LEGO’s turn table has considerable friction and rotating a model at an exhibition for a whole day would ruin it. A thrust ball bearing is necessary to decrease the friction. I previously 3D printed a large bearing for my Unikitty. For this year’s exhibition I needed a smaller thrust ball bearing so I designed a new medium sized ball bearing. It includes liftarms to hold a worm wheel which results in a rotation ratio of 1:78. You can download the model from A360 and GrabCAD.
You can view this model in 3D:
The technical drawing is also available in case you intend to manufacture the ball bearing in a different way.
LEGO Compatible Medium Sized Thrust Ball Bearing Drawing by Christoph Bartneck on Scribd
About Me
I am an Associate Professor (Reader) at the HIT Lab NZ, University of Canterbury.