Show me your Universal Joints

Thanks, appreciate the compliment

They are designed for a nominal load of 1000N (~220 lbs) and I have tested them up to 4000N (PETG@285°C) This is the extension load, btw. In compression they should easily hold much more than that.

Also, I have designed them around metric ball bearings. I think it was these:

...which are dirt cheap and are available from a hundred vendors here in Europe. If you guys over in the US use inch or other units for typpical off-the-shelf bearings you may have to adapt the design slightly. And if you are OK with smaller diameter bearings, you can significantly increase the range of movement by reducing the size of the "arches". Even a millimeter (~40/1000 ") will make a noticeable difference.

It you choose to go with those, build a single prototype first and see if it suits your needs. And let me know if you run into issues 'cause I am not using those myself. I went with the single-sided ones.

Dirty

if someone is interested i found a shop in Italy wich sell them...here is the links:

https://www.autoricambi4x4.it/trasm...smissione-suzuki-sj410-sj413-samurai-santana/
https://www.autoricambi4x4.it/trasm...vitara-gran-vitara-samurai-jimny-sj410-sj413/

Anyone wants to try flexure joints?
Flexure joints are impressive, no gaps and solid. When looking for high precision and repetition, it's the best solution

Here's some info:
https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/17709852/4927.pdf

They are not in the maket we need to go the DIY course, but might be easier to build compared to a conventional ujoint.

And an application of that:

i got myself a drive train axle here from a VW t4 that i was planning for the build.
it would have had two u-joints and could have been cut and welded just fine.

but settled on regular bearing blocks as shown, the advantage of that is that i used one bigger shaft on one side, so i could drill and tap a setscrew. that allowed me to balance the center of gravity by sliding the other side along.

Wow that is super interesting. Thanks for posting!

Im super intrigued by both the uv joint and the motor flexure in that video. Really cool stuff.

Yes, flexure joints are amazing. And for DIY, I think they might be the best solution.
Some more info: https://www.dspe.nl/knowledge/dppm-...ff-axis-stiffness-3dof-spherical-flexure-join

flexure joint:

I tried wood + 3d printed mounted "bearing". Let's see if it resists.
More info in my building thread https://www.xsimulator.net/communit...-with-wood-and-3d-printing.19205/#post-253344

For some reason, the image is not shown in the post before.
I have uploaded it again as an attachment.

Hey Guys
I'm in the beginning phase of my own project, a spaceship simulator. This topic helped me a lot to come to my solution, so thanks a lot already!
To keep things cost effective but not cheap, i came up with the following construction. It's a combination of an aluminium cross block for 3d printing or automation, two 20mm steel pipes and 4 heavy duty ball bearings.

All in all costs: $45. Can provide links if it's allowed/wanted.

If you are aiming a 6-dof you need to allow a slight rotation on vertical axis on the actuator.

Just aiming for 2-dof. The simulator will be a closed cabin. I'll open a thread as soon as there is more to show than the gathered material.