Shopsmith Forums

If you have the old style idler with a water pump bearing I wouldn't expect it to spin freely for long. It's not a fidget spinner bearing.

I spun it with the sheaves on, it only turns 1 to 1.5 rotations, then stops.

Good bearing have grease in them. They should be smooth and easy to turn. They should not spin like a top. If they spin like a top they are dry and on their way to failure.

Some other characteristics you can check, either subjectively or by measuring:
Rotation should be smooth and quiet.
Runout should be minimal.
Axial and Radial freeplay should be minimal.
On a sealed bearing like this, there should be no evidence of oil or grease outside the seal.

As far as drag, two samples is a small number and it's hard to say how similarly we are testing.

- David

If you can chuck the shaft into something and hold the outer race of the bearing while it spins you should not feel any vibration. That bearing can be replaced. I've posted sources for it here on the forum somewhere...

The last link I posted was on eBay, no longer active. Here's another one on eBay, and one on Amazon. Both very reasonably priced. You do have to check the dimensions carefully, I've seen that the shaft length can vary.

edma194 wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2024 7:00 pm If you can chuck the shaft into something and hold the outer race of the bearing while it spins you should not feel any vibration. That bearing can be replaced. I've posted sources for it here on the forum somewhere...

Sorry, not sure I'm following this. Are you saying buy one of these assemblies, pull the bearing off, and then install that bearing on the SS Idler shaft? Looking at the Amazon drawing, there doesn't appear to be an inner race, meaning it is truly integral. I can get it apart, but I don't think it is going back together. What am I not understanding?

- David

DLB wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2024 10:03 pm Sorry, not sure I'm following this. Are you saying buy one of these assemblies, pull the bearing off, and then install that bearing on the SS Idler shaft? Looking at the Amazon drawing, there doesn't appear to be an inner race, meaning it is truly integral. I can get it apart, but I don't think it is going back together. What am I not understanding?

- David

No, the whole assembly would have to be replaced. That means removing and re-installing the sheave. I don't really know how to do that. The Parts page shows an entire assembly with sheave and button bearing, but also lists the part individually, which shows the new style 2 bearing type.

Update on the hot idler shaft issue. I picked up a replacement idler/sheave assembly. Night and day difference in how they spin. The 'hot' one is definitely bad, replacement one is doing fine. Thanks to all that helped me figure this out.

tprowood wrote: Wed Apr 17, 2024 10:15 pm Update on the hot idler shaft issue. I picked up a replacement idler/sheave assembly. Night and day difference in how they spin. The 'hot' one is definitely bad, replacement one is doing fine. Thanks to all that helped me figure this out.

For future reference, did you go with the 'new style' with two individual ball bearings from Shopsmith or a used replacement of the water pump style?

- David

I grabbed a used one. Hope it has a lot of life left in it.