Ball bearings

Not necessarily a motorcycle only question but
- how do bearing manufacturers make their spherical balls?

I've asked many a knowledgeable person & never received a reply.
Bummers.

 

What, they don't have Google where you live?

Search for
how ball bearings are made

Basically, they're squished into shape, then trimmed, then polished,
and then -- sorted for grade.

 

My computer wasn't working (blush)

 

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question513.htm

 

Thaks for googling that site up, Matt. I knew that the process was
*centerless grinding*, and my tooling and manufacturing engineering
textbooks do have some 2-dimensional drawings of centerless grinding
tooling, but I just couldn't envision the tooling in THREE dimensions.

Grooved rotating and stationary plates! Awright! Farm out!

And the first part of the process also involves what is called "crush
forming", before the centerless grinding process and polishing begins.

Let us now boldly go forth and challenge Fafnir and Timken for market
share while chanting, "crush forming" and "centerless grinding"!

 

Maybe "axisless grinding" would be more descriptive.

 

<<Snip>>

I'm sorry, but the Devil is making me ask how you posted with a
non-working computer.

Later,

Charlie

 

It's not in any of my tooling and manufacturing engineering textbooks,

"Centerless grinding" means that there's no headstock with a 3 or 4 jaw
chuck to turn the workpiece and no tailstock to support it. "Center"
would refer to the center of the head stock and the tailstock on a
lathe. The tailstock would have a conical-shaped "dead center"
supporting the end of a long workpiece to keep it from whipping around.

But the length of the lathe bed determines how long a cylindrical work
piece can be ground "on center".

In centerless cylindrical grinding, there's no limit to the length of
the workpiece, which is spun by the grinding wheel and controlled by
the regulating wheel.

 

Google has never heard of it either.