Ball bearing with a hole

Anyone here ever managed to drill and tap a hole in a ball bearing.

Gavin

Reply to
GLM590620
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"GLM590620" schrieb:

Get a Tungsten-Carbide-Drill (for FR4 PCBs) and a Drillpress with MUTCH RPMs...

No problem. ;-)

Michael.

Reply to
Michael Buchholz

What about the *tap* bit?

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

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Reply to
John Stevenson

"John Stevenson" schrieb:

Maybe slowly rotating the bearing? ;-)

No, sorry, did't read that...

A quick&dirty thought: if he gets some diamond-clad cutting disk for Dremel and alike, he can grind the TC-Bit to fit for the tap?

just my 2ct, Michael.

(sorry,I'm German, I did't read the 'tap' first time 'cause I thought=20 it meant 'not through-Hole' 'Sacklock' in german, after some = translation I now know what it means. (I hope so... a hole witch is conical))

Reply to
Michael Buchholz

Well, if his balls big enough the thread could be internally ground

Ian Phillips

Reply to
Ian Phillips

No, traditionally, its only the hat of a witch which is conical. (not the whole witch)

Ian

Maybe slowly rotating the bearing? ;-)

No, sorry, did't read that...

A quick&dirty thought: if he gets some diamond-clad cutting disk for Dremel and alike, he can grind the TC-Bit to fit for the tap?

just my 2ct, Michael.

(sorry,I'm German, I did't read the 'tap' first time 'cause I thought it meant 'not through-Hole' 'Sacklock' in german, after some translation I now know what it means. (I hope so... a hole witch is conical))

Reply to
Ian Phillips

"Ian Phillips" schrieb:

Oh,_now_ I see...

Tap hole =3D Threaded hole?

Thats a Problem.

No Idea...

Michael.

Reply to
Michael Buchholz

"Ian Phillips" schrieb:

Spelling war, anyone?

;-)

Michael.

(My wife is a teacher for geman and english... I shouldn't made that = mistake ;-)

Reply to
Michael Buchholz

"Michael Buchholz" schrieb:

shouldn't HAVE made...

Michael.

Reply to
Michael Buchholz

But what are you going to use to tap it with ?

I once tried to hacksaw a ballrace without success.

Alla

-- Allan Waterfal

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Reply to
Allan Waterfall

Do you mean the ball bearing or a ball race? You could probably anneal a ball and then do it.

Alla

-- Allan Waterfal

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Reply to
Allan Waterfall

Mistakes are allowed, its wars were not keen on!

What about 'teacher OF' (and even German)

Ian

"Michael Buchholz" schrieb:

shouldn't HAVE made...

Michael.

Reply to
Ian Phillips

You mean if his balls *are* big enough... ;-)

Regards, Tony

Reply to
Tony Jeffree

'I' know what I meant.

Ian

Reply to
Ian Phillips

I've never had reason to try it, but I'm sure that in a selection of "workshop hints" that I once downloaded from the internet it explained how to do this. The reason was to drill & tap ball bearings to make ball handles from. The method was to normalize the ball bearings (heat to dull red and cool slowly) so that they would be soft enough to machine.

Regards

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Steele

The message from snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (GLM590620) contains these words:

I have certainly drilled one, after it was softened, to make a centre finder. I can't remember if I tapped it or if I just glued in the pointer, but it is still there and is a handy little tool.

Reply to
William J Lamond

ISTR that there was an article about this on the CHeapy web site

Reply to
Airy R.Bean

Drilling the hole is not too bad but,as John says it's tapping that's the problem. At first sight annealing the ball followed by drilling and tapping looks straightforward. The snag is that the steel used seems to be pretty close to air hardening and unless it is soaked long enough at annealing heat and followed by prolonged slow cooling it's still hard enough to ruin a tap.

I've annealed a few balls for use in ball joints for dial indicator mounts. The balls have to be protected otherwise the prolonged heating and cooling builds up so much scale that the surface finish is ruined. I put half a dozen balls inside a piece thick walled steel tubing. The free space is filled with cast iron borings and the tubing sealed with taper steel plugs driven in from each end. I'm lucky enough to have a small muffle for the prolonged heating and slow cooling but a hot coal fire which is then allowed to slowly die down should be OK.

The balls come out of this process with a very thin black oxide film which is easily polished off.

I drilled and tapped a few balls 2BA but it's not easy and after thinking about the low stresses I settled for a drilled hole and locktite for later ones.

Jim

Reply to
pentagrid

Would removing all the oxygen not achieve the same thing? Either an evacuated chamber or perhaps one full of an inert gas like Argon?

Reply to
Mike

"Ian Phillips" schrieb:

Oh,_now_ I see...

Tap hole = Threaded hole?

Thats a Problem.

No Idea...

An M8 thread would only take 10mins on a CNC EDM or about 40mins on an old manual EDM with side servo attachment.

Reply to
John Woodison

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