It was time to inspect and repack the bearings on my trailer.
Neighbor Con pulled the bearings and handed them to me to clean while
he cleaned out the hub.

I cleaned the bearings in mineral spirits. Dunk once, slosh around,
blow out, dunk again, slosh around some more, blow out again. I
can't resist revving up a clean bearing a little with the air nozzle
just to confirm that all of the old grease is cleaned out.
Z-z-z-z-zing-g-g-g-g-g-g. Yup, it's clean! Packed the bearing with
my little greasegun bearing packer loaded with high-temp Moly-D.

I know you're not supposed to zing bearings like that, but I can't
resist zinging them just a little.

Reassembly of that wheel was uneventful.

Pulled other wheel. Outer bearing into the can, slosh slosh blow
blow, back into can, slosh slosh blow blow, z-z-z-z-in.......hey,
what happened to the "g-g-g-g-g-g"? I saw the roller cage rolling
across the trailer bed, sans rollers. Uh-oh! No rollers anywhere in
sight -- oops, there's one over yonder! Con was laughing his head
off at the expression on my face. The danged roller cage on this
Timken bearing was made of plastic. I'd never seen that before and
it didn't occur to me that a plastic roller cage might not hold the
rollers as securely as a metal one does. It didn't break, probably
just expanded a little and, it being tapered, the rollers were then
free to take flight which they certainly did!

New Bower (made in USA) bearing was $5.60. The new one had a metal
roller cage. I didn't zing it before packing it with grease....

A certain amount of spinning is required to make sure a bearing's clean, but I
try to avoid really turning them up. A guy up the street lost an eye when a
ball bearing exploded.

GTO(John)


It was time to inspect and repack the bearings on my trailer.
Neighbor Con pulled the bearings and handed them to me to clean while
he cleaned out the hub.

I cleaned the bearings in mineral spirits. Dunk once, slosh around,
blow out, dunk again, slosh around some more, blow out again. I
can't resist revving up a clean bearing a little with the air nozzle
just to confirm that all of the old grease is cleaned out.
Z-z-z-z-zing-g-g-g-g-g-g. Yup, it's clean! Packed the bearing with
my little greasegun bearing packer loaded with high-temp Moly-D.

I know you're not supposed to zing bearings like that, but I can't
resist zinging them just a little.

Reassembly of that wheel was uneventful.

Pulled other wheel. Outer bearing into the can, slosh slosh blow
blow, back into can, slosh slosh blow blow, z-z-z-z-in.......hey,
what happened to the "g-g-g-g-g-g"? I saw the roller cage rolling
across the trailer bed, sans rollers. Uh-oh! No rollers anywhere in
sight -- oops, there's one over yonder! Con was laughing his head
off at the expression on my face. The danged roller cage on this
Timken bearing was made of plastic. I'd never seen that before and
it didn't occur to me that a plastic roller cage might not hold the
rollers as securely as a metal one does. It didn't break, probably
just expanded a little and, it being tapered, the rollers were then
free to take flight which they certainly did!

New Bower (made in USA) bearing was $5.60. The new one had a metal
roller cage. I didn't zing it before packing it with grease....

I did that once with a tapered wheel bearing when I worked as a
mechanic's helper. Outer race with rollers intact lifted straight up
flew about 3 feet, hit floor sparks flying and fell into a shallow floor
drain about 20 feet away.
It's still kinda fun to do with old bearings never considered it
dangerous but it sure could be. Guess I've been lucky

"1 eye'ed bearing zingers & the women who love them" next on geraldo

When I worked gas turbine engines n the USAF they were pretty darn
fussy on how a bearing was handled. Bearings were routinely inspected
and cleaned and reused, and it was common practice to insert a small
nylon tie through the bearings balls or rollers to keep it from
spinning. Last step was removing the nylon tie, and clean up that
area, and then place bearngs n a ultrasonic cleaner. Just manual
rotation of the bearing was permissable.

Old bearings were another story and many a bearing went off in a
shower of sparks accross shop floors with a boost from a air hose.
--
Visit my website:
http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Contents: foundry and general metal working and lots of related projects.
Regards
Roy aka Chipmaker // Foxeye
Opinions are strictly those of my wife....I have had no input whatsoever.
Remove capital A from chipmAkr for correct email address

I saw a fella Zing a bearing years ago. I can guarantee that was the
last one he ever did that way. The outer race let go and we all heard
a clang as part of the race went thru the shop ceiling ! We were
all lucky that no one was hurt. The shrapnel is like a speeding bullet
and can KILL YOU !

I routinely blow out bearings with 175 PSI air. I hold the outer race
and blow the air thru in the direction that the axle goes. Get them
clean and dry that way. The race doesn't move, either.

If you want to Zing a bearing, hold the outer race and direct the air
at the balls and let the inner race go to town. If it starts to expand
(break apart), the friction will immediately stop it and you will have
lost nothing except a bearing, without endangering anyone.

Roger


On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 13:48:11 GMT, Roy Hauer
wrote:

When I worked gas turbine engines n the USAF they were pretty darn
fussy on how a bearing was handled. Bearings were routinely inspected
and cleaned and reused, and it was common practice to insert a small
nylon tie through the bearings balls or rollers to keep it from
spinning. Last step was removing the nylon tie, and clean up that
area, and then place bearngs n a ultrasonic cleaner. Just manual
rotation of the bearing was permissable.

Old bearings were another story and many a bearing went off in a
shower of sparks accross shop floors with a boost from a air hose.

"Don Young" wrote in message
...
It's pretty interesting if you have the bearing wedged tight on your
finger
and really revving up when it siezes!

Yikes! So tell me, which is better, to have it grenade while on your
finger, or sieze?

Tim

--
In the immortal words of Ned Flanders: "No foot longs!"
Website @ http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms

or timing chain sprockets.....

The smaller of the two timing chain sprockets for american V-8's are more
fun and less dangerous. I used to put one on a piece of pipe or very large
screw driver. Rev it up as fast as it would go with the air and then ease
the end of pipe down so the sprocket would slip off onto the pavement. It
would sit there and spin for a fraction of a second before it got some
traction and then go like hell across the parking lot. You've just got to be
sure of nothing in the way for it to smash into. If it still had enough
energy when it did hit something it would take off into another unknown
direction.

Lane



"Roger" wrote in message
...
I saw a fella Zing a bearing years ago. I can guarantee that was the
last one he ever did that way. The outer race let go and we all heard
a clang as part of the race went thru the shop ceiling ! We were
all lucky that no one was hurt. The shrapnel is like a speeding bullet
and can KILL YOU !

I routinely blow out bearings with 175 PSI air. I hold the outer race
and blow the air thru in the direction that the axle goes. Get them
clean and dry that way. The race doesn't move, either.

If you want to Zing a bearing, hold the outer race and direct the air
at the balls and let the inner race go to town. If it starts to expand
(break apart), the friction will immediately stop it and you will have
lost nothing except a bearing, without endangering anyone.

Roger


On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 13:48:11 GMT, Roy Hauer
wrote:

When I worked gas turbine engines n the USAF they were pretty darn
fussy on how a bearing was handled. Bearings were routinely inspected
and cleaned and reused, and it was common practice to insert a small
nylon tie through the bearings balls or rollers to keep it from
spinning. Last step was removing the nylon tie, and clean up that
area, and then place bearngs n a ultrasonic cleaner. Just manual
rotation of the bearing was permissable.

Old bearings were another story and many a bearing went off in a
shower of sparks accross shop floors with a boost from a air hose.

It's pretty interesting if you have the bearing wedged tight on your
finger
and really revving up when it siezes!

Yikes! So tell me, which is better, to have it grenade while on your
finger, or sieze?

Tim

Helluva a choice, but I think, having done neither, that I'd go with the
grenade thing, based solely on the fact that if it goes BOOM, the shrapnel
goes OUT away from my fingers. rather than twist the finger off.

But I've been wrong once or twice before...

Mike