Ball bearings!

[pinioncorp]

12 hours ago, Phoxtane said:

If this works without any modifications to the wheelsets, I'll definitely get my hands on these.

That won't work as mentioned above, the way the wheels are attached adds friction to the ends as well. But brick built bogies with these on them will work fine.

[Phoxtane]

53 minutes ago, pinioncorp said:

That won't work as mentioned above, the way the wheels are attached adds friction to the ends as well. But brick built bogies with these on them will work fine.

 

2 hours ago, legoman666 said:

Adding bearings to standard wheel sets is not going to decrease friction if youre still using the OG axle holder. If the standard holder has friction A, and a bearing friction B, in no universe will friction A + friction B be less than friction A.

My hope is that the bearings will take the place of the holders on the wheel sets somehow, rather than just being added on.

Edited October 1, 2016 by Phoxtane

[legoboy3998]

Look into Labell Industries lubricants.  They are specifically made for model trains and RC cars and are plastic compatible.

https://www.walthers.com/search/scale/all-scales?q=Labelle

Sal

WFB, WI

[legoman666]

 

Rolling stock is all equipped with bearings instead of standard lego axle holders or brass tubes. Locomotive has 2 L motors.

Edited October 2, 2016 by legoman666

[Jeffinslaw]

I received my "ball bearings" in the mail Saturday except there were no ball bearings to be found in the package. Purchased from the seller in the first post and he sent me "a gift of 2 DIY PCB boards" because the ball bearings I purchased were "out of stock." Here's the best part though, I only got one DIY PCB. What a joke.

So I canceled that order and requested a refund and purchased from a different seller. Hopefully those ones actually arrive.

 

-Jeffinslaw

Edited October 3, 2016 by Jeffinslaw

[legoman666]

8 hours ago, Jeffinslaw said:

I received my "ball bearings" in the mail Saturday except there were no ball bearings to be found in the package. Purchased from the seller in the first post and he sent me "a gift of 2 DIY PCB boards" because the ball bearings I purchased were "out of stock." Here's the best part though, I only got one DIY PCB. What a joke.

So I canceled that order and requested a refund and purchased from a different seller. Hopefully those ones actually arrive.

 

-Jeffinslaw

Someone on Facebook said the same. I just ordered more myself, hopefully some crap PCB doesn't show up instead.

[legoboy3998]

9 hours ago, Jeffinslaw said:

I received my "ball bearings" in the mail Saturday except there were no ball bearings to be found in the package. Purchased from the seller in the first post and he sent me "a gift of 2 DIY PCB boards" because the ball bearings I purchased were "out of stock." Here's the best part though, I only got one DIY PCB. What a joke.

So I canceled that order and requested a refund and purchased from a different seller. Hopefully those ones actually arrive.

 

-Jeffinslaw

 

49 minutes ago, legoman666 said:

Someone on Facebook said the same. I just ordered more myself, hopefully some crap PCB doesn't show up instead.

That happened to me.  When I purchased 10 packs (500 ball bearings) a few weeks ago, I got an email saying the bearings were back ordered but they would send a PCB board as a free gift and the bearings would be sent when they came in.  I recieved the ball bearings about a week after I recieved the "free" PCB board.  The bearings actually came well before Ebays estimated delivery.  Have a little faith and give it a couple weeks.  Between EBay and PayPal, you have plenty of recourse if they don't arrive.

Sal

WFB, WI

[Jeffinslaw]

31 minutes ago, legoboy3998 said:

That happened to me.  When I purchased 10 packs (500 ball bearings) a few weeks ago, I got an email saying the bearings were back ordered but they would send a PCB board as a free gift and the bearings would be sent when they came in.  I recieved the ball bearings about a week after I recieved the "free" PCB board.  The bearings actually came well before Ebays estimated delivery.  Have a little faith and give it a couple weeks.  Between EBay and PayPal, you have plenty of recourse if they don't arrive.

Sal

WFB, WI

I never received a message stating they were back ordered though. 

-Jeffinslaw

[supertruper1988]

I ordered a couple days after the original post and I got my 50 last night.  Hope all works out for you!

[Aaron]

On 10/1/2016 at 2:20 PM, legoboy3998 said:

Look into Labell Industries lubricants.  They are specifically made for model trains and RC cars and are plastic compatible.

https://www.walthers.com/search/scale/all-scales?q=Labelle

Sal

WFB, WI

Will this work just as well?

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Ultimate-Synthetic-Hobby-Oil-Slot-car-Train-R-C-Car-Truck-Slot-Machine-Oil-/152020696890?var=

[legoboy3998]

1 hour ago, Aaron said:

Will this work just as well?

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Ultimate-Synthetic-Hobby-Oil-Slot-car-Train-R-C-Car-Truck-Slot-Machine-Oil-/152020696890?var=

My only concern would be the one you linked dows not seem to mention if it is plastic safe.  Many of the Labelle lubricants specifically say they are safe for plastics.

Sal

WFB, WI

[Phoxtane]

You know, I think we may have cleared out the supply of these bearings - I can't imagine there's much demand for bearings that small.

That, or like so many other cheap Ebay finds (think high-power LEDs), they're factory rejects, and we have to wait until the factory rejects more before we can buy them!

[legoman666]

My "diy PCB" showed up yesterday. The letter said there would be 2. There was 1. 

[Jeffinslaw]

6 hours ago, legoman666 said:

My "diy PCB" showed up yesterday. The letter said there would be 2. There was 1. 

Ah you know my pain. I filed a claim on eBay and the seller responded asking me to wait another week or two.

-Jeffinslaw

[Aaron]

4 hours ago, Jeffinslaw said:

Ah you know my pain. I filed a claim on eBay and the seller responded asking me to wait another week or two.

-Jeffinslaw

Be patient. I had to wait too, but in the end I received my bearings. If you file a claim and order from someone else, you'll only end up waiting longer.

[MaineBrickFan]

I placed an order of 50 from the original ebay seller on September 20. The bearings arrived today. Never received the PCB. Just a data point for others.

 

[Selander]

I got my lot of 50pcs ball bearings the other day, delivery was correct (no PCB or so...). I started to try them this afternoon. Difference in diameter is just 0,2mm, still it seems difficult to push them in, so I choose to increase hole diam in technic brick to also be 5,0mm. Now it was easy to squeeze them to place. So far so good.

When disassembling train wheel sets, I discovered that some train wheels have a "stop" which does not allow the steel axle to go fully through them, while others let the axle protrude a little and locks wheels with a click sound. The later is a must I think, to make this mod work.

Finally I put together two sets of axles and wheels to build a bogie. One ran perfect with a minimum of friction, while the other axle had some friction. I have not put on any lubricant yet, but still I was expecting a better result based on the praise read in previous posts.

My conclusions so far:

- Good potential for making special designs train chassis. Acceptable, but not perfect, performance.

- May need some adjustments during installation, and probably some tweaking to run smoothly after assembly.

Edited October 17, 2016 by Selander

[MaineBrickFan]

1 hour ago, Selander said:

I got my lot of 50pcs ball bearings the other day, delivery was correct (no PCB or so...). I started to try them this afternoon. Difference in diameter is just 0,2mm, still it seems difficult to push them in, so I choose to increase hole diam in technic brick to also be 5,0mm. Now it was easy to squeeze them to place. So far so good.

When disassembling train wheel sets, I discovered that some train wheels have a "stop" which does not allow the steel axle to go fully through them, while others let the axle protrude a little and locks wheels with a click sound. The later is a must I think, to make this mod work.

Finally I put together two sets of axles and wheels to build a bogie. One ran perfect with a minimum of friction, while the other axle had some friction. I have not put on any lubricant yet, but still I was expecting a better result based on the praise read in previous posts.

On the last problem, I found that some of the bearings seemed to accept the axle better than others -- the diameter of the opening appears not to be uniform. (I suspect the fact that these are so small and come from China means the quality control is not perfect). I used an axle to test the bearings first, and then only used the ones which the axle easily pushed through. This left me with a truck with significantly reduced friction on wheels. The price of these bearings is minimal enough that I felt like it was ok to be selective as to which ones I used.

I also used a small amount of superglue on the end of the axle to glue the wheelsets together, allowing me to use newer wheels.

 

[legoman666]

4 hours ago, Selander said:

When disassembling train wheel sets, I discovered that some train wheels have a "stop" which does not allow the steel axle to go fully through them, while others let the axle protrude a little and locks wheels with a click sound. The later is a must I think, to make this mod work.

The wheel sets from the 9v era are the ones you're after. It also helps to make a washer to put between the Technic brick and the wheel. I take a piece of 3mm flex tube and slice a piece off as thin as I can. This will prevent the rear of the wheel from rubbing against the Technic brick.

 

I think some of you must have ordered from a different seller. None of my 150+ so far have had enough variance in diameter that I noticed it was easier or more difficult to slide the axle through. The real difference I noticed is that the 9v era axles are about .05mm smaller than the RC/PF ones (I measured them with calipers). The 0.05 makes all the difference in the world although the newer style still fit.

[Selander]

I will try adding washers as proposed.

And perhaps testing more bearings, in case of inconsistent quality, plus add some lubricant.

All in all, it's an interesting solution, so it's worth fiddling a little more before drawing any definite conclusions.

[Taiphun]

In the RC world, Boca and Avid are two reputable companies - try them too.  Quality is very consistent:

http://www.bocabearings.com/

http://www.avidrc.com/

Probably won't be able to get near the ebay pricing, but have a look anyways.

[Lego Dino 500]

With these, do you think someone will try and set a new speed record? 

[ukewarrior]

Can someone tell me the technic brick number so I can order some off bricklink to experiment on?

[legoman666]

On 10/25/2016 at 0:45 AM, Lego Dino 500 said:

With these, do you think someone will try and set a new speed record? 

2 hours ago, ukewarrior said:

Can someone tell me the technic brick number so I can order some off bricklink to experiment on?

http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3700&name=Technic, Brick 1 x 2 with Hole&category=[Technic, Brick] and http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32000&name=Technic, Brick 1 x 2 with Holes&category=[Technic, Brick]

[Paperballpark]

I ordered some of the MR52ZZ, which arrived today. I've just tried them out.

Firstly, I can't get the bearing to go into the technic axle hole. But I knew they were a tight fit, as stated above, so I figured I'd just file a bit of the plastic away until they do.

Before that though, I thought I'd see how the metal axle fits into the bearing. Well, it doesn't. Not just tight, but actually physically won't push more than a fraction into it.

So I guess that line of experimentation is finished. Oh well.