How to Choose Bearings or Make Your Own

By Poppy Mosbacher. Posted

This article was originally published as part of HackSpace magazine, which has since been incorporated into Raspberry Pi Official Magazine.

How to Choose Bearings or Make Your Own

In this month’s magazine there’s an in-depth guide on how to choose the right kind of bearings and bushings for your projects. Dr Andrew Lewis explains all about the different types including roller, thrust and angular so you can make an informed decision. He suggests you could also “improve your existing tools by replacing sub-standard bearings with better quality alternatives”.

If you’re interested in how they’re made, here’s a video showing how a ball bearing is produced commercially.

And if you’d like to have a go at making some yourself, instructions to make 3D printed and wooden versions can be found at the following links:

3D printed ball bearing
Wooden ball bearing


Poppy Mosbacher

Poppy is a maker and writer. She loves getting tech into the hands of people who do traditional crafts. She is helping set up a makerspace in Devon and was a director of BuildBrighton makerspace.

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