Gear Ball, Free Spinning, Smooth Edges, Great for Kids

Get in on the hype!!

Why the remix? 

I found the original ball to be quite hard to turn, requiring "working in" and even then it wasn't quite as good as I liked. I also found the size to be unnecessarily large and the edges to be pretty sharp, even for me, much less my kids.

What's different?

• Integrated the Gear Ball Connector by Caleb into this Gear Ball - Many thanks!

• Imported design from thingaverse by skylarmt (OG Designer RuvenBals) - Many thanks!

• Scaled entire model to 75% to make it easier for kids to use, and use less material (scale back to 125% for bigger)

• Scaled gear pieces 103% in the Z to make it easier to turn without compromising connector pocket strength. 

• Added 1 to 1.5mm rad to gear edges to make smooth edges with softer handling and less risk of pinching with small fingers (and adults too if I'm honest!)

Printing Instructions

Choose a print profile attached above. I have my Centauri Carbon and A1Mini as a machine (with different profiles), but you should be able to import into any slicer. Be sure to keep the following properties!

Slicer Settings:

• Nozzle: 0.6 or 0.4

• Strength

  • Walls: 3 //for gear strength

  • Layer Height: 0.18 (or 0.08-0.16 for 0.4)

  • Sparse Infill: 10% Gyroid (or more if you want)

• Quality

  • Wall Generator: Arachne //not classic - better with small details

  • Walls Printing Order: Inner / Outer

  • Detect Overhanging Walls: Checked

• Speed

  • Other layers speed

    • Outer wall: 40mm/s  //slower outer wall for nice looking wall :)

  • Travel Speed: 250mm/s  //halved to reduce risk of catching tall objects and knocking over

  • Acceleration //halved to reduce risk of catching tall objects and knocking over

    • Normal Printing: 5000mm/s

    • Outer Wall: 2500mm/s 

• Supports: Disabled

• Others: Brim --> No-brim

Recommended Filament:

• Silk PLA

  • I used Elegoo PLA Silk and Eryone PLA Silk

  • In both I Calibrated (in Orca Slicer) and Dried them (using my creality drier) and used the following overrides (your mileage may vary:

    • Nozzle Temp: 225C

    • Flow Ratio: 0.98

    • Pressure Advance: 0.02

    • Max Volumetric Speed: 7.5mm/s

    • Setting Overrides --> Retraction --> 0.5mm

• Resulting Mass: 100-130g depending on Nozzle Size (0.4 vs 0.6 respectively)

Assembly:

Assembly is pretty straightforward but I used knipex pliers to assemble the pins

• Press the pins/connectors into the gear "heart".

• Assemble the little gears

  • Try to align the top of each gear to the pin directly above it

  • Keep track of their "alignment" when pressing them in, when done they should make smooth ring all the way around. Any offset gear will be obvious. This is important for the next step!

• Assemble the big gears

  • Use the same assembly method as the little gears, aligning the top of each gear to the pin directly above it

Notes:

• If you need to pull gears out and try again - you can, but be aware everytime you remove a pin it might make it less durable, and more prone to popping out. But pins can be easily reprinted!

Title Image was created with AI, but you can see my original model photos in the files.

If you have any feedback let me know and I'll do my best to correct it. I'm not immune to being human…

That's it! Enjoy!

Integrated the Gear Ball Connector by Caleb into this Gear Ball - Many thanks!

Imported design from thingaverse by skylarmt (OG Designer RuvenBals) - Many thanks!

Scaled entire model to 75% to make it easier for kids to use, and use less material (scale back to 125% for bigger)

Scaled gear pieces 103% in the Z to make it easier to turn without compromising connector pocket strength. 

Added 1 to 1.5mm rad to gear edges to make smooth edges with softer handling and less risk of pinching with small fingers (and adults too if I'm honest!)