Blogs by Boca Bearings :: Ceramic Bearing Specialists

Workshop Weekly Update 19: Maker Faire Preparation

Nov 01, 2018

John Praleston

We are preparing for the upcoming Maker Faire and have multiple projects to finish up. I am making a new gear for the gear puzzle machine. Sketched in Solidworks and...

Lew's Speed Spool Upgraded with Boca Bearings

Oct 17, 2018

Ben Flaum

This video shows how to upgrade the bearings in a Lew's Speed Spool Fishing Reel.

Project Rocket League - Part 1

Oct 10, 2018

John Praleston

Last year at Maker Faire we brought an arcade motorcycle that controlled a remote-controlled car. This car would be viewed from a virtual reality headset that streamed from a mounted camera.

RC Boat Project: Update 9

Oct 05, 2018

Ryan Kwaterski

The initial water test with Kilo was in a pool and went well, but not as well as I had hoped. The turning radius was fine and it didn’t take on any water, but...

RC Boat Project: Update 8

Oct 03, 2018

Ryan Kwaterski

This week the electrical components were installed in Kilo. The servo and electric motor mounts were glued into place using BSI Maxi-Cure and BSI Insta-Set as seen in...

Power Wheels Racer 2.0: Update 4

Sep 26, 2018

Ryan Kwaterski

PVC was used because it is not only cost effective but lightweight and durable. After the PVC was cut to size it was assemble into...

Autonomous Submarine Project: Part 5

Sep 19, 2018

Michael Denny

After a lot of trial and error and testing I can conclude that trying to make the sub water tight while producing the same power and rpm of a human is very difficult. The rotary seal has a lot of...

The cleats, gas cap and other accessories were glued on using DAP Rapid Fuse all-purpose adhesive as seen in figures 1 and 2. A tiny dot was used for each piece in order to avoid any discoloration in the paint.

Autonomous Submarine Project: Part 4

Sep 10, 2018

Michael Denny

More bench testing was done, I found out that the motor needs to be mounted perfectly straight to be strong enough to turn the shaft. So now...

How to prepare for an F1 in Schools Competition with Team Divignite

Sep 05, 2018

Amanda Chan

It's one month until the 2018 F1 in Schools (F1iS) Nationals and Team Divignite is all set for the competition! Today's update will outline what we have accomplished thus far.

Autonomous Submarine Project: Part 3

Sep 03, 2018

Michael Denny

This week I completed the electrical and software part of the sub. Unfortunately, while trying to test all the wiring together one of the motors shorted out and broke. The motor was not powerful enough to turn the shafts...

3D Printed Ford Flathead V8 Engine Working Model

Aug 31, 2018

Bryan Carter

The Ford Flathead V8 Engine model took a bit over 200 hours of total print time. A kit is available for about 95 dollars, and contains all the hardware you need to build the engine.

Autonomous Submarine Project: Part 2

Aug 29, 2018

Michael Denny

The original plan was the use the L298N Dual Motor Controller to control the motors for the rudders and dive planes, and a mosfet, diode, and...

RC Boat Project: Update 6

Aug 27, 2018

Ryan Kwaterski

This past Monday kicked off a busy week of painting the RC boat (now named kilo due to the fact that its net weight is 2.2 lbs.). I decided to go with...

Autonomous Submarine Project: Part 1

Aug 15, 2018

Michael Denny

For the autonomous sub I got the other u-bracket and the fins assembled. The dive plane fins are removable and have a 3 mm bolt through the fins and...

Power Wheels Racer 2.0: Update 3

Aug 13, 2018

Andrew Barbosa

For the mechanical side of the power wheels project, the brake was bent a little more to have the handle in a more convenient location. A rubber grip was also...

RC Boat Project: Update 5

Aug 10, 2018

Ryan Kwaterski

The electric motor mount along with a battery mount were 3D-printed using PLA as seen in figure 1. Epoxy will be used to glue the...

Workshop Weekly Update 18: Submarine Hull

Aug 08, 2018

Michael Denny

For my little autonomous submarine, I assembled the second half of the hull and made ribs from to help keep it together. I also cut out slits in the...

RC Boat Project: Update 4

Aug 06, 2018

Ryan Kwaterski

More sanding and resurfacing was done this past week. More 3M Acryl-green putty was used to spot treat any last remaining rough patches.

Workshop Weekly Update 17: Power Wheels Racer Steering

Aug 02, 2018

Ryan Kwaterski

This week the team put in a new steering column and handlebars. The handlebars were assembled from...

RC Boat Project: Update 3

Jul 31, 2018

Ryan Kwaterski

This week was a busy week of resurfacing the vessel. Using XTC-3D as seen in figure 1 the bottom of the hull was resurfaced.

Boca Bearings Workshop Weekly Update 16

Jul 27, 2018

Michael Denny

The stock for all the shafts, the O-rings, the tube for the pressure vessels, and the universal joints. After cutting...

RC Boat Project: Update 2

Jul 23, 2018

Ryan Kwaterski

The PLA hull was sanded down starting with a heavier P150 grit sandpaper. After that I switched to P220 and finally P320 to get the hull as smooth as possible.

Pi Zero Drone Part 9: Calibrating ESC Manually

Jul 19, 2018

Luke Ridley

Each of the ESCs (Electronic Speed Controllers) on the quadcopter has to be calibrated to the RC transmitter signal so that...

Boca Bearings Workshop Weekly Update 15

Jul 17, 2018

Michael Denny

The first half of the hull was printed and glued together with hub. More components were ordered so...

Pi Zero Drone Part 8: On board Instrument Calibration

Jul 12, 2018

Luke Ridley

From the on screen response to tuning PID controllers, APM Planner 2.0 software can give a newbie quad user (myself) a deep understanding of what it takes to control this quadcopter.

Power Wheels Racer 2.0: Update 2

Jul 10, 2018

Andrew Barbosa

This week in the workshop we focused on the electronics for the electric kart. After spending over a week trying to diagnose...

Boca Bearings Workshop Weekly Update 14

Jul 06, 2018

Michael Denny

Some final adjustments were made to the hull of the sub. Using Solid works the hull was thickened for strength and and holes were added for...

RC Boat Project: Update 1

Jul 04, 2018

Ryan Kwaterski

This week the hull design for the 1940’s inspired Chris Craft was finalized. The 3D model was then...

Power Wheels Racer 2.0: Update 1

Jul 02, 2018

Andrew Barbosa

Over the past several months us here at The Workshop have been designing and fabricating the next generation of go-kart for our entry into this year’s Power Racing Series event at the Orlando Maker Faire.

Electric Skateboard Project Update 2

Jun 29, 2018

Andrew Barbosa

Quick update to the skateboard! In an effort to diagnose issues with another project, I needed to salvage some known working parts, and that turned into...

Boca Bearings Workshop Weekly Update 13

Jun 27, 2018

Michael Denny

This week I worked on the 3D model for my personal project. The pressure vessel at the center of the design is based from the dimensions of...

RC Boat Introduction

Jun 25, 2018

Ryan Kwaterski

This boat will be designed as a semi-displacement hull which will allow it to operate more smoothly at slower speeds.

Autonomous Submarine Introduction

Jun 22, 2018

Michael Denny

The objective of this project is to fabricate and test an autonomous scale model of the FAU human powered submarine.

Power Wheels Racer Part 15: Post-Race Update

Jun 20, 2018

Luke Ridley

Although our car had some speed we actually were not able to finish the race due to burning our speed controller. Basically what happened was...

Power Wheels Racer Part 14: Updates Before Maker Faire

Jun 18, 2018

Luke Ridley

So as I talked about in the last post there are a few things that needed to be done to the car before it is ready to race up in Orlando. We read over the power wheels racing rules and found some things that we needed to comply with. First thing was...

Penn US 113W Fishing Reel Upgraded with Boca Bearings

Jun 15, 2018

Ben Flaum

This video shows how to upgrade the bearings in a Penn US 113W Fishing Reel.

Power Wheels Racer: Part 13

Jun 13, 2018

Luke Ridley

So we are nearing race time for the power wheels racer and trying to get it race ready so that we can get a driver some practice time around the shop before we race it next week.

Pi Zero Drone Post 7: Modular Body

Jun 11, 2018

Luke Ridley

To the reader who has a smaller print bed and wishes to print this part I have designed a modular frame that will hold all the same components as before. Each print...

Nano Blade QX2 Repairs

Jun 07, 2018

Luke Ridley

We have two of the Nano Blade QX2 drones at the Boca Bearing Workshop and I have to say they are a really great option for someone who wants to get into FPV flying/racing.

Pi Zero Drone 6: After First Flight and Mods

Jun 05, 2018

Luke Ridley

After the failed test, instant modifications to the design must be made. The most importantly was to protect the hardware so that no more time and money is lost waiting for parts.

Pi Zero Drone Part 5: Testing...

May 31, 2018

Michael Perry

After this test the PXFmini GIPO pin connection sheared from the PCB board and became useless. But from the video evidence I suspect that...

Fitbit Cheat-O-Matic 2: 3D Printed Mechanical Simplicity (Intro)

May 29, 2018

Andy

I've been getting more into 3D printing, lately. One of the many things I felt could benefit from 3D printing technology was the...

Power Wheels Racer Part 12: Updates and fixes

May 25, 2018

Luke Ridley

After the old brake handle broke off and the weld attaching the steering column came undone, we had to makes some updates to the car. First we decided to...

Pi Zero Drone Part 4: Calibrations

May 23, 2018

Michael Perry

I would like to thank Ohms Law for convincing me that overloading the Pi Zero with too much voltage will indeed fry the voltage regulator. This will cause the PCB to...

SECME Mouse Trap Car Racing

May 21, 2018

Kurtis Rodriques

Our SECME mousetrap car team was at a roadblock with our car. We had used 3D printing to make the chassis of the car but the axles...

Virtual Reality R/C Car: Part 5

May 18, 2018

Luke Ridley

There are a couple of parts of this project that I am currently trying to tie together but am not quite there yet on each of them. The three things that I have been working on are...

The Pi Zero Drone Part 3: Connecting the PXFmini

May 16, 2018

Luke Ridley

To connect using a RC transceiver, the 9th pin is PPM enabled, that is Pulse Position Modulation. This allows multiple PWM signals to be used using one input.

Virtual Reality R/C Car: Part 4 Adding The Head Tracker

May 14, 2018

Luke Ridley

After some testing, we realized that only looking forward is very limiting. Almost everyone who drove the car was tilting their head one way or another in order to try and look around. After doing a little more research...

Racing Power Wheels Part 11: Fixing the Caster for Stable Steering

May 11, 2018

Gerardo Ramos

So the next thing to work on was fixing the instability of the steering at high speeds. After doing some online research on steering geometry, I found that...

The Pi Zero Drone Part 2: Construction of the Frame

May 09, 2018

Michael Perry

With the correct thrust calculations from the Gartt 2300KV motors being done. I can now begin the design of the quadcopter. I would like to include...

Virtual Reality R/C Car Part 3

May 04, 2018

Luke Ridley

So the next step on this project is really what sets this project apart from your typical R/C build. In order to make the driver feel like they are actually driving the car we...

3D Printed Camaro LS3 V8 Engine

May 02, 2018

Bryan Carter

The printing of the engine block was the biggest print we’d ever attempted, by far. At 20 percent infill it took just over 79 hours to complete...

Iron Man Helmet Project - Part 1

Apr 30, 2018

Andrew Barbosa

In celebration of Marvel’s third Avengers movie I decided it would be a great time to make something from one of my favorite characters in the MCU, Iron Man. I started out by...

F1 in Schools - Bearing and Wheel Design

Apr 27, 2018

Cory Oliver

Nam Phong Racing is an F1 in Schools 2018 World Finalist, representing Vietnam and the British International School Ho Chi Minh City. Their wheels depend heavily on the functionality of bearings...

Virtual Reality R/C Car Part 2

Apr 25, 2018

Luke Ridley

Now that I know the values that each of the potentiometers on the bike output, the next step is to transmit the values over a radio. The Arduino compatible Radio Frequency chips that I chose to use were...

Virtual Reality R/C Car Part 1

Apr 23, 2018

Luke Ridley

Over at the Boca Bearings Workshop we recently were able to obtain a handful of abandoned arcade games. Once all of them arrived at the shop...

Racing Power Wheels Part 10: New Hydraulic Brake System

Apr 20, 2018

Gerardo Ramos

The first braking system on the Power Wheels Dune Racer wasn't working really well in stopping the car. So we ordered a new hydraulic braking system that was shown in the last blog post.

The Pi Zero Drone Part 1: Introduction

Apr 18, 2018

Michael Perry

The multirotor copters or ‘multicopter’ is a highly popular recreational hobby but are also being implemented into professional use in cinematography and even surveying landscapes that may be hard to access by foot.

Racing Power Wheels Part 9: Demonstration, Test Run, and Steering Problems

Apr 16, 2018

Gerardo Ramos

Before actually test running the Power Wheels, the hand throttle malfunctioned. It wouldn't let the motor come to rest. It was stuck at some minimum throttle input that kept the motor running constantly when...

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