I have elaborated a good bit on this subject in the bearing document I am working on. There are standards of sorts, and standard deviations, no pun intended.
If in wood working you measure twice and cut once, in ordering bearings you measure three (3) times and order once, if you are lucky. The myriad of sellers out there often don't know the difference in what you think you are ordering, and what they intend to sell you when you order it.
The three measurements:
1) Bore
2) Diameter
3) Width
Then comes the specifications and not all use the same designations for the same things: Shielded vs Sealed
John is absolutely right. For a final confirmation if you live in a larger community, a commercial local bearing supplier can be your best friend. Let them measure the bearing, and the shaft it goes on as well, and then decide what to order if you can't order from Shopsmith.
From everything I can tell, these are the 1950's bearings for the 4E Jointer. They were sealed, not shielded.
S5PP FAFNIR.png
It did change back and forth apparently through the years. If you read the Bearing Document as it exists even in the draft form, this topic is covered already.
If you have ever worked in manufacturing, you already realize that a professional cost control analyst (bean counter for parts acquisitions) will find cheaper parts, even foreign sources for parts, if they think they can save a buck. Shopsmith was never that way. Quality was always
front and center, and it is today. A bearing today doesn't have to last 60 years. 20 is usually fine.
I am working on the Planer and that will be the last in the structure of the document, but by no means is the document finished at that point. If it were a house under construction, it's not even 'dried-in' yet.
Everett
That is so true. Here is an anecdote I was personally involved in that illustrates the point.
Just before I retired form Civil Service working in the aircraft generator overhaul shop here at Hill AFB I was involved in trying to figure out why all of a sudden we started having premature failure of C-5 aircraft generator bearings. It was discovered that the bean counters (in this case the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)) had substituted the correct GE spec'd bearing in the supply system with a cheaper alternative. It had the same base number but was not a GE product and although it fit it was not the same and was causing the failures.
John & Mary Burger
Eagle's Lair Woodshop
Hooper, UT
dusty wrote:There is a lot more to all this than just an R8-ZZ number.
Good enough for Shopsmith...Good enough for me. HOWEVER: I have linked to VXB and I cannot say for certain that the bearings on the Cutter Head were by VXB.
In a few weeks and after a few thousand pounds of boxes and parts are relocated, I can get access to a Shopsmith Mark Mounted Planer I acquired in a barn find in Oklahoma some time back. It was indeed a barn find as the Bandsaw that came in the acquisition had a birds nest in the upper wheel, and a shred of newspaper in the nest proved at least part of the nest was made from a 1986 newspaper. I have no idea how long it sat there before the birds made a home in it.
The Mark Mounted Planer that I acquired in that was never used. It still has the white adhesive protective material on the bed. Those bearings are going to be OEM for certain, but only for that date of manufacture.
I will try to get to them and verify what they are and update that here.
The Jointer on the other hand was extensively used, and acquired used by the owner, so no joy there... in finding the OEM Jointer bearings.
dusty wrote:There is a lot more to all this than just an R8-ZZ number.
Good enough for Shopsmith...Good enough for me. HOWEVER: I have linked to VXB and I cannot say for certain that the bearings on the Cutter Head were by VXB.
In a few weeks and after a few thousand pounds of boxes and parts are relocated, I can get access to a Shopsmith Mark Mounted Planer I acquired in a barn find in Oklahoma some time back. It was indeed a barn find as the Bandsaw that came in the acquisition had a birds nest in the upper wheel, and a shred of newspaper in the nest proved at least part of the nest was made from a 1986 newspaper. I have no idea how long it sat there before the birds made a home in it.
The Mark Mounted Planer that I acquired in that was never used. It still has the white adhesive protective material on the bed. Those bearings are going to be OEM for certain, but only for that date of manufacture.
I will try to get to them and verify what they are and update that here.
The Jointer on the other hand was extensively used, and acquired used by the owner, so no joy there... in finding the OEM Jointer bearings.
Everett
Just to correct the quotes. The above bold is what I said not Dusty. The rest is Dusty's response to my comment.
John & Mary Burger
Eagle's Lair Woodshop
Hooper, UT
I clicked to reply to Dusty's post 240053 Mon Oct 09, 2017 5:31 am above, allowing the system to quote it.
His post indeed stated There is a lot more to all this than just an R8-ZZ number. which you stated previously, as well as the rest it from him, which the system cited verbatim.
It did not resonate with me, nor did I recognize there was an error in his post which contained a portion of your post (though non-quoted) with the statement you made earlier in post 240047 Sun Oct 08, 2017 9:25 pm.
I appolgize if I should have caught that. It is so true! There is almost always a lot more to all of this than the series number of the bearing which can have multiple bore configurations. I replied to your original post 240047 in 240048 which started with Absolutely!!
It is not just the bore that can be altered in a bearing series as I have seen some that also had a width modification alteration that appeared on the box it came in, but not on the bearing itself. I also have seen some that the modification was presented on the bearing with a trailing suffix (which also can vary by manufacturer in how they represent it).
Even if you have the original box the bearing came in, can you be sure some counter-person didn't pull several trying to help a customer somewhere, and repackaged them in the wrong box?
It is why we measure so diligently to confirm what we have vs what we need in replacement bearings.
Shame, shame on me. I guess that I am guilty as charged of plagiarism. I will try real hard not to do that again, John. I am sorry, Everett, that you got caught in the middle of this "incident". I will be watching closely to ensure that I don't do this again. I will watch others as diligently as myself.
"Making Sawdust Safely" Dusty
Sent from my Dell XPS using Firefox.
dusty wrote:Shame, shame on me. I guess that I am guilty as charged of plagiarism. I will try real hard not to do that again, John. I am sorry, Everett, that you got caught in the middle of this "incident". I will be watching closely to ensure that I don't do this again. I will watch others as diligently as myself.
No need to apologize Dusty. It is not a big deal. I just wanted to make sure those who read the thread in the future don't get confused.
John & Mary Burger
Eagle's Lair Woodshop
Hooper, UT
Not an issue at all. If I remember correctly I have had the reply with quote not capture everything in a quote and make it appear differently than normal as well. At first that's what I thought happened.
Not an issue at all. If I remember correctly I have had the reply with quote not capture everything in a quote and make it appear differently than normal as well. At first that's what I thought happened.
Everett
You are a true Gentleman, Everett.
"Making Sawdust Safely" Dusty
Sent from my Dell XPS using Firefox.
