Thread: Do precision tapered bearings exist ?

I inquired around for my mill and got similar answers to you, but a couple of places did have or could get my mill bearings ordered in. It worked out to be around $800+ for the 4 x ABEC 5 or P5 bearings, but they where not available in any higher grade anywhere as they are not made in taper rollers.

I would just run what you have, mine have been fine for 8-9 years and I have done some big jobs in it. Speaking of mine your bearing number looks very familiar, I think mine is the same number.

Dave

cheers Dave.

came close to purchasing the bearings from Queensland, most likely they are $4 bearings from china.
wont be using the original bearings i removed as they already have wear and are pitted due to metal and casting sand, it's only run for about 30 minutes.
also need to get the headstock soda blasted, the amount of casting sand under the paint is a joke, and easily flakes off

the bearing sizes are 30210 and 32211.

I would just give them a good clean and inspection, if they have no major scores just run them.
Funny how guys in the US can just order these locally, but over here they have never heard of them, LOL

Dave

Funny you mention that, as i checked the grizzly parts list.
they have a nachi 30210/p6 taper bearing
called VXB bearings about nachi P6 bearings, which they don't have and they don't come up on the nachi site.

Edit:
My mistake, just checked another nachi site,
http://nachi-tool.jp/bearing/sdata.php
they do have a tolerance class on their tapered bearings.

Timken at least do not use the ABEC code for tapered roller bearing precision... No idea what the others use.

Hi Lather,

I went through a similar thing to you about 18 months ago. I couldn't get a clean finish on the lathe and when I adjusted the spindle bearings I just couldn't reduce the play. When I pulled the headstock apart, a closer inspection showed a headstock full of casting sand, grit and paint. The tapered roller bearings were all scored. My lathe takes a 30212P5 (front) and 30211P6 (rear)

It took me literally 2-3 weeks of emails and searching to finally track down these tow bearings. I got both bearings in a P5 and the brand was FAG, made in Austria which I was very happy with. One bearing I got from US and the other came from UK. I think both bearings cost me about $160 each delivered which was a very good price. Brisban Bearings could only supply the 30212P5 and they wanted $450 + delivery!

The new spindle (non Chinese) bearings have been the single biggest improvement to my lathe.

Try these places:

Motion Industries - Keeping Industry in Motion

CONSOLIDATED BEARINGS COMPANY, LTD. - Precision Bearings

Alpine Ball Bearings, Miniature Bearings, Ceramic Bearings, Miniature Spherical Ball Bearings, Bearing Distributors | Boston, Massachusetts

I can't remember where I got my 30211 from in UK but I got the 30212 from motion industries. I will have a look through my old emails to find the UK supplier.

Good luck!

Simon

Also try:

Accurate Bearing Company


Actually http://www.motionindustries.com/moti...mii/index.html have a 30210P5 bearing for $123.42.

It's a "Consolidated Bearing" make which means it could be a rebadged SKF, NSK, FAG etc etc. I got my 30212P5 from them and it was a "Consolidated Bearing" but when I opened the package it was an FAG Austria bearing. Was happy with that. I also doubt that they would deal in fake bearings.

Cheers,

Simon

Thanks Simon

Will be installing standard bearings for now.
talked with FAG and NACHI technicians,
the basic answer is that they are hard to get, and would be very expensive, due to the little use for them and suppliers not placing the large orders needed before they are produced.
they also mentioned that using precision bearings on a chinese made lathe would be useless, as the spindle and bore may not be machined accurately to make use of precision bearings.

Why not use the bearings that come out of it? If they don't have any bad scores they will be fine. It takes a lot of abuse to damage a taper roller bearing, even a Chinese one.

If you are going to replace them, have a search on Google for that part number as I am sure it was not that long ago someone on Home machinist bought precision grade bearings.

As for the guy saying about Chinese lathes, thats just to make you feel better buying lower spec bearings. The spindles on these lathes are pretty spot on, at least mine is with 0.00005 (half of devision) measuring equipment..

Dave

One of the reasons I became aware of the poor bearings in my lathe was when I decided I was going to make a couple of cyclindrical squares, as outlined in one of Harold Halls Books. I quickly became aware that my machine was not capable of such tight tollerance work in either finish or parallel turning. Anyway, after some preliminary testing and adjusting of the bearings, it still didn't help. In hindsight I think it was more #### than class that I fixed the problem because looking back knowing what I know now, it could have been one of any number of problems. It just so happened that it was the bearings!

With the new bearings the machine is so much more capable of fine work in finish and accuracy. It can turn parallel to 0.1 over 8 inches unsupported. I was never able to do that before. I hardly have need for it or use it but it's nice to have for those occasional jobs that require a tight tollerance.

I dare say that this is probably pretty mediocre accuracy for some people and their lathes but it's about the limit for me using my lathe.

Whatever you choose, I'm sure you will notice the difference with new bearings, if the existing ones are rooted/scored.

Cheers,

Simon

Since this is a new lathe, if you can see damage to the bearings I would claim them on warranty.

As I have said before, I must have been so lucky with my lathe. Other than a few small things like lowering the cross slide nut with a shim I have had to do nothing and it ran perfect strait out of the box, no swarf/grit in the gear boxes, nothing.
I am still chasing a tight spot when I wind the cross slide right out toward me and thats how I found the nut sitting high, but it wasn't the problem.

Dave

I came across this when searching for bearings for the Hercus Mill.

Some interesting prices there.

http://www.midlandbearings.com/TIMKEN2008AUG.htm

Nev

Dave,
the bearings are not covered by warranty, after seeing all the crap in the box, it's easy to see why.
prefer not to use the old set due to the pitting on the race.
As it's taken some time trying to track down genuine precision tapers, trying the standard ones for now should do.
Hanging out to get this lathe up and running.

My mill bearings where not marked with anything, and if they where I wouldn't believe what it said any way, LOL
I just replaced them with standard grade SKF bearings and it's running fine. I look at it like this, the cheap Chinese tooling I run would have more run out than what the bearing would have. Even standard bearings these days are made to a pretty high standard.
If mine was a high quality mill I would chase them down, but I am not spending $850 for bearings on a $4200 milling machine.

Dave