Compressed air to clean bearings
Bob Alan
removable shield on both sides. It seemed to work well. No solvent or
water. Just hit the bearing with a nozzle'd 100 lb. of air.
Step 1 - Hit them laterally from both sides
(I've got a large piece of cardboard as a lub catching
backboard)
Step 2 - Run the air across the now dirt free bearings at an angle so they
spin.
(Provides additional cleaning & a test (if they don't spin
smoothly))
Not sure if there's a down side to this but it seems to work well. I heard
one comment from someone about the possibility of blowing out the bearings
Bob
in...@meatz.com
When I was in school for my A & P license, we used to take roller
bearings and spin them up with an air hose. The instructors used to
scream bloody murder, and with good reason...
You can overspeed a roller bearing, and with no load there is a danger
in the retainer failing...but hey, we're talking bearings for an
aircraft engine...608's are small enough that you would really have to
work at it to cause damage, besides it's for a roller skate.
Only disadvantages are a) possible bearing damage from overspeed b)
unless you have a very good water trap/condenser, you're going to be
spraying a lot of water into your bearing, so make sure they are dry and
lubed afterwards...
A little sideline, in my shop I've taken a fully assembled 80mm wheel
mounted on an axled and spun it up to very high speeds (guessing 25,000
+ rpm). Talk about a gyro effect! Then threw it up in the air
(rotating AWAY from me and the wheel bounced over my neighbors house
like it was shot from a gun!
Please don't try this yourself at home, you could get seriously hurt
doing this!!!
Jeff Ratliff
>I recently used compressed air to clean some old bearings that had a
>removable shield on both sides. It seemed to work well. No solvent or
>water. Just hit the bearing with a nozzle'd 100 lb. of air.
This pretty much goes along with the other reply, but wheel cleaning
and repacking wheel bearings for a car, I've always read to be extremely
careful with compressed air. Blasting air through a clean bearing without
lube can heat it up and cause damage. I imagine forcing a still dirty
bearing to turn at high speed could also cause some damage.
I must admit it sounds like a great quick way to clean bearings, and
might just be worth it if you don't mind buying new bearings a little more often.
Michael Byrne
took the delrin retainer out and gave them the air, gently,
and I should have been wearing a flak-jacket for the balls that went
everywhere once they heated up a little.
this happened with, probably 4 of the first 10 bearings I tried, then i just
threw away the rest... didn't want to hurt myself.
Bob Alan
Step 1 gets almost all the dirty lub out without spinning the bearings and I
do not remove the retainer.
Step 2 is just done for about 1 second. The bearings stay quite cold.
Even after you blow them out there is still a detectable layer of lub on the
surface. If you put water on them it would still bead. So it's not like
you're spinning a solvent cleaned, dry bearing.
I've also noticed that since it's easy and sort'a fun, I now relub my
bearings as soon as I notice any grit induced spin problems.
BTW: I had a bearing with a fixed shield on one side (SKF) loose it's
smooth spin. The compress air worked fine even with the 2nd shield in
place.
Bob
Bob Alan <bob...@netkonnect.net> wrote in message
news:r8jo3.1770$Sb5....@news2.usenetserver.com...
> I recently used compressed air to clean some old bearings that had a
> removable shield on both sides. It seemed to work well. No solvent or
> water. Just hit the bearing with a nozzle'd 100 lb. of air.
>
GM Reszel
way:
I soak the bearings in the solvent and flush them a couple times, so I'm still
doing the solvent thing which I think is essential. Then I take the compressor
with the air chuck and blow dry them and I think this also removes any remaining
particles. This method has worked very well for me. Actually the idea was
given to me by Norm Kirby and Jon Trevena,,,can't remember which one of them
told me they do this and it was with their Boss Swiss I believe.
Another thing they told me that makes sense. DO Not remove the ball retainer,
ever! This doesn't afford you significant extra cleaning access and in removing
the retainer you ruin that perfect factory seating. It makes sense to me. I
remember when I removed the retainer from my black holes and put them back, they
never were as smooth again, no matter how many times I tried to redo it.
Thanks Reszzzzz
moorea...@my-deja.com
always seem to get a couple bearing that would never run as smooth as
before. I think it's possible that the little "flaps" get bent/deformed
when trying to re-install them. Besides, it just adds major pain-in-the-
butt time to this already enjoyable disipline of skating.
Mark E.
> Another thing they told me that makes sense. DO Not remove the ball
retainer,
> ever! This doesn't afford you significant extra cleaning access and
in removing
> the retainer you ruin that perfect factory seating. It makes sense
to me. I
> remember when I removed the retainer from my black holes and put them
back, they
> never were as smooth again, no matter how many times I tried to redo
it.
> Thanks Reszzzzz
>
>
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
Bob Alan
This is not an argument just wondering when you said "solvent thing ... ...
is essential", what was you concern ?
One of the things I like about the compressed air is that it appears to get
the bearing rolling like new again without having to use solvent. It also
keeps a micro-layer of lub on the bearing so when the air spins them a bit
it's not dry metal on dry metal.
I've had some say not to let the air spin the bearings but I've noticed that
it often does get the last bit of grit out.
I guess you could be concerned about developing a varnish which could happen
if you changed the type of lube you used each time.
Bob
GM Reszel <grre...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:37AB3BE8...@mindspring.com...
GM Reszel
doo-doo,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Reszzzz