Installing a ball bearing

Jim Wilkins · 2015-05-28T23:50:25+00:00

I'm making a set of wheels to roll a Harbor Freight electric hoist on an overhead rail of 3" C channels. The wheels are nearly a copy of the ones on the HF 1 ton Trolley which I turned down to fit into the channel. I need two trolleys to suspend a log from both ends when I move it in or out of the storage shed, to avoid having to climb dangerously on the pile to operate one manual lever hoist in the center. Both the originals and mine use 6203 ball bearings, 40mm OD x 17mm ID x 12mm thick. On the HF trolley they are a fairly light press fit on the OD and slide loosely on the axle pin. For something that won't be used much is there a problem if a bearing fits loosely in the 40mm bore? This isn't the same as an old bearing seizing and spinning millions of times in an electric motor. A shoulder and a snap ring on the axle will keep the bearing nearly bottomed in its recess, if friction doesn't. The taper on the wheels and in the channel will force the wheel and bearing against the axle shoulder under load. My 1" - 2" inside bore mike resolves to only 0.001" and don't want to beat up on the bearings by trying to pound them out by the inner race if a trial fit is too tight. tia -jsw

May 28, 2015 22 Replies

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Larry Jaques 11 years ago

Dere's snap rings in dem puppies.

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Larry Jaques 11 years ago

OR, you could always cut them exact and groove for a snapring... (after drilling the bearing access holes :)

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Jim Wilkins 11 years ago

That was a learning experience!

Thanks to those who helped, especially Ned for this advice on measuring and Gunner for a simpler way to extract the bearings than I had planned on.

Three of the bearings press into the wheels with heavy thumb pressure, the fourth is loose by less than 0.001".

-jsw

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