One for the Bearing Guru's

Personally, I don't know anyone with an OD less than 46.5mm.

There are such critters, but I'm not sure about "off the shelf", nor about price. The ones I see go by are at one of my clients that does aerospace work; from them I know that you can basically get any ID/OD difference you want in a ball bearing, in ever-thinner rings. But the special ones _aren't_ off the shelf, the prices make me gasp, and I don't know the manufacturers.

Do you want me to collect supplier's names when I go in there this afternoon?

CLIP

Can't hurt I suppose. Maybe I'll find an answer with them or maybe I'll practice my gasping technique with you. :)

Thank you!

As I mentioned on one of your pervious bearing quests - plain bearings (bushings, or sleeve bearings if you prefer) do great with small size and high load - even better with pressure lubrication, if available.

Needle bearings 35 mm id 42mm od MSC catalog. Probably a little cheaper at a regular bearing house.

Dan

go to

You are looking for a "thin section bearing", and if you do a web search you'll get a lot of hits.

I had a mechanical engineer assure me this afternoon that _all_ thin section bearings are aerospace and muy expensivo, but then I got to thinking about his definition (OD to ID ratio less than 2:1) and the dimensions of all the spindle and rear axle bearings I've replaced in various cars, and I decided that in addition to being in his early 20's, he's young.

For aerospace-oriented bearings, look to New Hampshire Ball Bearing company and Kayeon. Boca bearings sells all sorts of bearings to non- technical users (they started out strictly selling bearings to folks rebuilding model airplane engines); they don't appear to have what you want on their web site but it may be worth your while to give them a call.

Let us know how it works out! I'm curious.

They are called "thin section" bearings, and a number of makers have separate catalogs of these. They are made just like standard ball bearings but with thinner races and smaller balls than you would see in general use. Thus the ratio of inner to outer radius can be a lot closer. I think any bearing distributor should have these catalogs.

Jon

Who the hell is timkin? I think you meant TimkEn.....

Jon

Yup a mis spelling. Got your jollies for the day.

Unfortunately, I have to slide the bearing over an obstruction that is around 35mm and then inside a space constraint around 47mm or greater... Thus the specific needs in this case.

I haven't checked out the thin section bearing offerings just yet... But I did check out the needle bearing choice given me...

Although it's workable, I'm seriously worried that the bearing itself is going to ruin a 500 shaft... And since I have 24 of these shafts to support... You can get the picture.

Thus my deisre for a bearing with inner and outer race. I'll let you know if I get a good look at the thin section bearings anytime soon for sure!

Thank you and all the others for the ideas.