So the current design that I was working with was a failure. The axles are too small to be reliable/robust, so I think I will need to rethink my design and probably use metal axles, which also means I probably should just design it to use bearings at all rotation points. Or at least delrin bushings to reduce friction.
So I'm back to the drawing board on this one, but failure is a part of learning.
These are the bearings a decided to try. They are 608, and are about $12 off of amazon. They aren't super smooth, but I talked with a skater, and he said to clean them and oil them and they will work much better.
I'm currently taking a 3d printing class, and we get to design and print something as part of the class, so I designed this 3d gimbal that will be the control handle for the steadicam. My goal is to print it all as a single unit, and then you snap away the supports to get it to move. I'm still working on exactly how the pieces are going to be printed, but have the gimbal functionally designed.
The blue in the picture below is an ordinary skate bearing. I'm using some Bones Reds because they are pretty cheap and have really good reviews on amazon.
Nice! I ended up using a cardan shaft from a steering wheel of a fiat when building my own diy steady cam project. You can get those things on ebay for cheap so might be an option. Good look, will be very glad to see the outcome!
I really like this project. Given the friction between 3D printed parts (at least as I have experienced), have you considered mounting each gymbal axis on ball bearings?
It's something I'm considering. This is going to be my first 3d printed thing ever, so I thought to keep it simple for now, and iterate once I see how it performs. I have enough clearance so it's going to be a bit jiggly in the holes once it's broken free, so I'm hoping that mitigates the friction enough, but really have no idea.
I will! I'm just learning 3d printing, so there is a long way to go in this project, but I'm going to post stuff as I design it, and fill in the build log.