I’m in the market for an inexpensive arbor press. I’m looking to spend less than $100 and the primary application will be pressing bearings into fidget spinners.
Anyone have any recommendations or past experiences with this type of tool?
Try harbor freight. Is there one by you?
http://www.harborfreight.com/quickview/index/index/id/187/
$60.00 should be fine for that.
I was looking at that one. Have you tried it?
No, but but the pressure you need to install bearings in spinners is minimal and these are pretty basic. It should be fine for that application.
The Harbor Freight presses are fine for basic work. There is very little on them that can fail. They are the same Chinese imports that Grizzly, Central Machinery and a few others use. Only the paint is different.
They are a great deal, especially if you have a location near to pick up and skip shipping cost.
My experience has been that if you cannot press the bearing into the spinner with just finger pressure it is to tight. Even a very slight compression of the bearing in the hole will significantly reduce how well the bearing will free spin.
I would much rather the fit be slightly loose and use a dab of glue to secure the bearing.
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Don’t forget to use 20% off coupon
How about this 1/2 ton one from Amazon with free shipping?
@AllenMassey I’ve been making them with the app and banging them in with a hammer. They work pretty good but I haven’t done any RPM testing.
I used my drill press to set mine. I turned a 1" hardwood dowl to “T” profile with a 1/2" shank.
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I use an arbor press just about every day at work pressing on bearings, removing bearings, clutches for starters and so on. For what you are using it for, either one will work fine. It’s a simple tool.
I would recommend that you do a test, make one spinner with a very tight press fit and another with a looser hand tight fit and see if you can tell the difference in the spin time. I have done that experiment and I was seeing spin times go from 20 seconds to 45 seconds with the same bearings.
I’ve seen several woodworkers using a standard bench vise to press bearings into wood. Those are super cheap too.
@AllenMassey on the 22mm bearings what tolerance are you using?
I cut the hole pocket at .867 inches and then may need to use a .75 inch sanding drum attached to my drill press to open the whole a bit for the fit I want. I will sand away material until I get a snug but not tight fit.
I’ve been testing .876 size holes. With that size I can tap them in with a hammer. With .879 I can generally do it with my fingers. Bigger than .879 they seem to fall out.
Maybe I should make a batch where I test each size hole.
I cut the holes small so I can let the wood rest after being milled. I have found that after the spinner sits for a day and after I apply the oil, the hole size will change a few thousands. After having some that ended up to large (unrecoverable) I decided to make the hole smaller and then sand to fit after the wood is stable.
Oh, I’ve been using acrylic.
You should have led with that!
I have not made any acrylic spinners.
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