Three Actuators: cheap, powerful and completely 3D printed

I have build three stepper actuators of different size/weight/torque. They features compound planetary gearbox with the overall reduction ratio around 100. And they have two 3D printed cross roller bearing per actuator. All these makes them very suitable for robotics applications. I am going to widely use them in the future projects.
STL and CAD files are available for my 10$ patrons ( / skyentific
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Special thanks to my special Patrons: Shounak Bhattacharya and M. Aali!
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#DIY #Robotics #Actuator

[@brothertwelve1243]

Holy %#+*, that’s a ton of work! Believe me, Sky. I understand the shear amount of effort involved here. I think a lot of people would be surprised & find it simply mind-boggling if they knew how much labor is required to produce the high level of quality-content seen in all of your projects/videos. So, I just wanted to say thank you for your continuing hard work. Also, your due diligence while filming said hard-work & for generously sharing it is much appreciated. I’ve learned so much of what I know from watching skilled builders like you at work. It still amazes me that I live in an age where complex, fully functional, mechanisms like these can be conjured out of thin air (literally) in such a short amount of time. Maybe crazier is the thought that I can watch a high def video of that process on my personal smart phone mere moments after it’s created. Anyways… Brilliant display (once again) of beautiful engineering, Sky. So, I should also thank you also for teaching. I wish you continuing & well-deserved success on your channel. More proof that the old idiom is true: “Someone who is really good at what they do can make something extremely hard look easy.”

[@dangerous8333]

Calm down man... It's not that crazy.

[@Skyentific]

Thank you! I really appreciate your comment. I am really glad that at least some people understand the amount of work which it requires.

[@rascalwind]

Hooked... Dangit.

[@nixhound668]

Робототехника - классная тема!) Я плохо учил в школе английский язык, и обычно мне очень тяжело смотреть иностранных блоггеров, так как я их не понимаю, но тут чистый английский, я понимаю и слышу каждое слово👍

[@stephandevriesere3667]

OMG, that is a lot of time and work you put into this project, Respect. I have been using 3d printers (2 of them) for about a year now and hope to be able to do projects like yours in the future. Great work Sky.

[@ivprojects8143]

Very nice! Could you please test the torque and backlash of these actuators? I'm curious about the frictional losses and backlash in the gears.

[@samanthaqiu3416]

yes backlash would determine what applications won't work with this, I'm pessimistic tho

[@zyxwvutsrqponmlkh]

Before and after lubrication please.

[@lolaa2200]

the thing is what really matter is the backlash after 100h+ of running. Performances measured on a brand new mechanical system is just a hint not the true quality mark.

[@Vwarto]

Great great great! This is the kind of stuff I like the most on your channel. Congratulations with these designs and keep up the good work!

[@drivenba]

Please include some backlash testing and overall printed gearbox strength in the upcoming assembled robot arm video, that would be super helpful!

[@gatoninja4387]

maximum 10 to 12 kilos resists

[@zajlord2930]

i created a robotic arm using 3x the gear box you made in last vid. i had trouble fitting some parts in (especially screwholders and standoffs in axis) and the grease ended up everywhere but besides that it went nicely, i can share pics it u want

[@YuriyKlyuch]

It always amazes me how much manual work required for such projects!

[@leec2106]

I like them, I will have to come back to view your robot builds. Lee

[@ddegn]

One problem I think you're having it the calibration issues can't be fixed by a simple scaling factor. *Vector 3D* has a good video about calibrating 3D printers. The video title is *STOP Printing Calibration Cubes!* Thanks for another fun and interesting video.

[@longdongsilver4719]

You are a master in 3D printing.

[@michaelfortner3420]

Beautiful build, Skyentific. Thanks for sharing.

[@buidelrat132]

Fantastic, thank you! Really looking forward to this project, love the actuators.

[@sukhrajhothi1542]

you are invested in your work with amazing attention to detail! always a proud Patreon supporter of this channel :)

[@MrFranklitalien]

terrific design thank you for your contribution to the field of robotics

[@dc37009]

Gorgeous Project ! Really looking Forward !!!

[@Duraltia]

At this point - If he ever kicks the bucket from a 3D printed planetary gearbox related accident then I expect this guy's gravestone / urn to feature a small picture of a 3D printed planetary gearbox...

[@tobiasgerber3546]

great job! Many night engineering time? well done.

[@KevinToppenberg]

This was an amazing build. Loved it!

[@GNARGNARHEAD]

I have done a a fair bit of mechanical 3D printing, and that, is a damn impressive feat😆 great work, inspiring stuff

[@fhellak8847]

wow, thanks for the amizing job. I think we can use good arm with cheap cost now.

[@augurelite]

Thank you so much for making these available! Will definitely try and make some

[@КириллФомичев-о8к]

Ай вилл спик фром май харт: грандиозная работа! Спасибо, очень познавательно. P.s. Икс энд игрек улыбнуло)

[@mytuberforyou]

This is excellent!

[@dbyrd7827]

An amazing amount of work! Thank you

[@judhi]

After a long time I hear igrek again 😁 Thank for the nice video!

[@DesignCell]

I'm a huge fan of printed bearings!

[@GrayStarInnovations]

those look great!!

[@moth.monster]

Amazing! I've always wanted to make a 3D printed robotic arm, this is so cool.

[@GerardEspositoGoACLSCtr]

Thanks!

[@joeapache342]

When are you going to open your store about this robotics parts?. Just don go to big and expensive 😉. You are a genius, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@moccaloto]

new to the channel. i like the style. great video!

[@Skyentific]

Welcome to my channel and thank you!

[@vitalyuv]

big and hard work. Thanks for you work and experience

[@shrinivasganti90]

Amazing video. Please could you do a video explaining your thinking on designing the gears ?

[@aronseptianto8142]

it would be interesting to load test those actuator, maybe like to just lift up and down a mass on a lever nearing its torque limit for a week or so and see if it gets loose over time

[@Carbon_Forest]

This is amazing! im interested in becoming a patreon for the files, but do you know how much backlash these gearboxes have?

[@drivenba]

Agreed - would be worth the money if backlash is low and failure torque is relatively high. Not very useful for accurate robotic motion without this information though

[@samuelhayes5198]

Can you do a video on tiny stepper motor actuators like 6mm stepper motors that use lead screws

[@lolaa2200]

this is incredible work. Looking forward for some endurance test as i guess it would be the eliminating factor for using fdm pla printing, so if it shoes good figure in this area that would be really huge.

[@stefanguiton]

Great video! these actuators are amazing

[@perpetualjon]

Stellar project! Bravo!!

[@jeffredington3359]

Nice work!!!! Wow!

[@iloverobotics113]

Thank you for interesting video !

[@takeyoshix]

Ingenious. But how to make those gears from aluminum?

[@nazar1394]

Did you thought about using PTFE tube (like we use in bowden exruders) cut in pieces of 10-15mm as a replacement for the rollers of the smallest actuator? It should be extremely slippery and has ideal round surface.

[@JoseMFerro]

Hello, there is no way to buy your complete projects (prints of gears, motors, plates, etc)?

[@synapticaxon9303]

Almost done printing all of the parts for the largest one, probably by tomorrow I'll be at the assembly phase. Waiting for a couple of bearings and need to pick up some of that grease. Does it make sense to have the driver and motor together as a package (i.e. driver fixed to the actuator itself like the motor is currently) so it is one abstracted component that you just feed power and signals and minimize cable length from driver to motor? You still run wires to it but it's just signal wires and power, 8p8c POE comes to mind as a turnkey interconnect for data+power. Or what are you thinking for the robot arm project around this?

[@makerslife]

Great work! Ive been a long time follower and love your work! I was wondering if you could design an actuator based off of an old hoverboard motor. They are strong and you can find them second hand cheap. I have been working on designing one, but I realized that I keep coming to your channel for inspiration. So, would you be willing to make a version of your actuators using a hoverboard motor?

[@c172jeff]

Nice job, For these three actuators. What are the reduction ratios between each stepper motor and output ?

[@Skyentific]

Thank you. Great question. I need to look in my notes. But I remember, that it is something between 80 and 100, depending on model.

[@c172jeff]

Did you find the exact numbers for these 3 actuators? I'd like to translate my number of steps stepped to actual angle measures and be super precise in the process. If I were to replace these with the RMD actuators in my arm, which RMD actuators are equal or better than all three. Probably the RMD X10 for the large and medium actuator?@@Skyentific

[@Sam-dv3vt]

I would give u a big high five, amazing video

[@Skyentific]

High five! :)

[@NeoIsrafil]

pretty neat, do you think its possible to do linear actuators with all 3d printing? rotary are useful, but linear are moreso for me.

[@Skyentific]

It should be possible, I don't see any fundamental problem. I will try to design one.

[@johnkelly7264]

Brilliant... love it... subbed here!

[@Alex-xh1zi]

Very satisfying

[@gwxd8454]

it's very interesting ,, ty

[@edsonovcar]

Very cool and it´s cheap! Congratulations!

[@yufandaefant100]

Great job! i really want to help, especially in bearings!

[@chrishayes5755]

linear actuator next please, more useful for me :D

[@karlos2889]

What about backlash of these gearboxes?

[@gadzira1594]

Hi! Could you clarify, how many rollers are u print? Can't find that at you patreon or here.

[@Skyentific]

38 needed for the big actuator for each side (76 in total). I print 42, and choose 38 best ones for each side. 30 needed for small actuator for each side 34 needed for intermediate size for each side

[@gadzira1594]

@@Skyentific Thx! God bless your steps!

[@paweszczepaniak7726]

How do you calculate all parameters for the gear boxes?

[@charlesw1641]

What 3d printer you use, can you share or recommend 3d printer for engineering parts? Thanks

[@Skyentific]

I love bambu x1c. But I should admit, that prusa mk3s still make more precise parts. So this one was completely 3d printed on prusa. I tried, but I cannot get the same quality on bambu x1c

[@whitneydesignlabs8738]

Very nice!

[@abodg763]

I want to know what would be the repeatability precition for the final robotic arm

[@davidstafford4873]

Absolutely AMAZING! Great job. It takes so much work to do what you did. From design to construction. I hate to ask you to give a load test because it will take so much work to replace the gear set when it fails. Love your design and thought process. You communicate that design process beautifully in all your videos.

[@techytools5668]

how many hours it took to print all these

[@aquadromodis6743]

Really cool. Love to see the full assebled robot arm. What payload have you in mind for your robot arm?

[@ThePhilbox]

Printing it all in PLA, do you anticipate problems with material creep? I'm afraid the PLA will flow out from under the bolts and ruin your tight tolerances. I think ABS is better for these mechanical applications. But I don't know, im just thinking this might be a problem after a bit.

[@J_gumbainia]

Can you use the brushless motors for that gearbox to make it faster to move.

[@msf4514]

Very cool. What program do you use to draw?

[@alexeymaslov3865]

Great as always! What will be estimated payload of this robot arm?

[@synapticaxon9303]

Amazing work, now a stepper motor and a bunch of filament I can afford! The MIT Cheetah actuator, not so much. :) I can't wait to see the arm that utilizes these. I'm thinking ahead to really slow walker robots and maybe even a solar tracker application. Alright, you won my patronage... :)

[@Skyentific]

Walker robot would be really interesting!!! ;)

[@ColinJWiens]

Good to know your slicer scaling factors. I printed big the gearbox from your previous gearbox vid and had to modify a lot of dimensions for it to work with my Ender 3. Also good to know it can take a while for the grease to distribute, mine got 2x harder to turn after putting lithium grease in. I also used too much, so removing some should help. I'll try to use it as a 4th axis for my hobby CNC machine, who knows when I'll do that though.

[@justtestingonce]

Why use so much gear reduction on a stepper motor when it loses most of its torque at higher rpms? I think the most is 4:1 for a stepper motor because the torque profiles is so bad at higher rpms.

[@HappyMathDad]

He is trying to make this be as cheap and accessible a possible. The arm will just need to be slow.

[@justtestingonce]

@@HappyMathDad the issue is the torque profile of the stepper motor has an inverse relationship to rpms. The gear reduction requires high rpms, nothing to do about costs.

[@kaizendom1566]

Which 3d printer did you used to print all your parts ?

[@SyaizulSyamil]

Comrade you looks like somewhat jolly version of Lenin

[@alexsamonin8132]

Однако грандиозно) Что за смазка?

[@assassinknives]

Яндекс браузер русский акцент не распознал и не переводит, есть ли ролик на русском?

[@HappyMathDad]

I do want to know the backslash..

[@Skyentific]

Good question. I will try to estimate it. But it will depend on your printer. So, the same model from different 3d printer will have different backlash.

[@HappyMathDad]

@@Skyentific Exactly, in my experience it pays off to make test prints and measure them with a caliper. Your result should serve as a reference.

[@arunchandran5081]

super

[@DrMukeshBangar]

Great 👍

[@jasonhowardak]

PLA, PETG or ABS?

[@Skyentific]

PLA, as it is easiest to print. But you can use PETG or ABS. It should work (but it will be way more complicated to get all tolerances right).

[@swannschilling474]

Great project!! Looking forward to see some applications running them!! 🦾💫 Btw, I also had a problem with a printed cam which almost drove me crazy and I had to print it a thousand times before it worked out...it can drive you nuts!! 🤯

[@marciopdcosta]

Cool

[@beaconofwierd1883]

I wonder if ”completely” will go the way of ”literally”, which now apprently literally means the opposite of what it used to.

[@oxygenasturia5706]

Well, I wish I could copy this but considering these parts are most likely 200+ hours of printing time...

[@manyirons]

I really like what you're doing here, but I'm struggling to accept the crossed rollers. Even with grease, aren't they going to just grind themselves to oblivion?

[@Skyentific]

My answer: I don’t know. I also don’t really like this part. But, to defend it: such configuration is used in real industry. So it should not be too bad. I think we will see after durability test.

[@alexon2010]

Muito show os itens fabricado com impressora 3D

[@gringott286]

о май Год, ай лайк зис акцент! 😆

[@Clark-Mills]

Love your content, one day I'll build something... In the meantime have a coffee on me! :) Thanks!

[@101picofarad]

Вы подгоняли натяг увеличением масштаба по XY этой детали? У меня обычно приходится уменьшать XY чтобы попасть в размер, а тут увеличили )

[@улафитай]

так а теперь ещё разок но на языке на котором ты изначально говоришь

[@nou5440]

30

[@peterbabu936]

make actuators, not war

[@АртурАбдуллин-ц4х]

You sound like you can read and say всем привет)

[@terasalker]

со крутое видио ю аре амазинг лове ю сенкс фор юоур гайд

[@akkudakkupl]

Steppers? ugh. Only servos.

[@тимофритежунчикус]

speak on russian please! 😅

[@gatoninja4387]

the largest gearbox in the world???? 🤣🤣🤣🤣😅😅🤨🤨😐😐....humans

[@gatoninja4387]

hugghhhh 😕😕 its gearbox has excessive volume and excessive fragile parts an equivalent box fits in the thickness of the thumb of a man's hand, its gearbox is 50 times larger to be able to do the same thing as a gearbox 50 times smaller and still Due to the difference in resistance between steel and plastic, it is at least 500 times more resistant. and what is worse, there is a trick to completely eliminate the gearboxes and mechanically reduce the speed of the motor

[@Skyentific]

It is easy to reduce the speed of motor. It is difficult to increase the torque!

[@gatoninja4387]

@@Skyentific in the servos the speed is reduced by decreasing the electricity but the gearbox decreases the speed but proportionally increases the force but that gearbox must be as small as possible and if it is possible to eliminate it not having the largest gearbox in the world that goes against him concept

[@Ricbordenave]

Estimado... por favor... ten un poco de respeto por alguien que seguramente tiene tal vez miles de horas mas dedicadas a la robótica que tu. Será grande, será aparatoso, pero cualquiera con una impresora podría imprimir una reducción con un torque de la hostia. No todo el mundo tiene acceso a un actuator metálico pequeño y poderoso. Lo que hizo @Skyentific es admirable. Nadie le dedica decenas de horas de CAD e impresión a algo sin razón alguna. Te recomiendo que veas videos anteriores de este buen hombre, y verás lo que se puede comprar en el primer mundo.

[@gatoninja4387]

@@Ricbordenave haber desde cuando es falta de respeto el opinar sobre un diseño de una maquina ?? como sabes q tiene miles de horas mas q yo?? partes de supuestos ,haber vamos por parte , el reductor es minimo 50 veces mas grande de lo que deberia y tiene cientos de partes moviles que se mueven consumiendo la energia a expensas de la energia que se le da no me cabe duda de que es un buen hombre y muy inteligente y capaz ,pero sus artilugios voluminosos son muy primitivos y voluminosos y fragiles comparados con los de nosotros los del tercer mundo incluso de madera seria mas resistente si va en fabor de la lines de la madera realmente tienes razon ..la robotica del tercer mundo hay que esconderla y es fisicamente muy muy diferente y no hay comparacion con la del primer mundo ...

[@HappyMathDad]

@@gatoninja4387 He already explained his goal in a previous video. To have a robot arm that anyone with a 3D printer and a few $$ can afford. I think he is accomplishing something.

[@KeksZero]

The video was reported for scam

[@knuppelrups13labadabadubdu90]

In the near future I would like to give it a try to make these actuators but the software and hardware to make everything work how do I get it? When I get a subscription as a patreon do also get a schematics of everything and how to install the software to make everything work with a little explanation? I want to make this to but I know this is gonne take a long time to make. And I dont want to mess it up because I dont know how to program or I dont understand the schematics. I hope some one that has build this can help me out and please tell me that even I can make this!!! I hope there is some tutorial that explains everything step for step! And hopefully my english is understandable...