Good websites for mechanical parts ?

[free_electron]

springs, screws, nuts, bolts, gears , profiles , extrusions.

for example i am looking for small rollers now. no clue where to find those. basically somethign that is 5 to 6 cm long , 1cm diameter and comes with two bearings and L-shape mounting flanges.

[ataradov]

You probably know about them already, but http://www.mcmaster.com/ has a lot of mechanical stuff. But those rollers look like something purposefully designed for a specific project. I doubt you will find them as an orderable part, unless they a part of some maintenance kit for some piece of equipment. And then they are going to cost an arm and a leg.

[ralphrmartin]

I'm impressed by the McMaster site. Anyone know of something similar in the UK?

[tautech]

RS ?
www.rs-online.com

My old catalog has stuff like this listed in "Power transmission, bearings and seals"

[free_electron]

HMM.

other example of what i am looking for
see that bent tube where the solder is in ? i need such bent tubes. there has got to be places selling such things.

the rollers i am looking for are like this :

http://www.mscdirect.com/browse/tn/Material-Handling-Storage/Material-Transport/Casters-Glides-Accessories/Spherical/Ball-Casters-Ball-Transfers/Ball-Transfers?intcmp=BcCTA_PDP_BallTransfers_20161012_v1&navid=12105667

who on earth knows that is called a 'hudson-transfer' ..

or even better :




the one on the left. essentially what i want to make is a roller so i can hang the spool of filament so it rolls smoothly. i want to guide the filament using a bent tube. so there is less stress on the extruder. (yeah i bought a 3d printer )

main problem is : i often don't know the key words to begin looking ..  there must be a site like digikey for mechanical stuff ... McMaster Carr. Grainger are good starts. but there have to be more like that.
it aggravates me to have ot search 3 hours to find stupid things like a roller and a piece of bent tube... i can find any electronics part i need in 2 minutes. mechanical parts ? arrrgh,

[Mechatrommer]

just like electronics, we try to suit existing off the shelf components to our design, we dont try to invent our own chip and expect some manufacturer make it. same with mechanical... btw, i seldomly see a cylindrical roller be used to guide a cylindrical tube or filament in your case in orthogonal direction, usually we use u-grooved roller bearing like this...
http://www.ebay.com.my/itm/2Pcs-U604ZZ-U-groove-Guide-Wheel-Roller-Bearing-4-13-4mm-604U-For-3D-Printer-/272089601969?hash=item3f59cdd7b1:g:cpMAAOSwk1JWgk8G

for flat roller like in your picture you are going to need 3 of them at least to guide a cylindrical rod... and i'm not a fan of hudson bearing like in your picture if its being used as "wheel" to move a table or something around. i prefer the normal castor wheel for example...
http://www.ebay.com.my/itm/4-x-4-100mm-Heavy-Duty-Swivel-Caster-Wheels-Castor-/301942096600?hash=item464d26c2d8:g:BOsAAOSwzJ5XWhp2

but anyway, we are not sure what you are building since you dont post any design proposal, so ymmv. since you are modding your 3d printer, maybe the reprap forum is your friend...
http://forums.reprap.org/
fwiw...

[free_electron]

i'm not modding the printer as such. just making a better reel holder. ( the reel will hang from a roller . that roller may be motorised with a small stepper). the filament will go through the angled tube first. the angled tube will hang in front of an opto-gate. if the tension on the filament becomes too high the tube will swing in front of the opto-gate which will trigger a circuit to pulse the stepper motor advancing the reel.

by the way : this is the printer i bought :



199$. color lcd display. works great ! uses a metalcore (like for power-led's) PCB as heater ( as opposed as those simple FR-4 based heaters ).
solid construction.

but this topic is not to mod the printer. it is a general quest to find good online stores for mechanical parts. the printer is just an example of the kind of things i'm trying to find. one woudl assume there are stores that have such parts.

[TheSteve]

Have you tried the printer with the stock spool holder? I've had the same printer for quite a while now and the only time there was a feed issue is when the filament was tangled on the spool(not the printers fault).

[Karel]

We shop here: http://us.essentracomponents.com/

They have also offices in Europe and Australia.

[Mechatrommer]

i'm not modding the printer as such.

yes you are if one is to assume reel holder is a part of the printer but well, you are free to use your own term.

if the tension on the filament becomes too high the tube will swing in front of the opto-gate which will trigger a circuit to pulse the stepper motor advancing the reel.

ahh that. this is what happened when mechanical stuffs falled into the hand of an electronic guy... this is what i faced when my 3d printer just came in, same problem, reel not advancing as expected, the mechanism is not thought out by the manufacturer they expect us to do it on our own, maybe due to the variety of reel mounting hole size in the market. what i did is make a reel to bearing adapter in 3d sw and got it printed. the adapter accepts normal 23 x 8 x 6 mm ball bearing. and then put 8mm shaft at the center. the shaft stucked in the reel holder. no need electronics, just free wheeling by nature of the force.... attached is the adapter i made, it also can accept 2 size of reel holes, 32mm and 57mm diameter. but if you insist the reel has to be hanged on the side of the printer arm like in the picture, then you have to design an adapter that accept mounting to that. my reel holder just laying freely on the floor.... fwiw...

[free_electron]

Have you tried the printer with the stock spool holder? I've had the same printer for quite a while now and the only time there was a feed issue is when the filament was tangled on the spool(not the printers fault).

yup. the filament has a tendency to kink just before the part where it goes into the stepper motor

i found a 3d printed adapter on thingiverse for this printer that solves the kinking problem but you need to change to spool by 90 degrees. dont want to do that.
i'm building a nice enclosure for this machine so it can sit in my office without making too much sound. wan tto keep it small.

also found out how to enable wifi on this printer

[nanofrog]

You may want to give Amazon Business a try, as they bought out smallparts.com which carried these sorts of odd parts IME.

[Cubdriver]

I'll second or third McMaster-Carr as a great source for pretty much anything mechanical.  Excellent selection and a very good search engine on their website.  You may have to do some digging, but they have just about anything hardware related you can imagine.  They're my usual source for heat shrink tubing, among other things.

Another nice thing about them is that they have multiple warehouses.  Here in CT, if I place my order before 6PM and their New Jersey warehouse has it in stock, 9 times out of 10 UPS will deliver it the next day.  At my companies's Irvine, CA office, if the order is in before about ten AM, it usually shows up later that day from their LA facility.  Their logistics must be incredible.

-Pat

[zapta]

i'm not modding the printer as such. just making a better reel holder. ( the reel will hang from a roller . that roller may be motorised with a small stepper). the filament will go through the angled tube first. the angled tube will hang in front of an opto-gate. if the tension on the filament becomes too high the tube will swing in front of the opto-gate which will trigger a circuit to pulse the stepper motor advancing the reel.

You don't need the tubes, just the bearings. My preferences are plastic/glass dry bearings from ebay. Light and free turning.  E.g.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1728291