What difference in dimensions did you use? In terms of the diameter of the ball and the socket for the ball. And what size did you print at. I'm working on a project that uses ball joints and I hope to join them like this.
It would be nice to see an updated version since they recenntly came out with slicers that do dinamic line width. This would probably make smaller gaps feasible, assuming your printer is very well calibrated and prints slowly to avoid dimensional inaccuracies due to movement
Isn't it grindy though? Don't you have to put grease in it or something? Ball bearings usually require grease so I expected this to not go well, but seems really smooth. I wonder if you put weight on it over a long period of time would it grind down if you print it with PLA? Would PETG be better I wonder?
Excellent stuff. I’ve just ordered a Prusa mini for delivery in September so I’m trying to get a bit up to speed before then. If it’s not such a long answer, how can you print a free spinning ball inside a socket like this without it fusing together? Or do you need to press it in afterwards?
The difference in diameter between the ball and socket is 0.5mm. It’s likely to be slightly different for each printer and filament... I printed with PETG on a Prusa MK3
I subscribed! Was wondering, could this be used to print them for some 2mm metal beads and push the beads through? I'm currently working on a tiny rc project and was thinking of modeling some of these ball rods but then came across your video
You might break or ruin the joint by forcing a metal bead through. However, a little modification would not need to push anything through at all. Rather, modify the model to leave one side of the joint open to the size of the bead. Make sure that side is extended to provide some extra plastic. After you insert the bead, melt the excess plastic to trap the bead inside the joint. I'm sure a little experimentation could lead to very effective results.
