How do you get a ball bearing into a piece of wood?

Question

I have an axial ball bearing I am trying to pressure fit into a piece of wood. I need to get it so the wood securely holds the ball bearing, while the inner ring of the ball bearing can freely spin. How do you get it to be secure in the wood?

I have an axial ball bearing I am trying to pressure fit into a piece of wood. I need to get it so the wood securely holds the ball bearing, while the inner ring of the ball bearing can freely spin. How do you get it to be secure in the wood?

-hammering it in, wouldn't that damage the bearing?

Answer 1

I don't know what you are going to use this for so the following might or might not work for you:

Drill a hole in the wood which is exactly the diameter of the bearing. Then drill two holes for bolts and nuts on either side of the bearing hole at right angles. Then saw the wood into two pieces. The saw cut should be at right angles to the bearing hole and the bolt holes and it should the cut the bearing hole exactly in half. Assemble the bearing between the two pieces of wood in its hole (now two half holes) and clamp the two pieces of wood using bolts and nuts in the other two holes. The wood lost from the saw cut will give you enough play to tighten the wood firmly onto the bearing. No need to force the bearing into a hole.

Alternate method: Drill the bearing hole exactly the right size. Freeze the bearing. It should shrink slightly. Insert it into the hole. Hold it in place until it warms up. It should then expand to fit tightly in the hole. This is the opposite of the way they fit iron tires onto wheels. There they make the rim slightly too small, heat it up to expand it and place it around the wheel. It cools and shrinks for a tight fit.

Answer 2

Use a set of calipers or other precision measures to measure the circumference of the the Bering make shure is is actually round, Find a hollow wood bore that is slightly larger than the Bering and a solid bore that is very slightly smaller than the Bering. Obtain a piece of sheet nylon about the same thickness as the Bering. Bore the wood to a little more than the depth of the Bering by marking the larger bore with tape to ensure depth. Then bore with the small bore carefully centering and again marking with tape to assure depth. Route out the remaining wood. Bore the nylon with the small bore, then center carefully and re bore with the large bore to form a thin sleeve. Assemble the sleeve in the wood then the Bering. The nylon sleeve will stretch providing a tight fit, but should not bind the Bering

Answer 3

I am a little confused by what you mean by inner ring and its location relative to the wood..

Axial bearing is a thrust bearing and has two equally sized races side by side and seperated by the roller balls.

A radial ball bearing has a smaller inner race with the ID hole and a larger outer race providing the overall OD of the bearing.

PS - Pls activate yur e-mail and hammering can damage the bearings if done to excess but with care is OK

Answer 4

Drill a slightly undersized hole. Use a dowel of the drill bit diameter to hammer it into place.

Answer 5

I'm curious as well

Answer 6

I was wondering the same thing too today

Answer 7

just hammer it