Ballscrew

Year or two ago I was trying to figure a way to make printable Z-axis for Dollo3D printer and one idea was to use ballscrews. Eventually I went with another design, partly due to the requirement of pellets that can't be printed or are very hard to print. But I did a prototype design with OpenSCAD and recently kinda found it again. Did some cleanup and small fixes and printed a demo piece that works quite nicely. Not sure if I'll ever use the design for anything, but it's a cool gadget all the same.

The ball path is a cylinder-cube hybrid which makes it easier to print since there's no overhangs.

The shaft is designed to be extensible, there's a 'star' shape that can be used to join shafts together.

The design is currently for 6mm airsoft pellets, but the OpenSCAD is parametrized, although not tested very well.

For demo use, print one of each part and extra cap.

OpenSCAD source: https://github.com/spegelius/3DModels/blob/master/Bearings/ballscrew.scad

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Prusa

Printer:

Rafts:

No

Supports:

Resolution:

0.2

Infill:

Filament: Any PLA,PETG Any

Notes:

Post-Printing =============

After printing, add the pellets: insert the shaft in the nut so that the top pellet input is ~on the level with the shatf top. Feed the pellets to the input. At some point you'll need to start rotating the shaft back and forth to allow inserting the pellets. When the whole path is full, insert the caps on both end of the shaft to seal the screw.

Category: Engineering