INTRO

After years of development, desktop 3D printers are finally starting to enter our homes.
With promises of all the fantastic things you can have just by hitting print, most new 3D
printer owners will quickly find themselves disappointed with the lack of useful things
freely available to print. While some give up and resign themselves to printing coasters,
business card holders, and fidget spinners, others will try to design their own things. If
you're reading this book, I'm going to bet you're the type who sees the true power of 3D
printing and want to develop your own designs.

I'm here to tell you that not only can you create common mechanisms with 3D printing,
but you can also create mechanisms that could not be made by any other means. A new
world has just opened up to you, a world where complexity is cheap, and it is really
possible to invent something completely new.

WHAT THIS BOOK TEACHES

This book is intended to teach you the high level strategy and rules for 3D printing
mechanisms. I will show you specifics as they apply to desktop 3D printing and how I
draw and design them using parametric modeling.

WHAT THIS BOOK DOES NOT TEACH

This book does not teach a specific 3D modeling software. You are free to choose your
own modeler based on your preferences but I recommend using a Parametric program as
it will make iterating on your designs much easier. Below is a list of some popular
parametric modeling programs, all of which should be able to create the mechanisms I
will show you in this book.

• Onshape (free)
• Solid Works
• Autodesk Inventor
• FreeCAD

There are plenty of resources online to teach you how to make your way around each
software's particular layout. Together with the lessons from this book, you should be able
to start designing mechanisms quickly.

WHAT TO PRINT AND WHAT TO SOURCE

A 3D printer is a wonderful tool. The parts you create, can easily be made to interact with
other objects. It is very important that you see the difference between what you should
print and what you should source. There are some designers who believe that all parts of
a product should be 3D printed, and while there is a certain elegance to printing all of you
parts, you will run into issues with quality, wear-ability and even just more design time.
Though it is possible to model and print things like screws, nuts, and bolts, you should
consider that buying a fastener or a pre-made bearing will save you time and will make
your designs work better. 3D printed parts should be considered scaffolding to the
sourced parts and used in cases where no sourceable parts are available. In the
mechanisms chapter you'll see some examples of where I choose to print and where it
makes more sense to source certain parts. For now, just understand that 3D printing is not
a silver bullet for all of your problems and you should usually start with more durable
parts and work them into your design.

PARAMETRIC FREESTYLE: IN-CONTEXT

MODELING
Some methodologies will teach you to model all your parts separately and put them
together in an assembly. This is more of a traditional approach but does not serve you
well when you're trying to create something completely new.

I use and teach freestyle in-context modeling. This means that all of the parts of your
mechanism are in a single part studio. What this allows you to do is reference one part in
the next part's sketch, each piece in context to the last. It is therefore advantageous in this
method, to start with the largest or most complex part first and building from there. This
is incredibly powerful, though your timeline will get quite large, so naming your sketches
and operations can be helpful.
Freestyle modeling is how I create all my best designs. It allows me to think more
organically about the mechanism I'm working on as a whole.

CHAPTER 1
The Basics of FDM

Most desktop printers today are FDM printers. FDM stands for Fused Deposition
Modeling. This is the process by which your print head heats up plastic filament and
deposits layer after layer of plastic to build the object you designed. FDM is one of the
oldest methods of 3D printing and as such is quite reliable and cheap.

While this book is meant for FDM printing, most of its lessons still apply to other types
of printing such as SLA. The only place where they vary will be in fit tolerances and
maybe snap fits where other printing methods may produce stiffer or more brittle parts.
 THE MATERIALS
The materials available to FDM printers is growing by the day. With new, exotic
filaments popping up all over the place, it can be difficult to decide which ones to use and
for what. Here I'll break down 2 of the most common materials so you can make up your
own mind. I recommend these two materials because they are tried and tested by the
numerous printers that came before you. I recommend that you hold off on using some of
the more exotic filaments until you master these.

PLA

PLA or Polylactic Acid is a biodegradable plastic made from organic sources such a corn.
It comes in just about any color you can think of, and a few more, including glow-in-the-
dark, clear, and various fiber and metal fills. I recommend regular PLA as a starting
material for anyone looking to start 3D printing mechanisms. It's properties make it easy
to get the detail and precision you want while being strong enough to function in a variety
of mechanical applications.

PROS CONS

• PLA has little • Colors can fade when

shrinkage and
warping, which
means your prints will
stay on your build
plate and will handle
overhangs much
better than say ABS.
• Easily sourced.
• No harsh smells or
noxious fumes.
• Best for bridging.
exposed to UV light
for long periods of
time.
• Subject to melting if
left in hot places like
a car dashboard in
the summer.
• Friction Joints will
wear over time.
• Becomes brittle in the
cold.

• Filament must be kept

as dry as possible as
it can cause print
failures if it has
 PROS CONS

absorbed too much

water from moisture
in the air.

NOTES
While some of those cons seem pretty bad, it still beats most
alternatives, as you see next. If you are prototyping, you will
want PLA. Once your mechanism is properly prototyped, you
can move on to other FDM materials or even have your
creation printed in metal from services such as Shapeways.

ABS

ABS an other popular filament for 3D printing. It's made from petroleum and is not
biodegradable. It is more likely to bend or deform than to snap under pressure as PLA
would tend to. However this means that if you need rigidity in your object, you would
need to make thicker parts than you would with PLA.

ABS also comes in a variety of colors and it can be chemically smoothed to create
stronger parts that look smooth rather than showing the lines created by the layering. This
however will be at the cost of precision, as smoothing can cause unpredictable effects.

PROS CONS

• Does not degrade in • High shrinkage rate

the sun as quickly as means that large
PLA. parts can curl at the
 PROS CONS

• Can maintain strength edges and detach

in cold conditions. from your build plate
during printing.
• Has a higher melting
temperature. • Curling can occur
more quickly on
• More resilient to overhangs, loosing
stresses applied than detail.
PLA
• ABS should be
printed in a ventilated
room, as it off gasses
when heated in the
printing process.

NOTES
From my experience with ABS, I would only recommend it to be
used either when your creation will need to stand up against the
elements or when you want to preform Acetone smoothing to
create a nicer finished product. Please note, however, that the
smoothing process will alter the shape and size of your object
and so some experimentation may be necessary to achieve
proper fits and tolerances.
 DESIGN CONSTRAINTS
What follows is a brief breakdown of the core concepts that govern how we design our
mechanisms. We'll be using the 3D Benchy to illustrate these concepts. While some of
these rules may seem quite restrictive, you must understand that in the past, each feature
of a piece had to be planned out in terms of it's machining procedures. For example, the
designer would have to decide on an order of operations and the tools to be used to create
their part. By comparison, our design constraints seem like child's play, a game, and that's
just how I see it. Each new part I design runs through these checks in my mind before I
start drawing.
Welcome to game of 3D printing. Here are the rules...
 Overhangs
Because of the method used by FDM printers of consecutively putting down layers to
create the final object, we are constantly battling with gravity. If there is nothing below a
part of a layer, that part will droop down. Depending on the material you use, your
maximum overhang angle will change with the best overhangs being produced in PLA
with active part cooling. Any overhang that is shallower than your maximum overhang
angle will need to be supported by support material. Support material can have it's own
issues, like leaving marks on the bottom of the overhang where they were removed. In
general you should try to avoid the need for support material as it will significantly
increase print time. From my experience with PLA, you can achieve an overhang of
about 60 degrees before drooping occurs while maintaining requisite detail for a
mechanism to function.
 BRIDGING

Bridging occurs when there is an unsupported, flat roof between two walls of a print.
Bridging is different from overhangs in that the filament on the layer that is bridging is
being attached to one wall and pulled to the next wall. Though some sagging is
inevitable, bridging can still be a valuable tool when creating mechanical 3D prints.

Nozzle Size & Minimum Wall Thickness

The most standard nozzle size in 3D printers is an opening of 0.4mm in diameter. This is
the best compromise between speed and detail for most prints. Nozzles are available from
0.2mm up to 0.8mm and even higher for some high flow extruders.

In any case, the following rules apply in terms of minimum wall thicknesses and point
radii
 MINIMUM WALL THICKNESSES

When designing thin walled features for a part, you must keep in mind the nozzle size
you intend to print with. Your absolute minimum wall thickness is your nozzle diameter,
though at 1 wall thickness, you are likely to run into strength issues no matter what
material you are using. Next up is 2 wall thicknesses (DUH!) which is preferable for
strength and appearance. After 2 walls, your next step up is 4 wall thicknesses. The
reason you should try to use increments of your nozzle size up to 4 wall thicknesses is
that you will save time in your print. If your wall was, say 3 nozzle thicknesses, your
slicer will likely try to use a fill pattern between the outer and inner shell, slowing your
print.

Wall thicknesses
Two Wall Thicknesses will be 0.8mm

Four Wall Thicknesses will be 1.6mm

This wall is 1.0mm. Only 2 walls are printed for a wall between 0.8 and 1.6. Depending
on your slicer settings you may find that there will be quick jagged infill that will
increase print time.

Minimum Point Radius

When trying to create sharp points with an FDM printer, be sure to consider that your
points will be rounded with a radius equal to half the diameter of your nozzle. (0.2mm for
a 0.4mm nozzle)
This is the design for an equilateral triangle which fits perfectly into an outer circle,
touching it at 3 points.
This is the sliced version of the same design. Notice how the triangle no longer touches
the outer circle because it's points have been rounded with a 0.2 mm radius.

Minimum Layer Height

When choosing your layer height for a part, consider the level of detail you will require
and offset that by how long you're willing to wait for your part to print. A lower layer
height will mean that your object will be made of more layers and will therefore take
longer to print.

The other consideration to be made is that you are limited in layer height by your nozzle
diameter. The general rule is to keep your layer height between about ¼ and 7/8 of your
nozzle diameter. For the standard 0.4mm nozzle, you are therefore restricted to a layer
height of between 0.1mm and 0.35mm.

PRINTING FOR STRENGHT

When designing your parts, be sure to consider how they will be printed and assembled
during the design process. Due to the FDM method of putting down layers, your part will
be more likely to snap from delamination along the layers. For instance, it is
recommended when making a shaft, to design it with a flat section so it can be printed
laying down on the bed rather than standing. Think of this a a method of controlling the
grain of the material making up your part. Consider that having the grain along the length
of the rod will greatly increase it's strength.

BED ADHESION

When designing for 3D printing, it is most advantageous to have a larger surface area
touching the build platform. This will give you a higher likely hood that your part will
remain attached to the bed until the print completes.

OFFSETS

Absolute precision does not exist (except maybe with Wire EDM), so most methods of
manufacturing employ fit offsets to allow parts to fit together. 3D printing is no different.
In general terms, here are the basic fit tolerances for parts fitting together under different
applications.
Tight fit to be glued or for part registration: 0.2mm - 0.3mm offset
For this peg and block combination I've created a small chamber on the bottom side of
the block. This will be the surface on the printer's build platform and will therefore be
subject to Elephant's foot. This occurs usually on the first layer of a print and will make
the hole in this block narrower at the point where it touches the build platform. The
chamfer ensures a proper fit without obstructions.

Sliding fit: 0.35mm – 0.8mm

Due to what is known as elephants foot where the first layer of a print can be slightly
wider than the intended thickness, it can be advantageous to employ a bevel at the base of
a the peg and the hole. This will make assembly easier and more reliable
[pictures]

CHHAPTER 2
PARAMETRIC MODELING BASICS

Parametric Modeling is a method of designing parts that uses parameters to define

operations that create an object. Operations are defined in sequential order in what is
known as the Timeline or Tree. The user can scroll back through the timeline to change a
parameter or add and remove an operation. The user can then re-compile the part to see
the changes. Parametric Modeling is ideal for prototyping as you can easily make
changes to adjust fits and clearances and then print the part again.
 SKETCHES
A sketch is a 2D drawing, drawn on a plane or existing surface. All parts start with
sketches.

BASIC OPERATIONS
Extrude – You can extrude a sketch to add depth or use an extrude to cut away material.
Loft – A loft is like an extrude but it acts as a transition between two shapes. You can
define parameters which control how the shapes should flow from one to another
Rotate – Given an axis of rotation, a sketch, and an angle of rotation, you can create a
circular extrusion known as a rotate
Sweep – A sweep is like a rotate except that it can follow any number of paths other than
a circle.
 Booleans

Booleans are operations which use existing parts to cut, add to, or intersection of other
parts. Booleans are some of the most powerful commands in your parametric modeling
toolbox.
Combine / Add - The result of a combine / add command will be a single object made
from the 2 or more parts touching or intersecting.
Subtract - The subtract command takes one or more 'tools' and one or more objects.
Where two parts intersect, the tool will be removed from the object. In most cases the
subtract command will remove the tool after the subtract has been complete, but you can
select "keep tools" to keep the tool and the object it was removing from. Some parametric
modelers have an offset option for the subtract command where you can select an offset
or either all faces or a few selected faces.
Intersect - This command will return a single object which is the area where two objects
overlap. This is a somewhat less used command, though it does have it's purposes.
 CHAPTER 3
MECHANISMS

In this section, I will lay out four basic mechanisms that will allow you to create any
number of mechanical creations. Consider these the building blocks of your 3D printed
inventions.

Embedded Bearings

In some situations you will need a pivot point or rotation connector. While you could
simply create a shaft and a hole with slide offsets, it would quickly wear with use. I
recommend instead, embedding a metal bearing. One of the most common and easily
available is the 608 bearing which is a skateboard or Rollerblade bearing and can be
found in 8 packs at most sporting goods stores.
Starting with the sketch, we draw the bearing as measured. In this case the bearing has an
outer diameter of 22mm and an inner diameter of 8mm.
Next we extrude the bearing blank to it's measured width. In this case the depth is 7mm.
We draw the bearing holder sleeve to have an inner diameter of exactly the bearing outer
diameter. This was a sketch on the same plane as the original bearing sketch, using the
22mm circle then drawing the an offset circle outside of it. A simple extrude of 7mm
gives us the basic shape of the bearing holder.
The next step is a boolean subtraction using the bearing as the tool and the sleeve as the
target with offset of 0.1mm all around.

From my earlier notes on offset, you would probably think that this offset should be 0.2
or more, but those offsets are only for 3D printed parts interacting with other 3D printed
parts. When interacting with machined metal or other parts with high precision, you can
pretty much cut your fit tolerances in half.
This view shows the back lip of the sleeve (I've hidden the bearing). The back lip is an
extrusion which comes into contact only with the outer race of the bearing. Having this
lip allows t he bearing to be inserted and perfectly registered to make sure it has not gone
in on an angle. The lip extends into the circle by about 2mm.
The final step is to create a small bevel at the opening of the bearing sleeve to make
inserting the bearing easier. This chamfer is 0.5mm.

Gears

One great use of 3D printing is creating gears. You can design gears for you specific
purpose, ratio, and enclosure. There is a simple method for designing regular involute
gears which I will teach you below. Other variations include herringbone gears, and bevel
gears.

A SIDE NOTE ABOUT INVOLUTE GEARS

The shape of an involute gear tooth is a very special thing indeed.
They are so shaped that when they mesh with an other gear, the
 teeth actually roll on one another rather than scraping as they
turn. This is very important so that the gears don't quickly eat
each other away with friction.
A proper involute would be the line drawn by a pencil attached to a
string, unwinding off the base circle of the gear being drawn.
Unfortunately, to reproduce this in CAD requires that the program
of choice can draw a curve from an equation. Here I will teach
an approximating involute method which samples the involute
in two places. This should be more than satisfactory for
anything less crucial than a car's transmission.

First, let's talk gear theory. In order to draw your gears, you will need to know two things.
They are the Pitch Diameter, and the Module of the gear. Let's start by looking at Pitch
Diameter.

When two gears mesh, theory dictates that their pitch diameters are tangent to each other.
In simple terms, it's as if the Pitch Diameters of the two gears are rolling on each other.
As shown below, the two highlighted circles are our pitch diameters. The concentric
circles on the inside and outside are known as the Root Diameter and the Outer Diameter.
I'll show you how to calculate those coming up. For now just know that Pitch Diameters
are the imaginary circles running on each other, to translate rotation from one to the next.
Next is the Module. This is a number that is used in the following equations to determine
things like the Root Diameter, Outer Diameter, and tooth width.

The Module should be evenly divisible into the Pitch Diameter. If your gears will be
different sizes to create a gear ratio, the same Module must be used for both. The chosen
Module must be evenly divisible into both gear's pitch diameters. Note that the lower the
Module, the more teeth will appear on the gears.

For this example we will create two gears with a ratio of 2:1. The small gear will have a
Pitch Diameter of 15mm and the large gear will have a Pitch Diameter of 30mm. For
module, we can choose any common denominator of both Pitch Diameters. The Module
for our example gears could could be 0.5, 1, 1.5 or any other number which is a common
denominator of both Pitch Diameters. We'll go with 0.5, which will give us 30 teeth on
the small gear and 60 on the larger, following the results of this equation:

Number of Teeth = Pitch Diameter / Module

In our case those will be:

15 / 0.5 = 30 teeth
&
30 / 0.5 = 60 teeth

Next we'll figure out our Root Diameter and our Outer Diameter with the following
equations:

Outer Diameter = Pitch Diameter + (2 * Module)

Root Diameter = Pitch Diameter – (2.5 * Module)

So, for the large gear:

30 + (2 * 0.5) = 31mm Outer Diameter

&
30 – (2.5 * 0.5) = 28.75mm Root Diameter
 and for the smaller gear:

15 + (2 * 0.5) = 16mm Outer Diameter

&
15 – (2.5 * 0.5) = 13.75mm Root Diameter

The next equation will give us our Tooth Width, which will be the same for both gears.

Tooth Width = ((3.141 * Module)/2) – Fit Tolerance

So, for our gears, the tooth width will be:
((3.141 * 0.5)/2) – 0.062 = 0.723mm Tooth Width

You might be asking why the fit tolerance is less than the tolerances given in the previous
section. This is because the parts will not be locking together. The lower you can get your
gear fit tolerance, the more accurately they will translate rotation without backlash.

Now, with all of these numbers figured out, we can start drawing our gears. We will only
need to draw one tooth for each gear, then we will preform a circular pattern to create the
rest. Lets begin with our center line and radial lines.

Note that this is just an example, and that with a tooth width of
0.723mm and a printer nozzle of 0.4mm, these gears would
not print properly being that the minimum wall thickness
would be 0.8mm.
Here you can see that the three concentric circles having the diameters calculated earlier.
The Pitch Diameter = 30mm, the Root Diameter = 28.75mm, and the Outer Diameter =
31mm.

To start drawing the gear's tooth profile the first line we need to draw is the center line. A
line running from the center of the circle, straight up to the Outer Diameter circle. Next
the two radial lines. These two lines start from the center of the circle and extend to the
Pitch Diameter Circle. The points of these two lines which contact the Pitch Diameter
circle should be symmetric to the center line and be the Tooth Width apart.

Next we will draw the approximate involute curves, starting with two guiding pressure
angle lines. These lines are 14.5 degrees apart both beginning where one of the radial
lines meets the Pitch Diameter Circle.
Now, we draw a 3 point arc between the point where the left radial line contacts the Root
Diameter circle and where the same line contacts the Pitch Diameter circle. This arc will
be tangent to the outer most pressure angle line.
The second part of the approximate involute curve starts at the point where the previous
one finished and extends to the point where the inner most pressure angle line contacts
the Outer Diameter circle. This curve is tangent to either the first part of the curve or the
same line used as tangent for the first part of the curve (they are the same)
Finally, we mirror the curve lines along the center line, connect them with center point
arcs centered at the gear's center point, and extrude.
With one tooth drawn, we can preform a circular pattern of this tooth, making 60 copies
along the outside of the Root Diameter circle.
Using the same method, you can now draw your second gear.

There you have it! A custom 2:1 gearing ratio using involute teeth gears.
 Herringbone Gears
Herringbone gears are useful when you need you gears to operate smoothly and with little
backlash. The Herringbone pattern increases the number of teeth making contact at a
time, making for smoother meshing and prefect registration. I used Herringbone gears in
my business card roller to ensure smooth, backlash-free rotation as well as keeping the
two cylinders in parallel alignment.

The process for creating a herringbone gear is very similar to that of a regular gear, with
only a few extra steps. Starting from the point where you have your tooth profile drawn
we use the helix command. A helix is a special kind sketch known as a 3D sketch.
You can see the helix line here coming from the tooth sketch and wrapping around the
Root Diameter circle. For this large gear, I've set the helical pitch to 100mm, which
means that this helix will make one full revolution for every 100mm in height. Being that
the cylinder is only 6mm tall, the helix barely makes it 1/8th of the way around the
cylinder.

With the tooth and helix drawn, we are ready to preform a sweep.

Next we do a circular pattern (as with the regular gear) around the cylinder giving the
number of teeth in copies.
From here it's simply a matter of splitting the gear half way up the cylinder and mirroring
half of it to create the herringbone pattern.

Here's the split after removing half the gear.

Now, for the smaller gear, all the steps are the same except for the pitch of the helix.
Because the angles of the teeth must match, the pitch of the smaller helix will be the pitch
of the larger gear divided by the gear ratio.

So, the pitch of the helix on the smaller gear will be:

Small Gear Helical Pitch = Large Gear Helical Pitch / Gear

Ratio

100mm / 2 = 50mm Helical Pitch

 Bevel Gears

Bevel Gears are used to translate rotation at an angle. They can still gear up or down also,
making them a great tool to have in your toolbox.

In this section I'll teach you my experimental method for drawing bevel gears. While the
other two methods took some liberties to get their final effects, this method is still a bit
hack-and-slash. But it works!

To start we draw the profile of two isosceles triangles where one of the equal lengths on
each triangle is touching a line of equal length on the other triangle with their points
attached, as below.
The square in the center represents where the bevel gears will end.

Next we will draw a line at 90 degrees to the line that represents the rolling surfaces of
the two gears.

This is where things get a bit weird. While the line going diagonally down to the right
represents the touching Pitch Diameters of the two cones, we can not use concentric
circles as in the other methods because we are lofting the profile on an angle. We will
draw one line from the center on each side of the Pitch Diameter line that is equal to half
the difference between the Pitch Diameter and the Root Diameter.
 To get the distance we use:
Distance = (Pitch Diameter – Root Diameter) / 2
so
(30 – 28.75) / 2 = 0.625mm
and just the same
(15 – 13.75) / 2 = 0.625mm

Here you can see the lines which will define the Root Diameters which stretch from the
center point to the perpendicular line. They are dimensioned to end 0.625mm from the
center line as per our calculations above. I've also placed points where the Root Daimeter
lines cross the base and side lines. These points will define the edges of the Root
Diameter circles. These circles are lofted to the center point, making Root Diameter
cones.
Next, we create a surface to draw on defined by the perpendicular line. Creating a sketch
on that plane and projecting the root diameter circle onto it. This will cause the circle to
become an ellipse, so don't freak out.

Using the Root Diameter circle as reference, we offset this ellipse twice. Once by half the
difference between the Root Diameter and the Pitch Diameter (0.625mm as calculated
earlier). The second offset is half the difference between the Outer Diameter and the Root
Diameter. In this case, (31 – 28.75) / 2 = 1.125mm

We can then use the same method as before to draw our tooth. The only difference being
that you will probably need to approximate the tooth's top radius and the bottom radius is
actually convex to ensure the tooth makes enough contact with the Root Diameter to join
with it.

Now, we loft this profile to the center point.

Our next move is to cut off the top of the cone and the top of the tooth. You're modeling
program will be apt to get very angry with you if you try to preform a circular pattern
with this tooth approaching the zero point.

Now we can preform the circular pattern without melting your graphics card.
Now you can repeat the same steps for the smaller gear, and finally clean up the edges.
 Print in Place joints

These are ideal for time saving when you need a pivot joint which will not take on
excessive wear from use. One example of where I've used a print in place joint is in the
base of my marble lock. This joint does not take on much wear as the majority of the
forces are applied to the bearings and being a door knob will not be undergoing constant
use.

This is a simple thing to draw, it is simply one cylinder with a ring around it given a fit
offset to the base.

You can see in this picture how the orange inner piece will print in place within the
yellow base piece. The fit offset is 0.75mm allowing the red piece to pivot while the
triangular ring keeps the red piece from moving vertically.

Note that the bases of the red and yellow pieces are lightly chamfered so that elephant's
foot does not cause the two pieces to become attached at the build plate.

You can also design a vertical print in place joint though it will likely suffer from a lack
of accuracy.
Here we see how the print in place horizontal joint works. The pin has a fit offset of
0.4mm form the barrel. The pin is mostly circular except at the bottom where it narrows
to 0.8mm. This is so that the joint is easy to crack once it comes off the bed because there
are only two lines of filament which may sag to touch the barrel, with the rest of the pin
building on top of them.

Custom Bearings

When over the counter bearing will not work or are too costly, you can create custom
bearings using marbles, BB pellets, airsoft pellets, or any well rounded sphere. It is not
recommended to try an print these balls as your joint will turn very roughly. Below, I will
teach the method for drawing an assemble-able bearing using 6mm airsoft pellets.

We start with two rings which are concentric and spaced at about 67% of your chosen
bearing's diameter. In this case we are designing around 6mm diameter Airsoft pellets, so
the distance between the rings will be about 4mm.
To make things easier, I'll switch to a section view.
Now, we will draw our bearing diameter circle and it's fit offset circle both centered
between the rings.

The Airsoft pellet measures 5.88mm in diameter. Giving a fit offset of 0.27mm our fit
offset circle will be 6.15mm in diameter.

Using the fit offset circle, we will preform a revolve to create the bearing's inner and
outer races.

Next, we'll split the outer race into two parts so that the outer race can be assembled after
printing.
The next step is to draw the spheres which will act as our ball bearings. Using the original
sketch as reference, we revolve half the circle to create a sphere.

Lets switch out of section view and preform the circular pattern which will create the rest
of our ball bearings. For this example we'll use 6 ball bearings.
Now that we have our bearings, we'll need to create a bearing spacer / retainer. This is
simply a ring which is offset from the inner and outer raceways by a generous fit
allowance. For this we will use an allowance of 0.75mm on each side.
With both the ball bearings and the spacer / retainer in place, we will use the ball bearings
in a boolean subtraction with a fit offset to create the holes which will hold the bearings.
 The red section here in section view shows us where the ball bearings and the retainer
/spacer ring intersect. By using the ball bearings as tools in a boolean subtraction, we
remove this material.
You can see in this closeup, the effect of the boolean subtraction with a fit offset of
0.15mm.

The only thing left to do to complete this assembly is to create a fastener to attach the top
half of the outer race to the bottom half. We will complete this assembly in the next
section on fasteners using what I call The Medicine Bottle Fastener.

FASTENERS
In this section, I will be laying out five different fasteners which can be 3D printed using
an FDM printer. They are threads, snap connectors, screw bosses, bolt head holds, and
what I call a medicine bottle cap fastener.

The medicine bottle fastener

This is a specialty thread which bottoms out quickly. This is a good fastener to use when
you have parts that will regularly be disassembled by the user. Because it locks when
fully fastened, there is no risk (as with standard threads) that the parts will be over
tightened and be difficult to disassemble

This fastener was inspired by the way that some medicine bottle's lids attach with a ¼
turn of the lid, bottoming out against a stop to avoid over tightening.

We'll continue with our custom bearing from the previous section.
We'll start by adding a sketch to create the overlapping lip that will house our fastener
using an offset of 0.85mm. We revolve this sketch to add on to the upper half of the outer
race as seen below.
We'll hide the upper half of the outer bearing race for now.
This sketch is perpendicular to the surface of the bottom outer bearing race. It will
undergo two partial revolves to create an L shape.
With the basic shape in place, we give the leading edge a bevel so that it will grab the
knobs on the upper outer race when screwed on.
Because of the print orientation of this piece, we will add a small bevel on the bottom of
this part as shown next.
Now we can preform a circular pattern to create four of these.
You can see how these features will pull down the upper half of the outer bearing race
when twisted counter clockwise. Once the upper race has been pulled down it locks
against the stopper. Let's now draw the nubs on the upper half of the race.
Drawing this part in context allows us to reference the slot in order to draw the nub. A
partial revolve and circular pattern finish off the process.
Here in a translucent view you can see how the two parts interact.

That's all there is to it! A custom bearing with a medicine bottle connector.

Next, I'll show you the process for doing this same thing with regular threads.
 Threads

Threads can be incredibly simple to make as fasteners. If all you are trying to do is create
a screw on cap of some kind, you don't need to refer to thread charts or worry about
backlash. So long as the software you are using has the capability to create helices ( a
special 3D sketch) you should be fine. If you need your threads to create linear motion
from rotational motion, I recommend buying a threaded rod and nut and working around
them. So if you are looking to use threads for fastening, see below.

Starting from the same place as the Medicine Bottle fastener with an upper and lower half
to the outer bearing race, the process for creating threads is somewhat simpler.

We use the helix command on the inner surface of the top half of the outer bearing race.
In this case I used a helix 5mm high with a pitch of 3mm.
In section view we draw two triangles that define the shape of the threads. They are 3mm
tall as defined by the pitch of the helix and 0.6mm thick, leaving 0.2mm fit tolerance as
the gap is 0.8mm. The bottom of the inner triangle is level with the point of the outer
triangle.

The next step is to sweep both triangles along the helix, adding them to their respective
parts.
Finally we just need to remove the excess thread at the top of the bottom outer race.

To remove this excess, we create a surface on the top edge of the bottom outer race and
use this surface to split off the excess threading and delete it.
And that's it for threads!

Doweling

Doweling is used when either due to overhangs, size, or other part geometry, you must
print your part in separate pieces and assemble them afterwards. For this purpose,
doweling is a good way to register your pieces with each other to ensure proper geometry
when assembled. You can use doweling along side glue to create a single part from many
that can maintain it's indented shape and is strong.

Take this odd shape for example. There would be no good way to print this without a ton
of support material. We'll split it, then create the dowels to make an assembly.
This is a section view to give you better idea of the geometry of this object.
Step one is to split the object to create a flat surface on both pieces which will lay flat on
the print bed.
This picture shows the sketch which will define the shape of the dowels.
Extruding this circle symmetrically gives us our first dowel. As in previous examples, the
section view shows us in red where the dowel and the base piece intersect.
Patterning the dowel in a circle.
This transparent view shows what will be happening when the piece is assembled.
We give the fit offset of 0.25 using a boolean subtract with the dowels as tools and the
two parts are the targets.
The final step is to give the holes a slight 0.5mm chamfer to combat elephant's foot.

And that's it for doweling!