"Joe AutoDrill" wrote in message
...

snip

But... Before we go down either the new and more robust head route or new
machine to drive the head route... I'm wondering if there are any bearing
experts out here who can tell me whether there are any specialty bearings
that take higher thrust numbers or even vibration better than a typical
ABEC 1 bearing. I was thinking ceramic, but I don't think they would take
vibration very well...

This is a little late but I just happened to be reading some older material
I had about ceramic bearings and I thought you'd be interested in this
comment: They're relatively free of fretting and galling because of their
strength, and they can take quite a load. But their stiffness concentrates
loads and their tensile strength can be exceeded locally when they slide
against each other, which can lead to spalling. Lubrication of some kind is
crucial, it says. I remember some running dry, but my memory is vague.

Anyway, you probably know that most of them consist of ceramic balls in
steel races, so the loads on the races still have to be considered.
All-ceramic bearings are *very* expensive.

Overall, it doesn't sound like a solution for you. The most common reason
for using ceramic bearings is their ability to handle high rpm, because
they're so light and the centrifugal loads are low. (For the nit-pickers, we
should rather say that the *centripetal* loads are low. g)

--
Ed Huntress