Cleaning Metal Shielded bearings
 

Here is how i clean my beaings but i have a question on them (on pic 3)

First i take the shield out, being careful not to dent the sheild

i put them on the bearing blaster

now, should i clean it out with this stuff?

Or go out and buy break cleaner fluid?


read the description, sounds all good

I'd use motor spray, and then some thin bearing oil...

Cleaning Metal Shielded bearings
 

Guys;

I recently started soaking in Paint Thinner to clean some very dirty bearings and it really worked great to get all of the dirt and grime. Afterwords, a quick blast with Motor spray in a Bearing Blaster and they were done.

Question:

Has anyone found a decent sonic/ultrasonic bearing cleaner that can can accept petroleum based solvents?

Thanks,

do those urtrasonic things actually work?
that multilube thing,
it won't hurt my bearings, would it?
i Should i go buy some brake cleaning fluid thing or use that?

I throw mine into acetone and shake em up

acetone is very good at desolving grease's
and u get all the dirt out easily

Didn't know those bearing blasters exsisted! Have to purchase one!

Btw - Nice photography work! ;)

I think RPM makes a bearing blaster.

Anothe question on top of this...


Which lubrication is the best to use?
Multi-lube
Fantom GoGo Juice bearing oil
Graphite Powder Lube

Someone told me that if you use Drano, it will dissolve any fibres and dirt on the bearing. Any truth to that?

Solvant
 

Goof-off in the metal container is the best for cleaning bearings.

http://www.goof-off.com/goofoff/PRODUCTS/goofoff.html

Super Steve

Yes the ultrasonic cleaners work. we have thrm at work and I clean my bearings in them all the time.......I asked how much they were.....over $600. I guess I'll just use there's. Integy made a small one that was battery powered. it ok just a little to small for me.
bearing lube:
I use Royal Blue, also from work. I think Trinity sells something like it (or so they say). before that i used the Fantom stuff Prolong cut with mineral sprits works well too (the red stuff).

Popsracer:

I did the same thing until they got the cleaners at work. that worked out great. I used something called circ-clean instead of motor spray.

Thanks

cool,
Tim, I used the red stuff from fantom.

How big is the one at your work? 600 bucks is alot compared to integy's indi sparkle which is only 20 bucks.

I am still not convinced that they work.
Can anyone tell me how exacly these things work?

If they sprout any little Feet, could you have one run over to my house? :D

I used this carb cleaner stuff to flush my bearings, i didn't let it sit in the liquid to dissolve or anything.

Q1: Should i let it dissolve for a while next time?
Q2: This carb cleaner is good enough to clean the bearings?



it has xylene, diacetone alcohol, acetone and propane
Picture: description

I find it best to let them soak in some MEK, then burn off the MEK when you take them out the tin. The ultrasonic cleaners work just as well though.

What do you guys use to lube your bearings with?

I'm a professional yoyoer (yeah it may sound funny but its ture.) So having clean bearings is a key to awesome sleep times and how you want your yoyo to perform. I personally soak my bearings in denatured alcohol (make sure its denatured because other types have water in them which will cause the bearings to rust.) This works fine I just blast them after about 3 days of soaking.

so acetone is good at getting grease from metal, but don't use it plastic(just where i want to), right. Could you use acetone to REALLY clean you motor can, then spray it with motor spray, then oil, then it's done, does that sound good for the motor??

I would think that it would be bad for a whole motor and if its just the can might loosten up the glue holding the magnets.

Coop

oh ya, didn't think of the magnets, they would probably get loose, oh well, i just have a half bottle laying around, tryin to find a use for it.

Super Steve:

Hi,

well it's hard to say just how it works as you have to close it up to make it work at the shop. but it does work. it cleans off any swarf (grinding dust) from our test gages when nothing else will. as for the size. the tank it self is 8"x10"x6" all stainless steel even the lid. it wieghts about 30 pounds empty and is adjustable for speed of the sonics and time.

Popsracer:

Hi,

I'm hoping for the same thing...... I have 7 TC3's 1 XXXs, 1 sd Yokomo, and 2 T3's 2 buggies and assorted other R/C cars to maintain..... then there's the motors etc.

using acetone as a cleaner:

IF you only have metal sealed bearings maybe...... do not use on your motors, armatures or anything epoied or plastic or teflon sealed. I have seen motors come apart after someone used it to clean their motor.... it looked cool when it happened but not to the person who it happened to.

Zachzachz:

Hi,

I have friends who are professional YoYoers.
I'm actuly jealous of you guys. I can't even YoYo right. (something about old age was mentioned).
using denatured alcohol is great for cleaning out R/C bearings I have even used it the Intgey sparkle. soaking for days works great. I even have some soaking right now (getting ready for Cleveland). then I'l take them to work and dump them into the sonic cleaner.

Thanks

Since this was a cleaning thread, I made a little tutorial on how to clean rubber sealed bearings a while back for Avid RC, link posted below. As far as bearing oil, I use Mobil 1 now. A quart of 10w30 will last you a few careers in RC and the performance is amazing. The oil is designed to attract to metal during heated situations giving the best lubrication needed. Now, don't forget though that a good synthetic grease has its advantages as well because it offers another barrier of protection by catching dust/dirt on the edges of the race before it can get to the balls to deteriote them. Personally I clean bearings once if at all and throw them out when they get gritty, but a lot a people like to remove the grease from the bearing right when they buy them and replace it with oil for best performance.

Bearing Cleaning How-To
http://www.avidrc.com/help/cleaning/