Blogs by Boca Bearings :: Ceramic Bearing Specialists

For Women's History Month Boca Bearings Honors Michele Baum's Legacy

Mar 01, 2022

Boca Bearings

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Michele was a natural entrepreneur. Sadly, Michele passed away in 2001, yet she left her mark and a lasting legacy. For Women’s History Monthwe honor her memory. Allen remarked “Michele did everything from picking orders, customer service, sales, and marketing. She worked with us side by side every day until the last year of her life.”

Millie Hart-Breaking Ground for Women in Motorsports

Oct 14, 2021

Boca Bearings

Allow us to introduce you to Millie Hart, a brilliant racer hailing from the UK. Millie tells us that her passion and destiny is to race!

Racing / Parade Mower III

Sep 01, 2021

James Laumeyer

Continuing with our racing mower project significant progress has been made in the month and a half since our last blog update.

Flow Hydro-Electric Energy Converter Completion

Aug 27, 2021

Boca Bearings

The initial set up of the project included a box leveled on top of the tank, in which a second bilge pump and tube entered and exited the box.

Matt Santora - Avid Fisherman

Aug 17, 2021

Boca Bearings

Matt Santora is an avid fisherman and owner of Finbomb, a fishing and diving apparel company. He holds 2 California State Records for fishing, and he truly loves all aspects of the sport, from reading signs of the birds overhead, to finding the boiling tuna, to choosing the best lure, to angling and cooking the fish.

Flow Hydro-Electric Energy Converter II

Aug 10, 2021

Tyler Gilley

At the shop today I started by redesigning the Turbine housing the water turbine will sit inside. The problem I encountered with my first design was that the turbine did not sit centered.

Joe Pirozzoli- RC Aerobatics- Arvada Associated

Jul 30, 2021

Boca Bearings

At Boca Bearings we believe all hobbies are great, especially RC Aerobatics. As a matter of fact one of our team members, Jonathan, has been flying RC planes for over 30 years! But not only does he fly RC planes, he also has a private pilot’s license for real planes! How cool is that?!

Gerardo Martinez - BMX Expert

Jul 29, 2021

Boca Bearings

Bikes and music go together like peanut butter and jelly! At least that’s what we believe here at Boca Bearings. Our friend Gerardo Martinez can wholeheartedly back us up on this since he is the General Manager for Nuclear Blast Records (Meshuggah, Testament, Slayer, Exodus, Rob Zombie) and a BMX fanatic!

Flow Hydro-Electric Energy Conversion System Project

Jul 28, 2021

Carmen Riggs

We recently changed directions from a waver energy conversion system to a Flow Hydro Conversion system due to some time constrains. However, the concept remains the same and the same materials will be used.

Humanoid Otto

Jul 21, 2021

Dylan Butera

Here is my first entry for the humanoid Otto. Previously, I put together and coded the standard Otto DIY robot. For this project, I will be putting together the Otto Humanoid robot. The humanoid version has arms, a touch sensor, a sound sensor, an LED matrix to show emotions, metal gear servos as opposed to plastic, and a Bluetooth module, all of which the standard Otto does not have. I have started by printing out the shell, and now I’m ready to start assembling the robot.

Racing / Parade Mower II

Jul 07, 2021

Marc Tobel

For our next project James and I decided to do something a bit more ambitious than the previous projects we have worked on.

Racing / Parade Mower I

Jul 05, 2021

James Laumeyer

The intern team at Boca bearings is always busy turning out new and creative ways to showcase our bearings, as such we are always looking for ways to build upon our past experiences and leverage those skills to new projects.

Recoding the push button on OTTO Robot

Jul 01, 2021

Tyler Gilley

Upon receiving this kit, I was informed that the OTTO robot did not work outside of its USB port connection. For example, the OTTO DIY Robot has a USB connection that gives it the ability to import code into an Arduino circuit Board, once properly connected to a computer or laptop.

New workshop set-up

Jun 28, 2021

James Laumeyer

Over the past few weeks, the team at Boca Bearings has been working on revamping the workshop in the warehouse as the space was proving to be difficult to work in due to an inefficient use of space that caused tools to get lost or straight up not have

Otto Kit Completed

Jun 25, 2021

Dylan Butera

Now that the robot is fully assembled I have been using the Otto Blockly program to code the Arduino. This robot is only capable of doing simple actions like walking or dancing using servos, making it a great starter project for me. The eyes are ultrasonic sensors(the part is the HC-sr04) which can be used to make the robot perform an action when something comes within a certain range of them. I have programmed Otto to do a dance once something comes within about 10 cm of his face. This can also be used to make Otto avoid obstacles while he is walking. This project has introduced me to robotics and programming, and I look forward to working with the more complex options offered by OttoDIY.

Otto Kit

Jun 23, 2021

Dylan Butera

For this project, I will be building and programming starting with the basic builder kit from Otto DIY. The goal is to program this robot and use the motion sensors

Trey Harpel- Thkustom

Jun 22, 2021

Boca Bearings

We value and support small businesses, thus we love to hear about their passion, commitment and innovative ways. Today we had a conversation with Trey Harpel, the owner of Thkustoms.

Wave Energy Converter 2

Jun 17, 2021

Tyler Gilley

This past week Carmen and I collaborated ideas on how the wave tank should be constructed. Carmen created a spreadsheet that compared and contrasted parts to be used in this project. At first we came up with the idea to use plexiglass, but we came to the conclusion that we are going to need steel bracing to

James Laumeyer: Our Intern of the Spring Semester 2021

Jun 04, 2021

Boca Bearings

The internship at Boca Bearings has many objectives from fostering an ecosystem of local talent to community involvement. However, one of the paramount objectives for our engineer interns is to explore new talents and hone in on preferred skills.

Wave Energy Converter

May 24, 2021

Carmen Riggs

The purpose of the wave energy converter project is to demonstrate the wide range of applications which wave energy can hold for the modern world and future energy projects

LED Programming

Apr 28, 2021

Carmen Riggs

When I joined the skeeball project, I was tasked with the complete development and design of the electronic components. I started with the understanding that there were 3 LED displays which needed to be controlled by a main power switch.

Instructables-Drift Bike

Apr 14, 2021

Marc Tobel

I’ve been wanting to build a drift trike for a while now as a personal project and finally got the chance at my internship with Boca Bearings.

Instructables-Pinball Machine

Apr 12, 2021

James Laumeyer

Congratulations, you have decided to make a Pinball machine based off the Boca Bearing Design! Now before you get into this project an important thing to note is that our machine has a material cost of about $7-800, pinball electronics are expensive.

3D Sets Model 7 Buggy Project

Apr 06, 2021

Michael Rudinsky

This project is a 3D printed model Volkswagen Beetle. The download from the 3D Sets website includes an easy to follow assembly guide and a list of all non-printed parts. This model requires about 3kg of filament, PLA is recommended

Teddy Celebrates 22 years with BB

Mar 30, 2021

Boca Bearings

Teddy Mullins one of Boca Bearings longest-term team member joined the company some 22 years ago! He heard about Boca Bearings through an agency. He was told the company was family-owned by some kind-hearted people.

Skee-Ball Machine

Feb 02, 2021

James Laumeyer

Keeping up with the arcade theme, my next project is a Skee-ball machine

PinBall Machine 2.0/8

Jan 13, 2021

James Laumeyer

These past couple weeks I all but finished up the pinball machine, completing the ball return system, tuning the launchers and finishing the wiring. This leaves the only things left being to install the legs and cover glass.

Drift Trike Part 5

Jan 06, 2021

Marc Tobel

Got the PVC sleeves on the rear tires but it took a lot more effort than I thought it would. In order to get them to slide on I had to grease up the tires and deflate them, cut the pvc to the correct width and begin sliding them over the rear tires of the trike

PinBall Machine 2.0/7

Dec 08, 2020

James Laumeyer

This week I have been working on getting the wiring taken care of and dealing with some of the problems in the design of the pinball machine. And while I can see the end in sight the last few problems are making it a slower finish that I would like.

PinBall Machine 2.0/6

Nov 16, 2020

James Laumeyer

The last couple weeks a lot of progress has been made on the pinball machine and the home stretch is very near. Notably in my last report I showed the wooden box was completely built. Since that update the box has been stained black and then lacquered to give it a nice shine.

PinBall Machine 2.0/5

Oct 27, 2020

James Laumeyer

Over the last couple weeks I have been working to meet the deadline of the end of October to have this thing finished and although I have made tons of progress I have hit some setbacks that will inevitably push the finish date closer to the end of November.

Drfit Trike Part 4

Oct 21, 2020

Marc Tobel

After sourcing the bike that I wanted for the front end of the trike, I began to cut the frame of the bike to fit onto the rear trike frame. I also wanted to remove most of the paint that was originally on the bike so I could weld supports in. Sanding off the paint also leaves room down the road to put a fresh coat of paint on it, which I plan on doing

PinBall Machine 2.0/4

Oct 06, 2020

James Laumeyer

This week I finished up the CAD designs for the entire machine, and while there are a couple of minor parts that I the gears are going to take about 32 hours to print all five of them so hopefully, they don’t fail mid-print

PinBall Machine 2.0/3

Sep 25, 2020

James Laumeyer

This week I worked on finishing up the play field designs. To finish off the play field I added the guides for the ball return system, designed the caps for the slingshots, laying out a twin tunnel obstacle to score points in, and designed a spinning pillar obstacle that uses a gear box and one motor to spin five pillars and fling the pinball all over the board.

PinBall Machine-2.0/2

Sep 16, 2020

James Laumeyer

This week I focussed on the ball return system and working out the layout of the new playfield. Additionally I stumbled across the reason the relays had been acting incorrectly, the last person to work on this project used 12v relays on a 36v system and while the current of a 12v 30amp system is the same as a 36v 10amp system there is an issue with the internal resistance of the two in the coil windings.

PinBall Machine -2.0/1

Sep 09, 2020

James Laumeyer

This was my first week taking over the pinball machine from where the previous intern left off. To start off I had to get my bearings about what the state of the machine is, what was wrong and what still needed to be done. Then, I had to assess how to fix the problems at hand and create the components that are still needed to make this a fun and functional machine.

Drift Trike Part 3

Sep 08, 2020

Marc Tobel

For the next step I wanted to make a battery mount so I could utilize the electric start feature this motor comes with. I began with a piece of steel plate and welded it to the frame, using scraps to create a boundary for the battery.

Drift Trike Part 2

Aug 31, 2020

Marc Tobel

After I got the engine plate mounted and welded to the frame I lined up the mounting holes and drilled accordingly to make sure the engine would sit where I wanted

Drift Trike

Aug 21, 2020

Marc Tobel

For my next project I decided to do something a bit more ambitious than an r/c car: a project that combines a lot of skills and something that I could really learn from. I decided to build a drift trike.

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