Cheap Roller Bearing Source

[vederstein]

In the USA there is currently a fad among the kids for fidget spinners.

I was at a flea market last weekend and hundreds of these things were for sale.

As I looked at this I realized these things are filled with roller bearings.

When the fad for these things is over and the market crashes, it may be prudent get a few and salvage the bearings.

Comments?

 

[bazmak]

skate bearings from China are as cheap as you can get
I have bought about 50 of various sizes for less than 50c each
cheap enough to make your own spinners

 

[mcostello]

Just as an aside, the cost of a reputable bearing's box is more than 50c. They have their uses also. Have bought My share.

 

[ICEpeter]

Hello,
Not to be picky but these bearings are not roller bearings, I believe they are ball bearings.

Peter J.

 

[Cogsy]

Like the rest of the world, they are all over the place here as well. I have seen the cheaper ones use pressed tin bearings rather than proper ball races, which wouldn't be worth using in most applications. My daughter just bought one for me that is aluminium rather than plastic (she couldn't resist buying it for me as it's appearance seemed to match my research area) which uses a much smaller bearing than the 608 'skate' bearings they normally use. With a decent spin it will continue to rotate for well over 2 minutes and I'm wondering what I can with the thing to make it a little more interesting.

One final thing, I bought a box of Chinese 608-2RS (skate) bearings a while back, which have a nominal 8mm I.D. I then turned an 8mm shaft to suit one bearing and achieved the nice slip fit I was after. Fully half the bearings in the box were either a press fit on the same shaft or a sloppy fit.

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Guys,
FWIW I've salvaged a number of small ball races from scraped HDD motors and head arms. These have from 4 to 6 mm ID's and are very high quality. I've also salvaged some as small as 3 mm OD with bore sizes that are so small that I couldn't measure them.

 

[goldstar31]

Hi Guys,
FWIW I've salvaged a number of small ball races from scraped HDD motors and head arms. These have from 4 to 6 mm ID's and are very high quality. I've also salvaged some as small as 3 mm OD with bore sizes that are so small that I couldn't measure them.

The difference between a correct fit and one where fits where it touches:hDe:

Reminds me of the standard tools issued to the Radio/Radar sections in the Royal Air Force------

The hammer and the -----sorry, it will be censored!

Regards

N