General

I needed another 16008 bearing, so I made one that fits and works very well using a short snippet of 4mm PTFE tubing, commonly used as Bowden extrusion tubes for 1.75mm filaments.

Print both pieces, put the inner inside the outer, and shove a piece of PTFE tubing in the outer slot! Should be snug for nice and smooth rotation, with no play.

Tips

For best performance, I find that flipping over the inner ring in relation to the outer ring will yield the least amount of play; this is because there are bevels built-in to the top of the tubing slots to make printing easier, and flipping one ring over before inserting the PTFE tube will make it so the non-beveled sides more tightly compress the PTFE tube when an axial load is applied.

In addition, keep the PTFE tube long enough that it's still reaching the entry point even after it has been pressed in as far as it can go. After this, use a razor to slice off the portion of the PTFE tube still sticking out. This will keep the PTFE tube locked in place while only the inner ring rotates in the assembly and will ensure that there is constant pressure in the mechanism. Pressing the bearing into a parent assembly will ensure that the PFTE tube remains pressed in the bearing.

Models

The "Tighter Tolerances" file has a smaller center hole by 0.1mm, as well as 0.1mm added to the diameter of the outer ring as well, for a very-slightly tighter press fit. depending on your printers tolerances. I had to wrap one layer of painter tape around mine to make it “press fit”.

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