Smooth Bearings

Smooth replacement bearings in many popular sizes, using two printable parts with a fill hole for 6mm hardball plastic pellets.

Dimensions are spot on, so your printer should be reasonably tuned to ensure a smooth fit. I've used PETG but you can probably print this with success in any material.

NOTE: These bearings are obviously not nearly as strong as a stainless steel bearing, but if you're in a pinch, doing DIY robotics experiments or just want a printable fidget this might be for you.

Bearings are engraved with the type number, ID, OD, width and number of balls.

If you want a fidget bearing, look for the 6811 to 6816 in the list below.

Print parameters for a fidget version, adapt to your needs:

• 0.2mm layer height recommended, but will work fine both coarser and finer
• 2 walls, 0.5mm top/bottom thickness
• Infill like you want (tested with 25% gyroid)

Where is the popular 608 bearing? Unfortunately not here, as the walls would simply be too narrow to make a printed bearing with 6mm balls. Sorry!

When filling a bearing, place it on a flat surface and fill pellets when the hole is aligned. The last few pellets will require a bit/lots more force (depending on bearing diameter), as the fill hole is 5.8mm in diameter, in order to prevent the balls from falling out (even if the bearing is upside down).

If you need a special size, let me know. Any sizes doable - also custom ball sizes - within the limits that the balls needs to fit inside the bearing.

Update 02 Oct 2024: Improved! Easier to print and runs way better with 45 degree internal angles, high resolution STLs to ensure smoothness, lots and lots of models added

Update 04 Oct 2024: Ball size adjusted to 5.95mm, minor tweaks, engraving moved to the inner ring.