ball bearing off-center load question

Jul 18, 2003 1 Replies

I am trying to design a very cheap linear system. It's for a manually driven 13" long household device. It consists of two parallel 5/16 rods and a slide with preloaded rollers.



For rollers I use metal patio door rollers:

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works fine but makes the device too expensive.



I am thinking about using a pair of small plain ballbearings on the same axel with the spacer between them instead of a each single door roller. The ball bearings will roll on the side of the rod since the spacer will be shorter than rod diameter.



It would be much cheaper. But I am concern about off-center load.



Is this design OK?


Thanks


"Alex" wrote in news:KhYRa.70$K43.4355189 @newssvr14.news.prodigy.com:

In a nutshell, no. A roller bearing is designed to take a radial load, not a thrust load, which is what you would create with this arraingement. A pre-loaded angular contact bearing would be suitable, but, the cost will be more. Check with INA for a roller just like what you pictured. Probably MUCH cheaper direct from the manufacturers distributor. Call your nearest Motion Industries.

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