Spherical bearing/gimbal for rest

[Fast14riot]

Is there a commercially available or easily adaptable spherical bearing or gimbal joint like is used in joy stick style rests? I'm working on designing my own bipod and am exploring the option of adding a joy stick.

 

[WillyTP]

Try these: GEBK8S PB8 8mm x 22mm x 12mm Spherical Plain Radial Bearing. They have the bronze lining so if you need to tighten up the bearings some you can use a small point punch and just barely ping them to the desired resistance.

 

[butchlambert]

Go to any bearing supply house. They will have more available than you can pick through. They may have to order them. I like the ones with the teflon cushion as they are smooth and have tighter tolerances than the others.

 

[micmac]

Having designed and built bunch of coaxial rests , i would likely again go for IGUS spherical bearings , plastic has no backlash and is maintenace free also doesn't atract dust and gives a bit of pre tension to whole thing.

https://www.igus.com/info/spherical-bearings

On one of the last builds we went all out using no holds barred top of the line Hiwin linear rails and high end metal spherical bearings , and rest needed more than a year before it kinda broke in and became smooth , you might still feel individual balls in it . It turned out it barely matched much simpler previous rest with all plastic bearings and slides on one rest all the linear and coaxial motion components cost maybe 50$ on the other about 400$ for no improvement.

 

[Fast14riot]

Having designed and built bunch of coaxial rests , i would likely again go for IGUS spherical bearings , plastic has no backlash and is maintenace free also doesn't atract dust and gives a bit of pre tension to whole thing.

https://www.igus.com/info/spherical-bearings

On one of the last builds we went all out using no holds barred top of the line Hiwin linear rails and high end metal spherical bearings , and rest needed more than a year before it kinda broke in and became smooth , you might still feel individual balls in it . It turned out it barely matched much simpler previous rest with all plastic bearings and slides on one rest all the linear and coaxial motion components cost maybe 50$ on the other about 400$ for no improvement.

Excellent info. Thanks!

 

[spclark]

Might find something here that’d work too.

Worth a look? You be the judge, let us know!