Thread: buying bearings online ?

Hello Lather,

I was close to buying some bearings on Ebay this morning but decided to shop in person at Statewide Bearings, maybe 1.5 km from home. Other than being ridiculed for growing a beard, it was a better option than Ebay. Most of the bearings of quality on offer on Ebay had C3 clearance. I wanted standard. I ended up with a pair of Japanese NSK radial ball bearings and an NSK thrust bearing exactly the same as the original bearings Waldown installed in my drill press spindle maybe 3 decades ago. All for 25 dollars.

I have purchased a bearing online before as a result of being anal. It had to be a German FAG ( no comments) to replace an original in one of my mills.

The reality is that for most standard size bearings, buying a better quality bearing isn't that expensive.

BT

Hi Lather,

I've bought bearings from those guy's VXB, no problems at all... good service.

Well, except, they keep sending me those crappy free digital calipers...


Regards
Ray

It may interest someone to learn that there are NO ballbearing manufacturing facilities in Germany anymore..... and NONE are marked (nor allowed to be) with "Made in Gemany" any more. All German bearing manufacturers do ALL their manufacture in China. Go figure. A few specialist bearings - synthetic materis etc. are still made in Germany apparently.
Good Australian ironore in German bearings after all....
However, to mislead unsuspecting buyers, there is apparently a Chinese bearing manufacturer with a registered company name of "German" - this allows tool manufacturers to advertise that their equipment is fitted with German bearings....
Not unlike the Japanese town of USA of old which was able to manufacture goods "made in USA"....
Cheeky... but all legal.

Joe

Originally Posted by jhovel

It may interest someone to learn that there are NO ballbearing manufacturing facilities in Germany anymore..... and NONE are marked (nor allowed to be) with "Made in Gemany" any more. All German bearing manufacturers do ALL their manufacture in China. Go figure. A few specialist bearings - synthetic materis etc. are still made in Germany apparently.
Good Australian ironore in German bearings after all....
However, to mislead unsuspecting buyers, there is apparently a Chinese bearing manufacturer with a registered company name of "German" - this allows tool manufacturers to advertise that their equipment is fitted with German bearings....
Not unlike the Japanese town of USA of old which was able to manufacture goods "made in USA"....
Cheeky... but all legal.

Joe

The headstock bearings I put in my lathe were FAG P5 bearings and had "Austria" inscribed on them. You telling me I still have Chinese bearings?

Simon

Austria is not germany.

Originally Posted by .RC.

Austria is not germany.

Point taken. phew!

For my two bobs worth.........I am always amazed at the low cost of bearings! OK I usually use smallish ones, but really when its all said and done the work that goes into a bearing and the precision that is needed they really are value for money (cheap). On the other side of the coin when you have to pay some one to do surgery on a part to replace a worn/broken bearing why would you use a "suspect" quality bearing at a slightly cheaper purchase price over a good branded recognised one. Japanese made bearings have passed the test of time and are regarded as good ones to use.
This may be a simplistic view but it is such a nice feeling when you go into your favourite bearing specialty shop and either give them a number for a particular bearing or give them the old one to reference off. They usually ask what it was off and then give you some advise on using the new replacement.
I do buy some stuff on line from our Oriental neighbours but bearings are something I would rather buy local and support the local dealer at least. Its another excuse to go into the Alladins cave of another world of tools and accessories that ordinarily you would not have occasion to visit.

At the risk of going too far off-topic, many companies manufacture in China and produce top quality product. The example of German manufacturers setting up factories in China means that the quality control and production processes are specified and controlled by the German company..

I can give some examples, iphones are all made in China. I'm sure Apple is doing the quality control.. ( fake batteries aside! )

The Krupps steel mill in Dortmund was moved to China, and I spent some time looking over the site not long after it was relocated, the Chinese cut up the blast furnaces and carefully labelled all the parts and re-assembled it in China, the guy who I talked to used to work at the old Krupps Steel mill, and told me the re-assembled blast furnace was now working better in China than it ever did in Dortmund. They did some upgrades and re-furbishment in the moving process.

So, I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss all Chinese made bearings as inferior, you can get as good as you are happy to pay for.

Regards
Ray

If replacing bearings on existing machinery, i would purchase Japanese bearings.
due to this project, being a prototype, with the possibility of failure, it needs to be done as cheap as possible.
Without saying what the project is, it will need about 40 bearings, just to test a basic build, for proof of principle, if it works, there will need to be more of there units, combined into the system, with each extra unit needing about 24 bearings.
even using the cheap bearings, the price adds up.


the quotes for the remaining 24 bearings needed, just for the proof of principle device is
about $228 for Chinese bearings from a local store.
the Japanese were $510.

to purchase the cheap bearings over the net, from the USA is about $91 plus $52 to ship them. 142.65 all up, it's still much cheaper than local.
shame about the shipping, it's more than half the cost of the product, but still cheaper than buying here.
can't figure out why the Chinese bearings sold in the USA, are more than half the price here in OZ.

apparently the Japanese bearings are made in Korea.

had considered using 6011-2rs bearings, the Chinese cost $17 + GST, the Japanese were $83 + gst, definitely wont be using this size, most of the other Japanese bearings are about double the price, but this bearing size is about 5 times the Chinese price.

Hi Lather,

I've got two suggestions for you..

First.. use shipito USA Address & Mail Forwarding to handle the shipping from the US. Use the Oregon warehouse address, to eliminate the American state sales tax.

Second... Sell the free digital calipers on ebay..

Regards
Ray

Originally Posted by lather

the Japanese were $83 + gst,

Who’s quoting you those sort of prices on a 6011 2RS? Let me guess, CBC. That’s a rude price. Especially on 2 dozen. I just rang my supplier, my buy price is $24 + GST for Japanese NSK.

I’d second Ray’s suggestion of Shipito. I’ve been using it also.

Phil.

Originally Posted by RayG

.......So, I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss all Chinese made bearings as inferior.....
Regards
Ray

Just to clarify, Ray et al: I don't believe I mentioned anything about quality of Chinese manufactured bearings.

To reiterate something that started a flamewar on a US forum a while back:
The Chinese quality goods manufacturers don't advertise their goods on eBay - just like the European and US ones don't.
If you really want to compare - say - USA quality with Chinese quality, compare the cheap crap sold by US manufacturers on eBay with cheap crap Chinese manufacturers sell on eBay.....

Joe

Phil your correct, it was CBC.

got a quote from stateside bearings, which was comparable to the US price when including the delivery charge,
decided to use the 6010-2rs instead of he 6011, mainly due to the diameter of the steel needed.
didn't ask for a quote for the 6011 from stateside.

this whole project has just turned into a catch 22 situation, using the larger cheaper bearings, now makes it expensive to purchase the round bar needed for a larger diameter hub and flange.
trying to buy a 120mm bar off-cut in itself is difficult,
to overcome this issue, decided to use seamless pipe, and managed to find some short offcuts, but more is needed.
these now need 120mm flanges welded to them, the only cheap material which i can purchase, are scrap metal off cut disks which were plasma cut, hate machining this crap, makes me wonder if the hammering action due to the broken cuts is damaging the lathe.
(should the gibs be tightened a little more when machining rough and broken material?)
also the welding will warp the hubs, so probably need to first machine them oversize, and re machine after welding.

prefer to stick with the original plan as it's an easier build, using the 6804, 20 x 32x7, and the 6808, 40x52x7 bearings, the 90mm round bar was suitable for the largest hub and flange, for some strange reason these are about the same price on the VBX site, as in store.

the main hassle with the project is that it contains a hub running on a shaft, which then has a secondary hub running on the first hub.

Ray, will look into how much cheaper the postage is using USA Address & Mail Forwarding, if it,s only slightly cheaper may purchase from statewide.

do any Chinese suppliers sell direct to the public ?

Originally Posted by lather

do any Chinese suppliers sell direct to the public ?

Try FAG deep groove ball bearing 6010-2RS - Detailed info for FAG deep groove ball bearing 6010-2RS,deep groove ball bearing ,FAG deep groove ball bearing 6010-2RS,6010-2RSR-C3 on Alibaba.com

I picked that one (FAG 6010-2RS) to re-inforce Joe's point about German bearings, I think Germany is a suburb of Shanghai ...

Regards
Ray