Griff93
Well-known member
I recently bought an old reed prentice lathe to use at my shop. It came with a nice large bull nose live center. The bearings were a bit crunchy in it though. For size reference, the center is about 6 in across. So I took it apart and ordered new bearings to go in it as I found some of the races pitted.
Next, I started to pull the old bearings out. The top one came out without any problem. The tapered race in the middle and the small ball bearing in the bottom however presented a problem. I bent my OTC blind bearing puller plate trying to get the middle one out. It didn't want to get a good grip and the bearing race wanted to shift sideways as my puller only has two jaws. I gave up on that and tried a couple of other things that didn't work out so well. I couldn't even get the jaws down in the middle of the bottom bearing so it was out for pulling that one.
Finally, I ended up grinding a bolt head until it fit pretty well and reaching down in the hole with a stick welder to weld the bolt to the bearing race. Even though I welded the bolt to the inner race on the bottom bearing the weld keeps the bolt from spinning. I put a plate over the top of the hole and used a nut on the bolt to pull the bearings out of the bore. Both worked quite well. It helps to use a fine thread bolt when possible because you get more mechanical advantage and it doesn't want to spin the bearing as much but it's not necessary. I figure I'd pass along this trick in case someone else can use it.
Next, I started to pull the old bearings out. The top one came out without any problem. The tapered race in the middle and the small ball bearing in the bottom however presented a problem. I bent my OTC blind bearing puller plate trying to get the middle one out. It didn't want to get a good grip and the bearing race wanted to shift sideways as my puller only has two jaws. I gave up on that and tried a couple of other things that didn't work out so well. I couldn't even get the jaws down in the middle of the bottom bearing so it was out for pulling that one.
Finally, I ended up grinding a bolt head until it fit pretty well and reaching down in the hole with a stick welder to weld the bolt to the bearing race. Even though I welded the bolt to the inner race on the bottom bearing the weld keeps the bolt from spinning. I put a plate over the top of the hole and used a nut on the bolt to pull the bearings out of the bore. Both worked quite well. It helps to use a fine thread bolt when possible because you get more mechanical advantage and it doesn't want to spin the bearing as much but it's not necessary. I figure I'd pass along this trick in case someone else can use it.