How to find a ball bearing.

[jlblohm]

It all starts at the scrap yard. You can see the bearing in the lower left corner of this picture.

Lock it in the vise so the 2 openings are facing you. You will see what i mean in the next couple pictures.

Place a bar in the hole the bar must be slightly smaller than the hole if its too small you cant get the leverage you need.

Pry down until the bearing starts to turn and then put the bar in the backside and pry up.

And the bearing should spin almost 90°

Im fighting for service with 75,000 hippies at a festival about 5 miles from me. I have more pictures to upload but im going to post this for now before i lose half if it again.

[jlblohm]

Once it is spun it should pop out 

Lock it in the vice and cut the outer race 180° from each other

give it a love tap with a hammer 52100 steel is very hard and should break.

This white grease is food grade grease so it came from a food processing plant.

 

 

Back to fighting for service again. It has taken almost an hour to get this last batch of images to upload.

[Anachronist58]

That is a lot of hippies.......

[ThomasPowers]

I'd bet they were not real hippies; my kids have no idea about how the 60's and early 70's and the various movements therein were really like. (When was the last time you heard Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Ohio" played?)

[Steve Sells]

2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

When was the last time you heard Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Ohio" played?

last week, but I listen to a rock oldies station... for those that are clueless.

 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Originally Crosby, Stills, & Nash... they added Young because he had a car.

[ThomasPowers]

(Yes but we are old fogies....)

[Frosty]

Here's one the kids usually don't know the what and why of. There weren't many radio stations that'd play Simon and Garfunkel in the early '60s. We played the LPs in the garage because our folks thought they were evil. I think I'm going to put my headphones on. My comp has Harman Kardon speakers but my sound canceling ear muffs produce studio quality sound.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[ThomasPowers]

It was a different time.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Sometimes seems like a different place as well.

[notownkid]

Irondragon you and Thomas are right it was a different time and place beginning to think we are on a different planet today.  All this took place while I was employed by Uncle Sam Wearing green uniforms 24/7 like 90% of others my age. Enjoy the music more today than then. 

[swedgemon]

Getting back to the original topic of finding bearing steel, check with industrial machine shops.  An example might be Atlas Machine, Louisville, KY.  They do heavy-duty bearing replacement for the cement plant just down Dixie Highway...replacing bearings on a Fuller-Kenyon cement pump produces about 12 2" balls in 52100 steel, each bearing.  Going thru the front office might be a bit intimidating, but establishing a good relationship with a few of the folks out back is where you need to be.  I was not interested in the races; only the rolling elements...the large brass bearing cages were a high-value scrap and were usually already contracted out or pirated by someone within the plants.

Another possibility are the shops that do work for paper machines...dryer bearings run about 14"-16" diameter and press bearings get HUGE at about 36"-42" diameter (double-row spherical roller bearings).  Steel mills and aluminum rolling operations also have LARGE bearings.  All of these operations fight unscheduled downtime ( $40,000 per hour production on a typical paper machine making copy paper ), so changing out a perfectly good bearing is a minor operating/maintenance expense.

Be advised, however, a knife blade in 52100 is NOT stainless and will rust/become pitted if ignored...good luck !!!

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Also note that large bearings are not always 52100 either. Some are case hardened lower grades due to cost. I was at a King Bearing years ago getting some bearings for a project and we got to talking. They listed a 72" bearing, and he checked for stock - yep, they had one. There was also a note that they rebuilt those bearings.

[Frosty]

Back on point, any of you guys in the Mat Su valley, Anchorage area or the Kenai Peninusla, next time you're in Anch,  Bearing Engineering and another distributor on Anch. Airport Rd. carries bearing balls by the Lb.

No need for big ones, 3/8" and 1/2" are easy to carry in your pocket and work just fine, better in fact than BIG ones  though they do hide under things better if they take an odd bounce.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

The best way to find them when that happens is to keep your eye on the ball.