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Bearing Splitters

damnesia

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Joined
Jan 16, 2014
Messages
221
Location
Northern MN
The time has come for me to quit borrowing bearing splitters from friends and buy my own. My god they are expensive for good ones, even used. I use them often enough I don't want to buy cheapy Chinese ones. These things aren't exactly complicated, why are they so spendy?
 
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The Tool Tyrant

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Joined
Dec 19, 2011
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2,182
Location
Bonita, Ca. (San Diego)
The time has come for me to quit borrowing bearing splitters from friends and buy my own. My god they are expensive for good ones, even used. I use them often enough I don't want to buy cheapy Chinese ones. These things aren't exactly complicated, why are they so spendy?

You need them and the guy that makes them has a large mortgage on his vacation home in the Bahama's, along with his Lamborghini payments. :3gears:
 

dnschmidt

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Joined
Oct 3, 2014
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7,261
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Other than that ^^^^^^ they need to be made from fairly good steel as they are under a lot of load and you sure don't want one of these letting go.
 
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damnesia

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Joined
Jan 16, 2014
Messages
221
Location
Northern MN
I get the good steel part, but there isn't much steel used in them. I guess it's probably just supply and demand, they probably don't sell too many of them per year maybe.
 
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damnesia

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Joined
Jan 16, 2014
Messages
221
Location
Northern MN
I don't see these prices as that unreasonable for name brand OTC from USA.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002SR46I/?tag=atomicindus08-20

When it comes to pulling tools, bite the bullet and buy quality like OTC, SO, etc.

The last thing you want is to strip threads by using a Chinese puller made from pig iron.

If I only needed one size, 60$ for that one isn't bad. I really need two sizes ( ideally 3 ), so that would be over 200$ for three, and around 200$ for two. Maybe it's just me but that seems pretty expensive for two attachments. These are probably the one's I'll end up buying when I give up waiting for cheaper used ones.
 

mbshop

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Joined
Nov 23, 2010
Messages
1,539
Location
visalia ca
Tools make you money. If you need them often and want them to work everytime, spend the money.
 
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damnesia

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 16, 2014
Messages
221
Location
Northern MN
Mine don't make me money, but they save me money so I suppose that's the same thing. I usually only need them about 3 or 4 times a year but I do want good ones. I'll probably go with OTC and just buy them as I actually need them. I've been spoiled by a friend of me that let's me have access to his CJ2000SB cabinet.
 

metaldad

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Joined
Aug 2, 2011
Messages
7,732
Location
nw indiana
i have 3 sizes of OTC bearing splitters, among other pushers/pullers
they (otc), dont seem, to like stamping anything on their products, including model #, coo, or, even, who made the damn thing
 
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2ndGearRubber

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Joined
Mar 24, 2014
Messages
14,185
Location
Pittsburgh
OTC reviews on amazon for splitters are hit or miss. It's either amazing, or pig iron.


Any mid-priced options aside from OTC? They've burned me numerous times on warranty items, so I'd prefer to avoid them.

I'd hate to spend proto or snap on money, but I need some good splitters desperately.
 

B_Bimmer

Well-known member
Joined
May 7, 2015
Messages
1,870
Location
Eastern Iowa
I have destroyed, bent and chipped harbor fright bearing splitters on what should have been simple tasks. I have scratched OTC and Proto equipment, but never ruined it, despite pushing it much farther. If you need them, they are WELL worth the cost. If you just want a box of shiney things like bczygan, go harbor fright, but in this case, you may as well not at all. They are dangerous.
 

Buckgnarly

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Joined
Oct 8, 2010
Messages
7,651
Location
VT
Search EBay for used OTC...I would not waste my time with pulling equipment from HF.
 

oldtools

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Joined
Sep 15, 2008
Messages
2,706
When it come to puller, get the quality stuff like SO, Proto, Hazet, OTC. If you can't afford new, go used. If you still can't afford used, you can go with lower quality but still decent like OEM, Performance Tool, Neiko.
 

2oolhound

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Joined
Dec 18, 2010
Messages
5,918
Location
BC Canada
There was a thread on here a year or two back that claimed OTC was being made in China now. This 6" OTC (USA coo) from the 70's is a killer and pulled many bearings. Bearings in precision high speed high load conditions are friction fit and under enormous pressure. The splitters have to be good steel, good tempering, good hardening and have the best threads to handle these extremes. A lot of bearing slide off pretty easy but then there's those that go BANG when they let go and those are the ones that test your puller. I've had cheap pullers let me down too many times so I don't even consider them.

If you can find an old one like this you'll be in good shape:

attachment.php


I like the snap-on ones because they're good and also the perpendicular puller attachment isn't centred, it's canted to the sides which gives you room to work inside the middle area to position the tool and collect the pulled bearings etc. Here's a photo showing the offset holes compared to the old OTC centred holes in the above photo:

attachment.php
 

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signcrafter

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Joined
May 9, 2012
Messages
12,317
It all depends on what you are using them for. I've used them for pulling smaller bearings off electric motor shafts and some small engine work and the cheap ones I got off ebay worked great. But I was only using a forcing screw from one of my other pullers to use it. I would never use my cheap ones on a 20 ton press and load them up.
 

disston

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 1, 2012
Messages
941
Location
Silver Spring, Md
Snap On rules. There are other quality splitters and pulling tools over the years. You'll have to go thru a bunch of operations till you come back to the best, Snap On.

Sorry but other brands may work fine and may have been made to work back in the day. But if you want something that works now, the best, stc. the answer is Snap On.

If you are just beginning start with some cheap **** so you can learn what is being said.

BTW, most of my stuff is OTC. I just don't always have Snap On money.
 
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4ruinner

Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2016
Messages
5
There was a thread on here a year or two back that claimed OTC was being made in China now. This 6" OTC (USA coo) from the 70's is a killer and pulled many bearings. Bearings in precision high speed high load conditions are friction fit and under enormous pressure. The splitters have to be good steel, good tempering, good hardening and have the best threads to handle these extremes. A lot of bearing slide off pretty easy but then there's those that go BANG when they let go and those are the ones that test your puller. I've had cheap pullers let me down too many times so I don't even consider them.

Well, I bought an OTC bearing splitter (1130) about two years ago. It says "Made in the USA with globally sourced components" Whatever that means.

I also have a bearing/pulley puller (4534), this one is made in Taiwan, bought it around the same time.

So far they've done their job.
 

WittHay

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 6, 2016
Messages
2,157
Location
Surrey, BC Canada
I think the current price of the 0TC 1130 is around $225 cad. If you have a piece of industrial machinery or farm equipment that needs to be repaired. That $200 is nothing.

For occasional home use, it is expensive. i don't know of any quality alternatives to OTC or Snap-on.

Have used Snap-on for smaller jobs, and the bigger OTC bearing splitters were used with a hydraulic press.
 
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