Excellent! I am happy to hear that they may help.
I found that the bearings are a tight fit, so be careful when pressing them into the wheels. I was able to assemble them by press-fitting them in a vise, although a c-clamp will also work in a pinch. You may need to open the bore slightly with a drill, or perhaps soften it with a solvent or heat gun.
Please let me know how they work out, good or bad.
Does anybody have a 3D file/design for the roller that holds the belt??? My right side one looks super smooth compared to the left side on the carriage
It is supposed to be smooth. It is an idler, the left side is the toothed drive wheel attached to the motor.
That’s just gunk “printed” onto it from the belt running over it.
Run your finger over it, it will wipe off and the wheel is perfectly smooth.
Hi. Has anyone tried these yet? Do they work? I’m in need of these v wheels and GF is out of stock.
I haven’t had the need, but I’m pretty sure you can find them on amazon. Just make sure they are the same size. Check outer and inner diameters before ordering.
Yes, I tried amazon and couldn’t find the correct size. Our machine has been down longer than expected so we thought we would give these a shot.
Nobody has located a reliable source from a US seller that I am aware of. You can find similarly-sized versions on non-US sites, usually in bulk designed for people assembling CNC or 3D printer machines from scratch. At this time, most purchases from Asia are taking weeks, vs. days.
I don’t know.
I have mailed out several sets of 3D-printed wheels upon request to several forum members, at my own expense. All I asked was some feedback on how they worked out for people. I have heard from everybody that they received the wheels.
Not a single soul has told me whether they even attempted to install them, let alone whether/how they worked.
So your guess is as good as mine.
Thank you. A neighbor of mine printed a couple out for me on his 3D printer. I haven’t put them on yet. I was able to super glue my broken wheel. If and when I use them I will provide an update. I will say that the 3D print isn’t as smooth as I thought it would be. I might have to try sanding them to make them smooth. I also ordered a couple from the printing service. I will compare when they arrive.
question, one of my wheels broke and i have no idea where it is. has anyone else had this problem as well. i just got my pro in july and just started using it this month. do they break that easy? any advice i would greatly appreciate it.
They don’t all break so easily. Unfortunately, they recently had a bad batch. To get official wheels from GF open a ticket by either emailing them or creating a new post in Problems & Support.
Had one of the Gantry wheels split in half on the GF Basic
Only noticed it because I took the Laser head off for cleaning and saw it laying in pieces
Even though I was a little out of warranty GF sent me a new one.
In the mean time I trudged thru the GF user forum and found several references, seems like this happens a lot
A known problem it is a weak design that has little alternative but to break in two
The choice of the 12 x 6 x 4 bearing is likely not a problem but the root cause is the close placement of the wheels to the rail
The plastic roller pressed onto the bearing is about a 1/2 mm thick in the middle and so it is thinnest where the splitting forces are the greatest
While waiting for the replacement (it came very quickly) I thought I would try one of the 3D models offered in the users thread, they are not workable.
I went thru careful efforts to measure a good one and came up with a very good CAD model hear for your use
I increased the thin mid section as much as possible and made the roller a little taller because the 3D45 needed a little more material to print reliably.
I’m going to run the 3D version until it breaks.
Printed at the highest resolution, solid fill
For a test I made the gauge for setting dividers
Precision is right on and the straight lines show no waviness
GlowForge Replcmnt Gntry Wheel 012621.stl (562.6 KB)
I have the gcode if you need it
He said he’s out of warranty in the post.
well that makes sense then…thanks for letting me know as i didnt see that!
Will this replace the carriage wheel? When I click the carriage wheel link, it brings me to this file?
I know this was almost a year ago when you posted this, but I just thought I’d share my experience with this file. My v-wheel broke, and threw off my laser (broken half managed to get under the laser block and tilted it), so I looked to see if I could print one and found this.
I printed it using a Prusa slicer at the highest quality I could, 80% infill. I didn’t change the settings otherwise. Printed in roughly 18 minutes, but the opening for the bearing is too small, by almost 2 mm. I tried resizing it a bit, but after looking at the .stl file, it appears you’re supposed to drop the bearing in from the bottom? The bottom hole seems bigger than the top one (but only 1mm, which is still too small, as the bearing is 12mm), but there’s a lip to “catch” it. I’ve been messing with the file trying to get the inner dimensions sized a little larger, but haven’t quite gotten it yet.
The print, itself, does seem “meatier” than the one glowforge supplies. I feel like if I could get the inner hole sized correctly, it would probably work well otherwise.
The wheel has changed over the years. Original machines are still going strong, it’s only later models that appear to have issues. So the size of the bearing has very likely changed.
Hello, I’m including the igs
Best to make your own revolve surface
Good luck, Tom
(Attachment GlowForge Replcmnt Gntry Wheel 012621.igs is missing)
