Best linear bearings according to redditors
We found 33 Reddit comments discussing the best linear bearings. We ranked the 19 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 33 Reddit comments discussing the best linear bearings. We ranked the 19 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
I will give you my background before my opinions. As everyone has different goals, opinions, and experiences.
I got my printer near the end March of this year. I have something like 2500m of filament run though it, and no idea how much print time.
When I received my printer, my test prints failed and I was pissed. But this community helped improve my Cura settings and started producing usable parts. I then went nuts and printed out a BUNCH of mods. This is by far my most favorite thing. There's always something I can print to improve the quality of the prints.
THe down side is I went too far and got to a point where I couldn't produce anything of quality. So, 2 weeks of tweeking and researching later I'm printing in PETG with beautiful quality and very minimal visible layers.
My most recent project in PETG:
http://i.imgur.com/sVf7S2D.jpg?1
So, now to answer your question...
> How do you like your Maker Select?
I love it. It allowed me to buy a cheaper printer (One of the cheapest at the time @ $350) that produced amazing results. It also has upgrades you can purchase or print to improve the quality, so investing smaller amounts over time to make it better and better. I highly recommend it to anyone who is starting because it does require tweaking which forces you to learn and understand how exactly 3d printers work. A major plus was that this community has a lot of Maker Select users for support, which was a MAJOR plus for me.
As of today, I've purchased the following upgrades:
So, in the last ~3 months I've spent an additional $264... Oh god, don't tell my wife! All are totally not necessary, mind you. The only thing I'd 100% recommend you do are print out the following to mods:
DiiiCooler along with buying the 50mm blower fan. There are cheaper options out there, I just wanted it faster so I bought it through Amazon to get free 2 day shipping.
z-Brace - This is key, and will run you maybe $15 worst case scenario to get enough M4 screws and the threaded rods.
Edit: Forgot a couple more things I bought.
That's another $59, so $323... I have a problem. again, 95% of this is NOT NECESSARY. I'm just addicted to modding.
3D Printer Linear Ball Roller Bearing Slide Block Comgrow https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0728J3J9K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fMhMBbRK4R04A
But before you buy try again with what you have, only slightly hand tighten all the bearing blocks and then while sliding it back and forth, slowly tighten them to make sure it still slides beautifully
this is my first idea: https://www.mcmaster.com/1865k5
cheaper: https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Aluminum-Linear-Clamping-Support/dp/B0742B18JW/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Shaft%2BSupport&qid=1567007035&s=gateway&sr=8-1&th=1
After doing quite of bit of reading, I went with these:
OTRMAX 4-Piece 8mm Longer Linear Motion Ball Bearing Double Side Rubber Seal Linear Bushing CNC Part LM8LUU https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MXTYSVL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_5iPSBb8S68Y2Q
I'm pleased with them so far.
I think one of these should work. The thingiverse mentiones 45cm long, which is roughly 17 inches, so I think a 16inch or 19inch should be fine without cutting.
https://www.amazon.com/Hardened-Chrome-Linear-Motion-Shafts/dp/B01LXAZFKZ/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=8mm+rod&qid=1566315274&s=gateway&sr=8-3
https://www.amazon.com/ReliaBot-Hardened-Chrome-Plated-Linear/dp/B07DPFH7HL/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=8mm+rod&qid=1566315497&s=gateway&sr=8-5
Sounds like a cool project, probably more suited to the hobby CNC subreddit: /r/hobbycnc , but I'm still happy to throw in my 2 cents here.
Instead of building up trucks with threaded rod / bearings / nuts, and using an aluminum tube for your linear motion, I would highly recommend using off the shelf linear bearings and shafting. The proliferation of the hobbyist DIY CNC / 3D Printer segment has flooded the market with cheap linear motion components. It's still going to be a bit more than your proposed solution, but I think it would be worth it - you'll save yourself a lot of frustration and end up with a better performing solution, even using the cheapest off the shelf components. Something like these, for example:
For the gear rack / spur gear: Do the individual "blocks" the louvers are attached to need to move independently of each other, or can they all move ganged? I'm assuming you need the independent linear motion, but just in case you don't, it would be much cheaper to use one motor to turn a single leadscrew that runs the full length of the machine axially and have a nut on each "block".
Assuming you need the independent linear movement, your use of a gear rack is a good solution. You mentioned wanting to use NEMA17 motors but were unable to locate a gear that would fit on the 5mm shaft. McMaster has brass spur gears with the DP and PA to match your rack with a .1875" bore, however they're brass, not stainless:
You'd obviously have to ream the bore to fit a 5mm shaft, but that shouldn't be much of an issue. If you can't live with brass, and you can't find a 32DP 20° spur gear with an appropriate bore elsewhere, you could always turn down a bushing to press fit on the 5mm motor shaft to make the larger bore spur gear work. If you're not paying for your time to make the bushings, the material cost for that is going to be a lot less than the price delta between the NEMA17 and NEMA23 steppers.
Also, if the "blocks" are moving independently of each other, you probably want to put limit switches on them to prevent them from running into each other and trashing your steppers / gears / whatever else.
Lastly, I'd try to avoid using the 2x2 wood stud for that structural component. Structural timber like that is terribly unstable and not dimensionally accurate at all, I can see it causing you issues - take a look at 80/20 aluminum extrusions for those structural components. They're obviously more expensive than wood, but you can find good deals on eBay (the actual manufacturer of 80/20 even has an eBay store where they sell surplus / off cuts / scratch & dent / etc.: 8020-Inc-Garage-Sale)
Anyway, hope some of that is helpful. Like I said, looks like a cool project, and I think it's certainly achievable, even without taking any of my suggestions on board. Oh, and BTW - nice looking rendering you made there!
At the risk of being overly instructive from an amateur, some misc. parts I have on the bench.
Metric bolts with nylon inserts. Vibration resistant bolts that don't need lock washers.
Metric collection of flat and split washers.
Heat shrink tubing to insulate connections.
3m IDC 314 connectors. Great for splices and easy to use.
These Seems I can never find small enough clamps.
I bought 20 of these. They show up all the time when looking at projects.
Metric set screw collection. Needed one when I was trying to change out an extruder block.
Last, but not least, these.
Feel free to ignore, but these are random things that I've suddenly found the need for in the last couple of months. Pretty much starting from scratch, so I need everything.
you should be fine, it's really unlikely to move.
But one word of caution, you should try to rotate the rod and not the bearing if you can. Try to keep all your bearings on a rod in the same orientation. That way if/when one decides to bite the dust, it is much less likely to scratch or score multiple parts on the smooth rod.
It's not vitally important, but it's a nice tip that often takes no time to do, and can save you having to buy new rods sooner down the road.
As for the issue of buying new bearings, if you live somewhere that amazon can ship cheaply, grabbing any old set of LM8UU bearings is extremely cheap and you can get them in smaller packages.
The link above is for 4 bearings for $7, and I've gotten packs of 12 before for about $10. It's kind of nice to have spares just in case one of them kills themselves (when bearings go, they tend to just kind of fall apart and it will feel like sand is on the rod as it tries to move). I've used probably 4 different "trash" brands of LM8UU bearings on our printers, and I've found them to be basically the same as the ones from the factory. The only major difference being that about 1 out of every 5 or so will be bad out of the bag, but for like $1.20 a piece I don't worry at all about needing to toss one or 2 bad ones when I get the pack.
The smooth rods I haven't gotten from anyone other than prusa, so I can't help there, but LM8UU bearings only touch in a "cross" pattern, so you can rotate the rod a number of times to move scratches or grooves out of the way before you'll need a new rod.
Pretty generic Not super high quality, but a big improvement over the bearings my printer came with. They were rough.
Oh thank god Reddit is back up! Okay, I think a good bet might be these: https://www.amazon.com/OTRMAX-4-Piece-Longer-Bearing-Bushing/dp/B01MXTYSVL/ref=sr_1_2?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1498657770&sr=1-2&keywords=lm8luu as it is the correct size and has good reviews.
Worst case is you have a bad bearing, replacements are super cheap. Super worst case is you have a bad bearing and it begins to wear the linear rods. But, they are hardened rods, so I'd say this is pretty unlikely. I'm guessing the seal must be bad on one of them.
If you're feeling up to it, you can order some LM8UU linear bearings (8mm inside diameter, 15 mm outside diameter, 24 mm length), disassemble the X-axis and replace them. This can be done without completely disassembling the extruder if you're careful, just be very careful with the heater cartridge wires, as they are very susceptible to strain and will break easily right at the cartridge if you bend them around much.
The wiki shows that bearing at 35mm.
http://mpselectmini.com/linear_bearings
The wiki shows this as a possible replacement.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AGAIJ1G/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
I'm sure you can source elsewhere as well. Hopefully someone who has replaced it will comment.
Edit: damn autocorrect.
I'll second the printrbot play.
I use a printrbot play, and I'm very happy with it. $400 entry level printer, recommend a y-axis upgrade and a zebra-plate from printinz. I also use hatchbox filament from amazon.
You could realistically increase the Y axis with only two longer 8mm rods, a printinz plate of equivalent length, and a GT2 belt.
Long detailed post about it here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/3xkxf7/thoughts_on_printrbot_play_and_printrbot_simple/cy6791u
My most recent print, replacement feet for my son's Combiner Wars Transformers: http://imgur.com/k0MYjH0
Favorite print: DL-44 blaster http://imgur.com/XMRSe2y
Various: http://imgur.com/Gwhv28z
That's not to say there aren't problems and heartaches with every 3D printer. It's still an emerging technology. There are tons of issues that can happen. I recommend shopping not only for a printer, but also a printing community.
Sounds like a one-way bearing, but I don't actually have the thing you're talking about.
10Pcs/lot HF0612 One Way Needle Bearing 6mm x 10mm x 12mm
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EMZ2JDY
rods are original (7.94mm in diameter)
I think the bearings are the regular LM8UU ones
I am ordering the usbasp device for flashing and I wanted to get the bearings you suggest. Are these right?
https://www.amazon.com/Anet-Bearing-Aluminum-Bushing-Printer/dp/B07CXNP98P/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=Igus+drylin+bearings&qid=1568124682&s=gateway&sr=8-15
Hi!
Just to make sure, are we talking about those parts?
https://www.amazon.com/Printer-Slider-Sliding-Bearing-Eewolf/dp/B07BBTS58L/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1539696910&sr=8-9&keywords=anet+a8+bearing
Or the parts within those?
LM30UU for $10 at amazon
LM20UU for $3.40 at amazon
Both can probably be had considerably cheaper on aliexpress
3d printer linear ball rollers work well. Decently cheap too.
​
https://www.amazon.com/Printer-Linear-Roller-Bearing-Comgrow/dp/B0728J3J9K
Thanks for your reply. I have already started building my robot and didn't know about this problem at the start. I don't plan on using it very long and do not want to have to rebuild the parts I have done since it is only a prototype. I am thinking I could 3D print some spacers to avoid this problem but I don't really want to go to the trouble if I do not have to. Here is a list of what I am using. Nothing should be getting wet but it could be humid out while in use.
I am using:
These Machine Screws:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IZFX2CU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
With these pieces of Aluminum
http://www.ebay.com/itm/360756951885?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
These bearings
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182410832446?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
And this actuator
http://www.ebay.com/itm/261647340418?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
With This Aluminum Rod
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LREEESC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://amzn.com/B00OZJMX1Q
I got mine from here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00QZ7YGFW
This picture is inland PLA printed at 220 C at various speeds - 60 mm/s on the left to 10 mm/s on the right.
Like most Wanhao i3 pluses, my y axis bearings started going, so I replaced them with these LM8LUUs. I got a lot of ringing. Tightening the belt didn't seem to help. Adjusting print speed and acceleration work, but only with extreme values - the printer was printing fine at 60 mm/s print speeds before the swap, and now I can only get rid of the ringing at 10 mm/s. Similar with acceleration values, originally printed at 1000 mm/s^2, and can get rid of ringing sub 200 (the picture is all 800 mm/s^2). Obviously this is not ideal. I'm out of ideas, but am wondering if this could be a problem with the bearings themselves at this point - that is, if I should replace the bearings again.
I've basically had this problem for about 2.5 years and have posted about it about 6 times, this was the first time anyone knew what it was.
Here's the changes/settings I've made:
EEPROM:
Cura 4.2.1:
Upgrades to the printer (apart from those already mentioned):
The rest of my settings tend to vary based on what I'm printing; and my retraction currently isn't dialed in.
He sent me the source via PM, they are on Amazon UK. You can of course order them from IGUS directly as well.
Here's where I got some really good LM8UU bearings recently, https://www.amazon.com/6pcs-LM8UU-Linear-Bearing-Bushing/dp/B008RIKN7W, it comes in a 6 pack for about $8 bucks
We took a ton of inspiration from Cybots and made what worked for us this year. Here is a video that we used a reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkeNEMUYbiA&t=49s
As for sourcing parts we tend to use google a ton. It's still one of the best ways to find things. In the case of the carbon fiber rod sourcing, we found a linear bearing that we and started there.
The linear bearing that was used originally came from servo city.
https://www.servocity.com/8mm-linear-ball-bearings
After realizing that we needed a lot of bearing we decided to try and find a cheaper source and we ended up purchasing them from amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LXX22B0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
After having the bearing picked out we wanted to source the Carbon fiber rods these where the rods that we purchased first.
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/carbon-fiber-tube-hollow-8x750mm.html
Those rods would be great for hobby use but they had a seem all the way down the rod and didn't slide nice in the bearings.
At that point we figured out that we would have to purchase something with more precision so we googled 8mm carbon fiber tubes and found one that fit what we were looking based on the failed last purchase. and ended up buying rods from here.
https://dragonplate.com/DragonPlate-Carbon-Tube-315OD-x-239ID-x-24
I guess the basic gist of what we do for sourcing is little more than guess and check. We are a very fortunate team that we can afford to make a mistake or two every year when purchasing and it won't hurt our build.
If I was to do part sourcing on a budget I would figure out what is the most critical part that you need and purchase 1 or 2 of that item and inspect it and learn what you can from it before you make a bunch purchase.
I haven't see those before.At $200 for all axes, that could be pretty good. You still may get the deflection in the centre of the x that is sometimes talked about because of the heavy tool head but still a pretty good financial compromise.
I don't know how much the openbuilds rail upgrades cost in total is though but this is certainly cheaper in terms of time and effort doing the upgrade.
Stock linear rails come like that, dude. They have those holes in them from the get-go. Please, don't bother engaging any further. Your intensity is quite frankly unpleasant, and I don't feel I have much to gain from this.
https://www.amazon.com/Skateboard-Bearings-Sackorange-Shielded-Miniature/dp/B07216D1SZ/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=bearings&qid=1549756573&s=gateway&sr=8-5