New bearings for my Wilton....shot in 10 minutes

G

godogs57

Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
727
I posted about two weeks ago regarding the bearings on my flat platen being shot after about 13 or so years...folks on here were kind enough to talk me through the replacement process, etc...

I bought three new bearings and after a little bit of this and that, got 'em in, and was on my way with a once again quiet machine.

Ten minutes into some flat grinding the noise was back, and my 1 1/2" contact wheel was hot as fire to the touch. I noticed that the bearings never ran free from the moment I took them out of the box...they were smooth and quiet, but did not spin easily....made me wonder a bit.....

This has turned out to be the high point of this week already, as I found out that some jerk in California has my credit card #, and the bank lost last month's house payment in the mail....and I thought last week was bad (mother in law visited all week)...damn...
 
sounds like the bearings are the least of your problems . You have dry bearings . I may get some flack from some for what I am going to suggest but what the heck , it has worked great on my guns . Get some moly hi-temp disc brake grease ( it is black ) , take a tablespoon of it and mix in a pinch of fine graphite powder , mix that up and work it into the bearings real well . The moly penetrates the steel , the grease is high temp and the graphite smooths everything out . I have had gun shop owners ask who did my trigger work using this mixture . Let the shots at me begin .
 
ONeill said:
sounds like the bearings are the least of your problems . You have dry bearings . I may get some flack from some for what I am going to suggest but what the heck , it has worked great on my guns . Get some moly hi-temp disc brake grease ( it is black ) , take a tablespoon of it and mix in a pinch of fine graphite powder , mix that up and work it into the bearings real well . The moly penetrates the steel , the grease is high temp and the graphite smooths everything out . I have had gun shop owners ask who did my trigger work using this mixture . Let the shots at me begin .
Click to expand...

What the heck are you doing using a really good lube like that on yer guns, huh?

There you are, shots fired.
 
Just because a lube works well in a low speed application, doesn't mean it is what you want for a high speed application. Many high speed spindles have been wrecked by a well intentioned person applying thick way oil, where proper spindle oil is very thin. Moly grease is probably fine, though this is not an extreme pressure application. Adding graphite to it, in a bearing, doesn't sound like a great idea to me.

The lubricating properties of an oil is not related to its viscosity.

Just my .02.




Did you happen to see any specifications for your bearings RPM rating? I seem to remember you saying the old bearings had steel shields, and the new ones have rubber seals. I have never seen a high speed bearing with rubber seals.

2000 SFM (medium slow) on a grinder works out to about 5100 RPM on a 1 1/2" wheel. That is turning pretty fast.
 
Question:
#1 -Were the bearings pre-lubricated?
#2 - Did you lube them?
#3 - Was the bolt overtightened, and thus put a bind on the bearings?
#4 - Were the new bearings exactly the same in every way?
#5 - Were they Wilton factory replacements, or just the same size?
#5 - Did you re-install all washers and spacers?

Start with these, and if all are OK, then it may be a bad bearing. Call the supplier, if 1-5 don't seem to be the problem.
Stacy
 
GODOGS ide go fishing or hunting just to catch or kill something. The bearings sound like they were no good from the start take um back and start over.
 
hellgap said:
GODOGS ide go fishing or hunting just to catch or kill something. The bearings sound like they were no good from the start take um back and start over.
Click to expand...

The bearings weren't bad. The chance that you received bad bearings is just about zero, unless you bought extremely cheap bearings from a shlock house. Major bearing manufacturers rarely make a bad bearing. You should get bearings from one of the following bearing distributors: Applied Industrial Techologies and Motion Industries, both of which have branches in Albany, GA.

It sounds like you switched to seals, when the originals were shielded. The advice about not switching to lip sealed bearings was very good advice. Seals generate a lot of heat, especially in high speed applications. Shields generate very little heat, thus can handle higher speeds. If you get a bearing running too hot, the grease thins out, leading to metal to metal contact of the races and rollers, and it also leads to an expansion of the metal within the bearing, making it even tighter than it started out. This just makes it run even hotter, and then it burns up. Bearings with seals don't spin very freely out of the box, because of seal drag, so this is normal!!

Was the bearing part number exactly what the old bearings were? Bearings come with different amounts of clearance built into them. If you had a bearing with C4 clearance in it to begin with, and switched to a bearing with C0 or C2 or C3 clearance, you could have caused your issues. That clearance is part of the part number. C0 clearance is not actually marked on the bearing, but the others are marked on the bearing.

I'm a Service Representative for Timken Service Engineering and perform bearing damage analysis on a daily basis. If you send the bearings to me, I'll perform a damage analysis and let you know exactly what caused the bearings to last for such a short time. It would be helpful if you still had the original bearings for me to look at too. I'll then be able to compare the part numbers to see if you had a bad cross reference on the part number, causing you to put the wrong bearings in.

If you were to send them to a lab for this, it would probably cost you $1000+. I'll do it at no charge. It doesn't matter if it was my companies product or not. You can ship them to me at:

Scott Ickes
18111 NE 33rd Street
Vancouver, WA 98682

Edited to add that extremely short bearing life "usually" indicates that the bearing didn't have enough clearance in it, which is why I questioned that part so thoroughly above...
 
Last edited:
Wow, send them to Scott. We want to know the full scoop on this. Again I say, wow. Imagine having an in house bearing specialist among the crowd. Damn, talk about resources. It doesn't get much better than that. Thanks Scott! Almost makes me wish I had some blown bearings. Well not quite.
 
Dear Scott,

Is it true that the ability to manufacture a ball bearing is an important measure of the manufacturing capabilities of a country's industries? Is it also true that, to this day, the French are not capable of manufacturing a ball bearing, and that the bearings that are made in France are made with imported machinery and processes?

I had a materials and processes professor tell me this once, but I've never seen reference to it elsewhere.
 
These were 6200 bearings, sealed, and were supposedly an "exact" replacement for the Wilton bearings. Both bearings (old and new) were made in Taiwan. Got to get on to work but will post pics of both later on tonight for your critical review.

Thanks, and will get with you later on.

Hank
 

Dear Scott,

Is it true that the ability to manufacture a ball bearing is an important measure of the manufacturing capabilities of a country's industries?
Click to expand...
God, I hope not, since we make bearings in France!

Is it also true that, to this day, the French are not capable of manufacturing a ball bearing, and that the bearings that are made in France are made with imported machinery and processes?
Click to expand...

God, I hope not, since we make bearings in France!

I had a materials and processes professor tell me this once, but I've never seen reference to it elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Be leary of anyone that's only been a professor and has never worked in the real world!
 
Scott is definitely The Man around here when it comes to bearings. Long ago I gave him the part numbers off some bearings I got from work and he was able to track down the exact alloy for me. IIRC they're 52100 or something pretty close.

I still have a couple pounds of them and really don't have a use for them, not having a forge or anvil. If any of you hammer-jockeys are interested, drop me a line.

EDIT... to heck with it, no trade or shipping necessary. In the spirit of the forum, I'll send them to whoever will actually use them. :)
 
Last edited:
Farmer Phil said:
Wow, send them to Scott. We want to know the full scoop on this. Again I say, wow. Imagine having an in house bearing specialist among the crowd. Damn, talk about resources. It doesn't get much better than that. Thanks Scott! Almost makes me wish I had some blown bearings. Well not quite.
Click to expand...

I will ditto that one Phil .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top