OK, I couldn’t resist. Tweaking a few lines of code wrapped a knurl around emmitt’s Gear Bearing for enhanced griptivity:
That image has desaturated red to suppress the camera’s red burnout. It looks better in the realm of pure math:
Reducing the tolerance parameter to 0.4 produced a surprisingly rigid, yet freely turning, bearing that required no cleanup: it popped off the plate ready to roll!
The heavy lifting in the OpenSCAD source code remains emmitt’s work. I replaced the outer cylinder with a knurl and simplified his monogram to stand out better amid the diamonds. This is the affected section:
... snippage ...
translate([0,0,T/2]){
difference(){
// cylinder(r=D/2,h=T,center=true,$fn=100);
render(convexity=10)
translate([0,0,-T/2])
knurl(k_cyl_hg=T,
k_cyl_od=D,
knurl_wd=5.0,
knurl_hg=5.0,
knurl_dp=0.5,
e_smooth=5.0/2);
herringbone(nr,pitch,P,DR,-tol,helix_angle,T+0.2);
// difference(){
translate([0,-(D/2+4.5),0])rotate([90,0,0])monogram(h=10);
// cylinder(r=D/2-0.25,h=T+2,center=true,$fn=100);
// }
}
rotate([0,0,(np+1)*180/ns+phi*(ns+np)*2/ns])
difference(){
mirror([0,1,0])
herringbone(ns,pitch,P,DR,tol,helix_angle,T);
cylinder(r=w/sqrt(3),h=T+1,center=true,$fn=6);
}
for(i=[1:m])rotate([0,0,i*360/m+phi])translate([pitchD/2*(ns+np)/nr,0,0])
rotate([0,0,i*ns/m*360/np-phi*(ns+np)/np-phi])
render(convexity=10)
herringbone(np,pitch,P,DR,tol,helix_angle,T);
}
I also added a few render(convexity=n) operations to improve the preview, but that’s just cosmetic.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
5 responses to “Planetary Gear Bearing: Now With Knurling!”
Pretty!
It is absolutely the best 3D printed fondletoy ever!
Maybe someday I’ll come up with something that nice… [sigh]
Is it mechanically useful? Also, what is the apparent glitch to the right in the rendering?
Emmitt designed it as a fully printable rotary bearing, after seeing how poorly low-resolution printed ball bearings work. Comments on Thingiverse say it’s good down to 20-ish mm OD, which would work for toy cars & trucks.
It’s surprisingly stable, although I’m not sure how durable it is. The tolerances would certainly open up as it wears in, so you’d probably want two bearings on an axle, rather than one in each wheel hub.
That’s his monogram: EL. I thought about changing it to EN, but it’s his design, not mine…
I suppose you could also think of it as “Engineer, Larval” although it’s no more her design than yours.