On 17 Oct 2005 16:46:00 -0700, "John Martin"
wrote:

I needed to remove some ball bearings from an old power brush I'm
rebuilding. The outer race was hidden by the shoulder on the plate
it's mounted in, so I couldn't drift it out. I broke out the inner
race and tried grinding a notch in the outer race with a Foredom-type
grinder and a pink stone, which was taking forever.

I had some solid carbide end mills, so I mounted the plate in the mill
and used the mills to cut into the race. Pretty quickly found that,
even though the mill is fairly heavy, I had to lock the table down.
It's not really a great way to do it, though. The mill is a
horizontal, which means I'm working on the backside of the piece. And
I broke two endmills. Finally got through the race, but nicked the
housing a bit.

There must be a better way. Have been considering picking up some
carbide burrs for the grinder. Will these cut through hardened races
quickly? Any better choice of grinding points?


In this situation the best method is to weld a bead on the inside of
the race. I prefer 7018 stick for this but any welding process will
work. The main key is to get the race red hot fast and let it cool.
Once cool it will fall out of the bore. Larger bearings will require
more than one pass.


Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook/index.htm