Mounting radial bearing 217-3246 (vexpro)

[mruprem]

Originally Posted by InFlight

This particular Vex bearing is an industry standard R3 size, available at lots of other vendors as well. If you want an non-Flanged sealed bearing it's a R3zz.
The Flanged version is a FR3zz. If you drop the zz suffix they are open bearings.

3/16 is a fairly small shaft size, be careful with the loads applied on that in your design.

What type of bearing might work if the load was to be approximately 15 lbs. distributed across 4 bearings?

[InFlight]

Are you attempting to restrain a shaft moving lengthwise rather than in rotation?

There are both bushing and linear bearings that are suitable for this type of usage. Standard rotational bearings will not work.

You might look at McMaster Carr to get an idea of what is available and how you might mount them, search for "linear bearings"

IGUS (First Sponsor) has the Drylin R line that's worth looking at. (They give a discount for all First Team orders. Really first rate products and customer service in my experience.)

[mruprem]

Originally Posted by InFlight

Are you attempting to restrain a shaft moving lengthwise rather than in rotation?

There are both bushing and linear bearings that are suitable for this type of usage. Standard rotational bearings will not work.

You might look at McMaster Carr to get an idea of what is available and how you might mount them, search for "linear bearings"

IGUS (First Sponsor) has the Drylin R line that's worth looking at. (They give a discount for all First Team orders. Really first rate products and customer service in my experience.)

I'm trying to use the bearing as a wheel.

[asid61]

Originally Posted by mruprem

I'm trying to use the bearing as a wheel.

If that's the case, why not just use a caster or something similar? It won't be driven anyway.
An igus bearing will work, though.

[wilful]

Perhaps shoulder bolts will help
http://www.mcmaster.com/#shoulder-bolts/=zxuxzw

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by wilful

Perhaps shoulder bolts will help
http://www.mcmaster.com/#shoulder-bolts/=zxuxzw

This, or, possibly, just a regular bolt. Sounds like you're in a pretty low-stress environment. The main thing I'd just point out is that bearings aren't designed to go over rough terrain, so you might want to avoid off-roading. A bolt and a bearing is probably fine (though a little sketchy) for light use.

[Chris is me]

I can't really tell from your descriptions and pictures, but are you trying to move something linearly along / inside an extrusion, like an elevator? In these cases, you'll need multiple bearings / bearing surfaces and can accomplish their mounting with two plates and a bolt going through both of them. It's a lot harder to do it inside of a tube compared to the bearings riding on the outside of a tube. Perhaps I'm not understanding you well.