igus bearings are cheap ,can be used on aluminium shafts , itwould seem to me, to be a no brainer ,am i missing something?I dont work for them but have used them in projects.self-aligning maintenance-free spherical bearings made of high-performance polymers link:- [www.igus.co.uk] they have plain bearings as well, or more fun:- [www.igus.co.uk] hope this helps someone https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,45374,45374#msg-45374 Tue, 10 Mar 2026 02:39:28 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,45374,45401#msg-45401 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,45374,45401#msg-45401
Wade has a good point about over-constraint, but usually 2 shafts are used in parallel, in which case one shaft should be the "master" or "fixed" and the other the "slave" or "floating". The whole system is kept accurate and stable by the fixed standard bearings, and self aligning bushes can be fitted to the floating shaft, this eliminates any possibility of over constraint.]]> Matthew Aldridge General Thu, 13 May 2010 07:39:08 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,45374,45377#msg-45377 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,45374,45377#msg-45377
My first 2 RepRaps used plastic bushings everywhere, but they do tend to wear out over time - I've got about 50 km of head travel on one of the machines now. That's one of the great things about the Mendel - if there's any wear over time, (and there should be little with ball bearings and steel rods), it's very easy to tighten up the bearings.

Properly manufactured bearings like those might last longer though, but then it's tricky to avoid the over-constraint problem on all 3 axis.

Wade]]> Wade General Wed, 12 May 2010 21:36:54 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,45374,45374#msg-45374 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,45374,45374#msg-45374 [www.igus.co.uk]

they have plain bearings as well, or more fun:-

[www.igus.co.uk]

hope this helps someone]]> johninbyron General Wed, 12 May 2010 19:39:32 -0400