BALLS!...The race type

[Lee Roberts]

No problem and I stand informed/corrected my only experience is I once asked the same question and was given more or less the same reasponse by John Stevenson (John S).

Ceramic is a buzz word.
Ceramic bearing only come into play at speed we can't reach.

Long short is crash a spindle with ceramic bearings in and they are toast, decent steel bearings which can easily stand 24,000 revs with the right lubrication can withstand a crash provided it's not monumental.

Drop a block of steel on a tiled floor, which one comes out best ?

So I guess it comes down to his experience with them not mine, given you've shared yours I know who ill choose to go with on it, any chance of some pics ?

.Me

[komatias]

No problem and I stand informed/corrected my only experience is I once asked the same question and was given more or less the same reasponse by John Stevenson (John S).

So I guess it comes down to his experience with them not mine, given you've shared yours I know who ill choose to go with on it, any chance of some pics ?

.Me

Sure, I will get some this week.

Cermic bearings do cost, but then if you go and buy any set of "precision" bearings you are bound to pay. Looking back, I purchased my steel ballscrew mounting moderate preload bearings for around the same price as I would have paid for the smart car ones. Ballscrew mounting rated ceramic ones were rather more expensive though as they had to be custom made and at the speed my screws were going to turn, it did not make sense.

Standard 7002's can be picked up relatively cheaply but then the runout will start to become a problem. Especially if you get ones that are not ABEC preloaded, I am thinking the ones that mountainbikes use (don't ask me where, all I know is I bought some from a mountainbike retailer at a good price). I used those with a 0.1 shim to preload and even then they were slack and gross.

For a spindle that makes money my view is to get the better value option, (performance/price).