If I remember correctly, large bearings like this can be very expensive. Might have to try this out in the future when I need one.

@ErosNicolau

Жыл бұрын

That's very correct, sir! 😁

Nice bearing man! And nice wire bending tool:)

amazing video!!!!! great idea!

I would love to see a “revoluton number till failure on diferent rpms” test from @cnckitchen 😀

@ErosNicolau

3 жыл бұрын

Haha I don't believe I would be able to find the time and patience Stefan has for such indepth studies!

@ahndeux

2 жыл бұрын

My guess is 5 revolution before it fails, that is if you can even get it to turn.

Esti pe treaba ta, omule! Bafta in continuare! :)

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

Mulțumesc! ☺️

Im going to try spot welding/epoxy-ing the wire gap and sanding it smooth

Subbed. neat idea. I hope to see more like it.

@ErosNicolau

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, bud! I'm not a youtuber, so I 'm not releasing content on a regular schedule, I only post stuff from time to time when I do find the time for personal projects

@maltvat

3 жыл бұрын

@@ErosNicolau is this bearing just an idea that you had and you wanted to share? Or is it part of a larger project?

@ErosNicolau

3 жыл бұрын

@@maltvat just an idea I had tried out in aluminium some years ago and now I wanted to try out in plastic too. I'm still not done with it, as I want to try to optimize it and to try out bigger sizes too

@ErosNicolau

3 жыл бұрын

@@maltvat also I started seeing some interest in this from a couple of robotic arm enthusiasts so I believe I may explore the idea some more with them

@ErosNicolau

3 жыл бұрын

Just uploaded an update

Very nice.

@ErosNicolau

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! ☺️

This is such a great design. Would you recommend it for high speed operation on a motor or is it more suited to robot arm? Do the wire ends cause any problems. Could the outer race be a single piece with a snap in ball cage, like the one Cameron designed?

@ErosNicolau

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I ran it through my cordless drill on max speed for a few minutes without noticing any heating whatsoever, so to some extent I do see it running at a bit higher speeds too even if this design is primarily a slewing (hence slower) bearing design. The wire ends cause zero issues, the adjacent balls taking all the preload around a gap. And yes, the outer race can be a single ring with the inner race being the split preload adjusting ring. It's just a matter of preference.

@ErosNicolau

3 жыл бұрын

Not familiar with the design you're mentioning (Cameron's), could you please link it?

Really great idea! Would you consider releasing the STLs for this (and the coil bending machine), as I'd love to give this a go and see how they hold up. I'm putting some 3d printed slewing rings through a lifespan test and would like to try a wire race like this.

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks, bud! PM me on FB Messenger, please, or Gmail me at eros.nicolau

@DEtchells

Жыл бұрын

@@ErosNicolau I’ll do the same, this is an absolutely brilliant idea - it seems like it really solves the major problem, with 3D printed bearings, and commercial large-diameter bearings are as you point out very expensive. I also love the ring roller; the moment I saw it, I thought “Oooh, I gotta make one of those!

@ErosNicolau

Жыл бұрын

@@DEtchells thanks, bud! Lovely to see fresh interest in my experiment after all this time :)

@randysimmons3587

Жыл бұрын

@@ErosNicolau even more fresh interest from me coming you way

@ErosNicolau

Жыл бұрын

@@randysimmons3587 got it, replied

Seriously great stuff! Would love to collab with ya at some point. Just getting into 3D printing - so excited for the Prusa XL! 😆😆

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks, man! :) And yeah, finally, a corexy from the big guys! I prefer to invest less in a Voron 2.4, in the hopefully not too distant future

@JoePelusoMedia

2 жыл бұрын

@@ErosNicolau nice!! That’s awesome. Definitely will reach out to ya by email.

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

@@JoePelusoMedia just hit me up at eros.nicolau on gmail

Really nice job. I'm wondering if this bearing could be used for robotic application. How is the backlash?

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! That's what I intended it for in the first place. This being a split raceway type bearing, it needs preloading via all those screws - so the backlash is really a measure of how tight you're preloading it

This is fantastic!! I think you're the first to 3d print such a bearing. 2:06 does that gap in the wire make it rough? Is it hard to cut it at the perfect length?

@ErosNicolau

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Actually I looked long for one and didn't find any. I do believe too that's the first ever 3d printed Wire Race bearing out there.. Just like my 300mm diameter aluminium one is the first DIY one out there as well: kzread.info/head/PLRo-5eMdwkuCoj-chOh-jBbqoVCRd2KOd

@TheRainHarvester

3 жыл бұрын

@@ErosNicolau call it the "Nicolau Bearing"! Did that gap in the wire affect smoothness?

@ErosNicolau

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheRainHarvester 🤣 I didn't invent it, man. No, that gap is present in the commercial units as well, the adjacent balls even out all the pressure so that gap is nowhere to be felt

@DEtchells

Жыл бұрын

@@ErosNicolau I couldn’t make out much of how the aluminum bearing is constructed; only the 15-second demo and the wire-straightener videos are public. Maybe the two private ones show it’s design? Not sure if that was intentional or not, it’s understandable if you want to keep the details private, so you can commercialize it (or just prevent companies from ripping it off and using it for their profit without compensating you)

@ErosNicolau

Жыл бұрын

@@DEtchells this is by no means my invention. The guys at Franke GMBH hold the patent for this, I believe. So not much to protect here. All I did was to apply it to the workd of 3d printing as well. The Al version was made by cutting out the outer and inner rings out of a 20mm thick plate of aluminium and then process the resulting rings on a large lathe to achieve the needed parts. I don't really have too much footage from back when I was doing the old aluminium one.

Did you glue together the two halves of the inner race? I like the design! I'm going to give it a shot on my printer. What gap did you like between the inner and outer races? I'm thinking of starting with 0.5mm and seeing how that works.

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, I glued them. Could've done them in a single piece, but this would have entailed some compromises with the grip of the plastic over the wire, and I preferred the safer way. The outside gap between the inner and outer races can be as small as possible without them rubbing against eachother (0.5mm sounds about right) but in my next version I introduced a 3d printed balls cage, and the gap had to be increased to accomodate that cage too.

@evanlane1690

2 жыл бұрын

@@ErosNicolau I saw the cage! I like it, but I'm thinking about making a lot of these and I might make a little rotary punch to make it out of strip plastic. We'll see how it works. Thanks for the inspirational video. I'll share mine once it's done. I've been trying all kinds of things to get a medium duty slew bearing... using v-groove rollers, using cheap lasy susan bearings, etc. This might be the perfect solution.

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

@@evanlane1690 if you plan on building more, my first advice is to focus on the tooling for assembly. The process is pretty fiddly and any tools and devices can make a world of difference in this regard. Hit me up in private on FB messenger or Gmail me at eros.nicolau for more details.

@evanlane1690

2 жыл бұрын

@@ErosNicolau I'll reach out. Thanks! The my outer and inner races just came off the printer. I bought 1/8" bearings and some 14 ga. galvanized wire that should be here in a few days. Was the tough assembly due to trying to get them in the cage?

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

@@evanlane1690 I only started designing it after I had both the wire and the balls here, for measuring. I'm not sure how you designed your races before this...

Could something like this be used in the perimeter of the housing of a cycloidal drive? I've seen designs from channels like James Bruton that add lots of skateboard bearings, but those get expensive and add lots of weight. Maybe a thin strip of metal could be glued/clamped onto the perimeter of the cycloidal gear so you have a metal-on--metal contact? Or is that just a terrible idea?

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

That's one of the main applications I would see for this at the hobby level!

@vell0cet517

2 жыл бұрын

@@ErosNicolau Is there a concern about bearings coming free from the convex portions of their track?

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

@@vell0cet517 are you referring to the wires coming loose?

@vell0cet517

2 жыл бұрын

@@ErosNicolau The path of the cycloidal perimeter is concave and convex, I was just wondering if there's a risk of the balls being ejected on the convex portions of the path.

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

@@vell0cet517 this kind of bearing only works as well as it's pretensioning. Well pretensioned, it will be impossible to dislocate any balls. But I believe this kind of bearing is not particularly suitable for oscillating loads, if this is where you're aiming at, simply because it works under elastic compression. It might eventually reach a stable enough state, but after enough running in, once the balls get a chance to imprint their own channels into the wires. This has always happened with my prototypes (the wires got nice channels imprinted by the balls) but this also means that until this fenomenon takes place you will need to keep an eye on the unit and re-tension as needed

The last 10 seconds didn't look like the result was a decent ball-race at all. I was expecting it to spin freely. I've made 3d printed ball races with 6mm airsoft plastic BB balls that work much better than that - AND I still feel the need to buy 'real' bearings for most applications.

is it possible to eliminate the gap in the wires?

@ErosNicolau

Жыл бұрын

The gaps are a feature, not a bug. They are a feature because they allow for the wires to slightly contract/dilate with ambient temperature and because otherwise the wires would be very difficult to weld shut precisely at a given dimension. They are not a bug because the load is so much distributed alond all the balls that any ball passing a gap is not felt at all.

another good material for good cheap high strength steel are the spring steel inserts from used windshield wiper blades.

@ErosNicolau

3 жыл бұрын

The spingier it is, the more difficult to shape into the required shape... That's why this totally bland and malleable wire worked so nicely to get into perfect rings.

@johnseiler8614

3 жыл бұрын

@@ErosNicolau that makes sense. thanks for the reply and keep on keepin' on

@ErosNicolau

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! 😊

You should put grease in there

@ErosNicolau

Жыл бұрын

That's a good piece of advice and I did this in the next installation (see my next videos)

What is the size of screw and bolt

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

They are all M3 nuts and M3x10 bolts

Files?

@ErosNicolau

2 жыл бұрын

I'll publish them soon, I hope

that was the most infuriating thing watching you try to put those bearings into the runners and you didn't even use the right amount, not to mention the bearing sounds terrible.

@ErosNicolau

Жыл бұрын

This being an experiment it makes sense to not sound like a precision ground and well lubricated product. What would be the right amount of balls here? (I am assuming that by bearings you meant bearing balls)