2326 Universal 3D Printed Bearing That Works - Radial Cut
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- You can find the STL files for this here www.thingivers...
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The rollers are also lovely in a hot chocolate...
That's exactly what I was going to say.😀
you know i was looking at them and thought they looked exactly like marshmallows lol
@@ThinkingandTinkeringSo did I.
@@ThinkingandTinkering why not call it marshmallow bearing?
Yes!
Came for the clever design, stayed for the class act tutorial.
First time viewer, I'm sorry for your loss Sir.
awesome mate and thank you for your condolences
Came here to say exactly this! Great video. Thank you!
Of course, Is coming from H.R. Giger mind!
Yes, I second the condolences, and clever design. I've worked in engineering for most of my life and never seen a bearing like that. Interesting to see how that might work when made for real, as in hardened steel bearing.
@@chrisblight6069 I would be interested in seeing that as well.
I had no idea that snaps were an option in Tinkercad. Thank you for this and ALL that you do.
cheers mate
Me neither. I never used any of the fancy features of Tinkercad and learned a few new things myself. The conversion to SVG and use in revolving was explained at the bare minimum. But that's all that was needed.
Long-time proponent of Tinkercad for 3D printing here, and this video was chock-full of skills new to me:
1. Align to center tool
2. Build a 3D shape, export a 2D cut of that shape to .SVG, then import that shape using SVG Revolver tool.
3. Snap fit object
This was wonderful! Thank you!
cheers mate
I work as a design engineer. I make designs with their manufacturing in mind. Yet I have never done the same for my 3d print hobbying. I will now. Thank you for the lesson (10:20).
I am glad it was any help to you mate
DFAM (design for additive manufacturing) is really one of the most difficult things to grasp with 3D printing. I started and lead an additive manufacturing group at my job where I'm also a design engineer, and that's where many of my colleagues get hung up, and unfortunately like many things the best way to wrap your head around it is to do it and steep yourself in it for years.
Great work, sir. Lateral thinking at its finest. I especially like that rather than focus on your own accomplishment creating a superior bearing, you choose to use it as a teaching moment to highlight inherent biases in a group's thinking processes, and encourage the pursuit of proper mastery in a trade that seems to enable if not downright encourage the "instant" gratification of click and print. This is how we improve the world - not by hoarding knowledge for personal gain, but by sharing it for the good of all.
cheers mate
Wish you all the best for 2025 Robert.
same to you mate and cheers
Ditto!🎉
You are amacing! Your lough, when everything was put together and actually worked was self explaining....you love what you do ....keep on going! All the best for 2025!
As a bearing man of 40 years, you have done a bonza job of creating a cross roller bearing, it has to be one of the best for multiple jobs, great work!!
cheers mate
Thank you for this fantastic video! Very well explained.
Sending love and prayers your way. Rest in peace, Patti!
This is amazing. We placed the bearing on the floor and it has no issue spinning under 200 pounds of weight. We are going to use these to show students/industry how strong 3D printed parts can truly be if the design is optimized for printing.
This is a good consideration. A sphere needs curvature in all dimensions, a cylinder or cone requires one less. Perhaps those marshmallows should be cones to follow the races better, but otherwise this is a good implementation!
cheers mate
You taught a great lesson for design for 3D printing, many people rarely grasp this concept and do not get the most out of their designs
Very informative and helpful video regarding different loads on bearings
Glad it was helpful!
Fantastic Robert! I'd never considered designing for the strengths of 3d printing, oh boy, another rabbit hole to go down.
lol - it does sometimes feel that way lol
when you subtracted the revolved square from the cylinder the result was two separate bodies because the revolved square has a circular edge right on the x-y axis. I found this out while printing. Awesome design.
This is great, keep it up the whole workflow really helps. After almost a decade in 3d printing I can confidently say that designing is hardest part to learn, and 3d printer is pretty useless if you don't know how to draw your own stuff.
i think you are spot on mate
Agree. Most people overlook this hurdle…
10:28 Design with 3D printing in mind is something I’ve been screaming into the void for years. So many people put up models that aren’t optimized for printing supports help and tweaks on the end user side but a little pre planning would vastly improve things.
When you do subtractive manufacturing you have to plan for tool paths and such.
Good engineers do so.
Bad engineers don’t even deserve to call themselves engineers.
Great video. 😊
Lovely use of Tinkercad, simple effective design, combined with your relaxed, wise demeanour and your generosity with your knowledge. Brilliant and inspiring, in many ways. Keep it up Robert. My sincere condolences.
thank you mate and thank you for your condolences it is really well appreciated
Robert, it seems like there's a LOT of area being placed against the flat areas of the bearings. Maybe test it, by placing it in a drill press or lathe for 5 minutes or so, and take it apart to check wear patterns.
good suggestion mate - cheers
I would say, make indents in de flat areas to reduce friction. Then use a dry lubricant, for example PTFE spray😉
Nice design Rob.
Cheers!
We're only sphere for a short time, then we just roll away.
@@ThinkingandTinkering another thing to consider - the SVG revolution tool you showed has the upper limit of 48 steps.
You could make 48 steps across less than a full 360 degree sweep:
At 45 degrees of sweep, and copy/rotate/merge that 45 degree revolution 8-fold to get a smoother shape to render.
Now, we don't know how fine is fine enough... that's what testing is for, though!
A few iterations like this, coupled with @johnbarry8185 's suggestion to test might help yield the point of diminishing returns.
Filming the tests and results would make a lovely video follow-up to this one!
@@stoopidfast9049 hahaha
Overall I like the design, and you are 100% right about designing thing for the 3d printer instead of against it. It's the art part of engineering. The downside without a pair of them they can't take a radial load without transferring the loads to the snap. It why we stack precision angular contact bearings to take loads both ways.
Also those rollers are straight and not tapered. The bearings need a taper to handle the fact that the 2 ends of each roller travel a different distance as the roll around the races. I'm wondering if that can be incorporated. PS: Just get on the Freecad train.
cheers mate
yea taper is super easy in cad just have to change one side of the cylinder's size
10:00 that pure joy when you spin that self-designed and 3D printed bearing the first time - priceless 😂
You're starting 2025 on fire mate! 🔥
Awesome as always 👏
Blessings for you and your family, happy new year! 🎉
bless your heart mate and cheers
not only a "think in 3d print" lessons, but also "how to tinkercad" and loads of information. thank you!
Brilliant...thinking outside of the box has solved many problems. I hope this is a better year for you...
thank you mate and i hope it is too
BRILLIANT design. VERY impressed you did this in Tinkercad! Thanks for uploading / sharing the files. PLEASE keep these videos coming!!!
That is fantastic approach, thanks, Robert!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you again, you have got me doing things again after many years of feeling like my main life was done and no one needed or could get any use of me.
it is sometimes hard to keep doing and finding value - but we do find it - inside and with the help of those around us - all the best
Loving the tinkercad training thanks
cheers mate
I'm now happy to confirm that these bearings are freaking awesome. A tad too large for 5/16ths rod, so scaling everything down would be necessary. You'll need to work them a bit after first assembly and you want to either blow into it or hit it with some compressed air to get the dust out from that process. Not sure if this would handle high RPMs but because it works so well, there are plenty of use cases.
In case anyone was wondering. You have to scale everything to 83% if you want the bearing to fit snugly on a 5/16ths rod.
The rollers are cylindric and the surfaces they roll on are conical. The rollers will rub because of the different diameters between top and bottom. Also, the snap connection forms a sliding bearing or sliding surfaces, which reduces the purpose of the roller bearing substantially.
they touch at a tangent - so that doesn't happen - and the snap fitting is optional
@@ThinkingandTinkering At any point the roller surface may touch at a tangent but the traveled distance at one end of the roller tangent point is different to the other end of the same roller and the infinite number of tangent points all touch at the same time and travel different different distances/speeds so indeed do rub. This could be alleviated by introducing tapered rollers as in standard taper roller bearings. This design is basically two opposed taper roller bearings integrated into one unit.
Yes. Conical rollers of the proper dimensions are necessary to ensure uniform wear. Compare cylindrical roller thrust bearings with tapered roller thrust bearings.
@@ThinkingandTinkering There's less circumferential distance along the raceway closer in to the axis than further out, so the rollers need to be smaller nearer the axis to roll correctly. Google 'tapered roller bearing' to find the correct geometries for them to roll with no slip.
This is the first cross roller thrust bearing I saw. Looks amazing. And I do agree that tapered roller bearings might be better. Anyway expect 3x times larger load capacity comparing to ball bearing.
Very nice design. Steel ball bearings, however, are abundant, precise and cheap. So for now I will stick with steel ball bearings for my rollers. I do appreciate your design work and video effort. GJ.
From the look of the video thumbnail I thought the bearing was made of tiny marshmallows. The real thing is a lot more functional.
lol - they do look like marshmallows lol
They are marshmallows, just inedible marshmallows
Haha, I had the same ideA. Superb!
I thought the thumbnail was some sort of stationery-fractal design that just minimized contact points! Then I learn we get to build with marshmallows!?! love it.
wow how did I never know about this channel... this is amazingly well done. I will be watching your videos from now on!
I've worked on many a production machine with crossed roller bearings. Most were actually for reciprocating linear motion, but some were used as your model.
I think you might be the first person who has recognized what this actually is mate - I stand in awe of you and your knowledge
Instead of doing A^2 + B^2 = C^2 for a 45 degree angle, you can multiply the base length by the square root of 2, just a helpful tip that someone taught me that I use regularly.
There's nothing to sphere but sphere itself.
😉👍
No sphering in the comments please
lol
This is genuinely one of the most helpful videos i’ve seen on designing for 3d printing, I have been overwhelmed by CAD and watching you do it live was eye opening. Please do more like this ❤
Glad it was helpful!
In every one of these videos I learn a new Tinkercad tip. Thank you, Robert!
awesome mate - cheers
Excellent video. Thanks for sharing.
I really loved when you laughed like a kid when testing the bearing at the end of the video. 🤣👍
9:58 is a really lovely moment XD
cheers mate
That's a good call. I frequently use (big) slewing rings with cross roller bearings at work - but it had not ocurred to me to use the same topology for 3D Printed bearings. Thanks for the idea!
cheers mate
The top of each roller follows a longer circle than its bottom. That is, they are not rolling so much, but mostly sliding. They will likely wear out very quickly.
they are rolling - they only really need to be cones in small diameters
You do realize you're making a theoretical objection to a bearing design that is widely used in practice, right? Cross roller bearings work. Roughly speaking, they're used for high precision/load low speed applications. The rollers roll more than they slide. Of course there's _some_ sliding; it's a roller bearing not a fluid bearing. That's what lubricant is for.
Honestly, 3D printing is just not a good way to make bearings. But if you're going to do it, cross roller bearings have a solid set of tradeoffs.
@@SnakebitSTI i managed to stand on a good 18 stones, and rotate a full rotation without it seizing
What a great video. I'm 31 and teaching people how to design for additive and you're preaching the exact same principles I am!
that is awesome to hear mate - cheers
This is the most fun I've had learning something in ages. Thanks for this.
My condolences on the loss to you and your family.
oh wow - cheers mate and thank you for you condolences
You have the joy of a kid when you create something. Nice to see people like you!
thank you sir !
have a great 2025 my friend
you too mate
Your Tinkercad knowledge is off the charts.
Snap and socket, always something 😊
lol - cheers mate
you are very funny. i watch this with my sons to help them learn englisch and tinkercad for our 3D Printer. Thank you, its really fun to watch
Good Oort! You have very much piqued my interest this Time. I have never seen a bearing of this kind. And this drafting technique is making me giddy. Happy New Year indeed.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Just printed it - what a blast to watch it work! Thanks!
awesome mate
next it will be a skate board ha ha good work there sir keep up the good work . lol terry
I like that idea mate!
I just stumbled upon your channel and I am beyond impressed, the design is fantastic and the tutorial is both incredibly helpful as well as easy to follow. Thank you for sharing this, and I look forward to using bearings like this for future projects :)
Hi robert thanks for the info. Iv just started my 3d printing journey and was wondering what is the best software in your opinion for designing,slicing and printing ? Doesnt have to be an all in one im particularly interested in the design aspect. Thanks in advance
to be honest mate - they aren't any best - they are all much of a muchness - if you just pick one you will quickly get used to it and then swear blind it is the best lol - but seriously it barely matters and it is pretty much what you feel comfortable with
@ThinkingandTinkering that's great thanks for the reply. I like yours tbh, might give it a try and if I get stuck I can watch your videos lol. Thanks again.
Designing and slicing should be done in two different pieces of software since they are two very different things. However, most slicers let you do some last-minute changes like resize, cut, and combine different things into one assembly.
The most important thing about a slicer is how well it works with your printer.
The most important thing about a 3D modeling piece of software is how well it works with you. If it's not intuitive for you and you have to constantly remind yourself of what button to press on a mouse to rotate or pan an object, then skip that software and find another. Something this simple and so integral with how you interact with your 3D models should not be a source of friction in your process.
@@Guardian_Arias yes the creality slicing software I use is ok for last minute changes etc. what's your opinion of onshape for designing ? Any good ?
@@steven161183 It's not my personal favorite. The industry standards in engineering are Solidworks, Fusion 360, and Ansys SpaceClaim. All three of them have a way of downloading either a free version for those learning and/or a heavily discounted version. It just takes a bit of leg work to get them and sometimes a few extra steps to export your models into STL or STEP files.
My personal favorite is SpaceClaim since there are ways to get a version that runs completely offline and without the ability "phone home" and loose access to your files and hard work. But the methods are not for the faint of heart.
Bottom line I whole heartedly recommend a non-browser-based program and one where you can actually run the program offline in perpetuity.
That SVG revolver tool is a game-changer!
I've been creating similar shapes by manually revolving and merging countless shapes; the replacement hair-dryer fan I designed would've taken so much less time to make!
That snap tool is also amazing, I usually rip them off of other models and Frankenstein my creations together, or remodel them from scratch!
it is a pretty useful tool for sure
Hello Mr Murray-Smith. Happy New Year. Much love and respect to you and your family. I hope you don't mind me asking, as I never want to assume, but is Patti life partner that you have lost? Whom ever she maybe, it's nice for you to have her in this broadcast with you. :)
Thank you mate and a happy new year to you too - Patti is my wife and she passed away on the 5th of April 2024 but she will always be with me
@@ThinkingandTinkering My Dad taught me something really amazing about the science of Love. "Love is an energy." he would say. "You can feel it. It moves you. Empowers you. And like all energy, it doesn't go away. It just gets transferred to another state of being." Thank you, to Patti for helping you, and giving you the energy to help all of us.
@@JamesDoylesGarage I like your dad, a smart man.
The bevel to reduce sag or elephants foot is ingeniously simple. Very good solution for certain bearings. Ive done some medium load bearings using airsoft bb's that work very nice, you pause the print, load the bb's then continue printing. the bb's become captive into the race & work very good. So much versatility, Excellent engineering.
that is an awesome tip mate - thanks for sharing
Does this work with all filaments/resins?
yes
@ThinkingandTinkering thank you
No, respectfully, the softer filaments will fall to physics. Always a trade off. It will work but not as well as soft will increase friction. If you want to bounce in a cradle physics toy you don't do too soft. Conversely If you want it to survive higher weights and speed maybe a little give will keep it from being so strong that it is brittle. That clear soft rubbery filament, forget what its called will squash flat. T something?
@@johnschneider931 TPU?
I've been using Tinkercad to design things for a couple of years now and had no idea it could do some of the things you've done in this video. Thank you for a great tutorial!
oh wow - cheers mate - glad it helped
that is an exceedly cleaver bearing.
cheers mate
This is awesome. Much love to Patti. RIP
Hey, thanks for the video. Learning as I go in the design world, now that I have my own 3d printer, there's a lot of things I don't know I don't know, and a lot of that includes the particular lingo to be able to search deeper into subjects. Thanks to you right now, I've now learned the difference between Radial and Axial/Thrust bearings, suitable ways to use both, and have been introduced to your method for a universal bearing, which will be undoubtedly useful, and surprisingly simple to implement thanks to your video. Kudos!
awesome thank you mate and i am glad you liked the video
I am very impressed for what you can make with tinker cad, I use on-shape usually for cading but I didn't know tinker cad could do so well. thank you for this video
wonderful, absolutely fantastic when you explain in tinkerkad how you do it. Great, thank you very much.
Holy god, i dont have a clue for that SVG trick in Tinkercad. Thank you very much, incredible lesson. Instant subscribe.
"When you're designing something with 3D printing in mind, design it with 3D printing in mind. Playing to the strengths of the 3D printer, rather than putting up with the limitations."
This cannot be repeated enough. It should be in like a pop-up window of every CAD software.
Nicely done! First time I have seen this adaptation for 3D printing a bearing.
Glad you liked it!
Amazing! And also a quick TinkerCAD tutorial at the same time, brilliant!
Great work! Amazing inventions made simple for everyone.
I just noticed the picture behind you, and I wanted to give you sincere condolences and tell you that you created around yourself a community of kind, curious and interesting people which support and appreciate you ( even if it's only trough short comments, it's still real).
I wish you the power and courage to get through this difficult time.
thank you mate for taking the time to say that - it really is well appreciated
An always amazing channel. His creativity is just mind bending.
I've never messed with TinkerCad. I'm a Fusion user, after giving up on FreeCAD. Looks interesting. I'm probably going to stick with what I know but I love that snap and socket object.
3D printed spheres are rubbish, but cylinders are great. What a great insight.
This bearing is going to need to be lubricated or there's going to be serious wear. The path on the race contacting the top of the cylinder is longer than the bottom, but the two points on the cylinder are going to move at the same rate, so there's going to be a lot of relative motion. Grease will let it slide without galling the opposite face. White lithium or even beeswax might be enough. Depends on how long you want it to last.
i am glad you like it mate and good points thanks for sharing
Really great walkthrough of your inventing process. And great tutorial. You're an excellent educator. Thanks for the interesting video.
OMG this is the best geometry class I've taken in years!
Thank you so much. I'll use these in a couple of projects and linking them here as soon as possible 🎉
awesome - cheers mate
Thank you for the model and the really thoughtful explanation behind it. You've giving me a lot to consider when thinking about my own designs!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for showing the *why* of design. I’ve been tinkering with 3d but this tutorial really opened my eyes.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for this video, Brilliantly presented information! The details of the bigger picture and the tools that we use! ❤
Glad you enjoyed it!
Finished printing this morning and tried standing on it.
Confirmed +100KG load capacity on PLA with 20% gyroid infill.
Brilliant work, and thank you.
oh wow - nice work mate - thanks for doing that
What a great design for a 3D printed bearing. Ace video from you, as always. Thanks for sharing.
cheers mate
This is great! I am lucky because I come from the outside world of engineering, I learned CAD and 3D Modelling to maximize 3D printing. I can only imagine now being an engineer working with 3D printing and how you have to unlearn conventions to push 3D printers.
Love your channel.
That's awesome! - cheers mate
I think you should do a series of Tinkercad tutorials. I learned some very valuable techniques in just a few minutes in this video. I love your straightforward, simple approach to demonstrating things.
I am 50 years old and your method of instruction reminds me of the old science shows I loved to watch on TV as a kid.
I have been doing a couple mate - but I will do a few more - cheers
@@ThinkingandTinkering I actually noticed the one you posted today a few hours ago. Your real-world approach to demonstrating techniques doesn't really make it seem like a tutorial, which is great.
Keep on Keepin' on!
@@tsepash cheers mate
That was indeed very helpful. I can see how the forces would be better distributed in your design.
cheers mate
Your laugh was all I needed! When it worked exactly like it was supposed too, that is such a great feeling
lol - cheers mate
Amazing Robert, really something very useful
Very good, thank you.
A long time ago I spent an age creating a workable print-in-place bearing based on spheres that I could and have used in various projects. But you have presented an important lesson - applying a bit of thought now can save a whole load of effort later.
Had I done the same I could have produced something that worked at least as well without the many hours of faffing I went though.
faffing is important mate - cheers
I found myself back in the engineering lecture hall of forty years ago. Thank-you!
awesome mate - cheers
That 5-year-old kid laughter (9:59) came straight from the heart of an engineer. ♥
When I saw the thumbnail on my phone, I couldn't see the cylinders were separate and thought it must be half of some fancy magnetic bearing. Loved the video, Rob!
lol - cheers mate
Fantastic video. I've not used Tinkercad in years but watching this reminded me of how much I miss it. (Fusion 360 drives me crazy sometimes)
Very cool! I use bbs for my 3d printed bearings..but I really like this idea!!! Also tip: if printing bearings make sure you set you wall thickness higher so the printer will not print lines that the bearings will bump over.
also use the staggered setting for the seam line
Great tutorial. I've always heard Tinkercad was really versatile and this is a very good example.
it is good for sure - it has its limitations but it works great on the whole
This is brilliant work Rob. Love your creative design solutions in Tinkercad. Thank you for another inspiring tutorial.
cheers mate
1:30 the stepper motors only work in angular steps, that is what creates the jagged lines. However, angular momentum smooths things out, and a cylinder is still "round" in 2 out of three dimensions. A lot of effort has been put into printing these "arcs" in the XY plane, and this is really a non-issue (print a flat disk and check if you can see stairstepping for example). Instead, it's the filament lines that create a jagged surface in the Z direction in FDM printing, sometimes together with necessary support material on the underside of the sphere. Result is the same though!
3:20 the elephant's foot is already compensated for in most slicers, e.g. in prusaslicer under print settings -> advanced tab -> slicing.
Love the video, your bearing is very clever and seems to work great :D
cheers mate
the idea to alternate the cylinders by 90 degrees was mind blowing
I've seen so many models online that were designed for 3d printing without actually keeping 3d printing in mind. It's why I've learned to use Fusion 360. That and the fact that whe nyou design something yourself, the result is so much more satisfying.
it absolutely is mate
Thanks for sharing - very interesting. Looks like you had a hard year - So sorry for your loss - all the best for 25.
It has been a hard year and thank you for taking the time to say that - all the best to you and yours for 2025 mate
It’s always a pleasure to see your videos. Sorry for your loss.
Thank you mate and thank you for taking the time to say that - it matters to me - cheers
I learned more about Tinkercad in this one video than I had in the last year of using it. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent lesson on designing for 3d printing. Thanks for sharing!
cheers mate
This was so incredibly helpful- *thank you for sharing this* - so easy to understand! 😁
Glad it was helpful!
Brilliant. I've been using CAD since 93 (not professionally) and in 3D printing for the last decade (not professionally) and this is the single best bearing tutorial I've ever seen. Also the most useful Tinkercad tutorial.
wow - cheers mate
We experienced a similar change of methodology when we changed from Sheet metal to reinforced plastic in aircraft. Initially, designers tried to replace metal with the same component in plastic. It took a while to get them to think differently, and I'm sure there are senior managers and designers who don't have a clue why things are different now...
It is funny how we get comfortable with one way of doing things and how resistant we are to change sometimes - but it will get there
I learned more about tinker cad in this video than in actual tinkercad videos.