted on by
Reply
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.