When it comes to bearings, reels are generally not considered a critical application. Chinese manufacturers can produce bearings of appropriate quality for this application, at a price point lower than any other manufacturer. The main problem with the Chinese manufacturers is poor quality control resulting in inconsistent quality. I've noticed this discrepancy in quality control first hand; a pair of brand new bearings from the same manufacturer in the same series, and one almost always spun better than the other. There is little to no consistence in performance. Quality bearings will spin similarly assuming both are clean and correctly lubricated.
The largest high quality manufacturer is NMB Bearing, a division of MinebeaMitsumi. NMB is the world's largest producer of high precision miniature and instrument bearings, supplying over half of the precision bearings used the world over. Their production facilities are located in Singapore and Thailand. They produce bearings for everything from industrial applications to sensitive instruments to dental tools. They are the real deal, and the prices are much cheaper than just about every overly hyped bearings one can think of.
There are other well known manufacturers in Japan; namely NSK, KOYO, and Nachi who manufacture most or portions of the range of bearings used in most mid to high end JDM, USDM, and EUDM fishing reels. They are slightly higher in cost than NMB due to lesser volume, but still excellent bearings nonetheless. This is why I advocate that people retain the factory bearings if they're self servicing, the stuff you have already is most likely superior to whatever you're getting from AliExpress, Boca, or Roro, assuming it isn't worn out.
In the USA, there are three makers; NHBB, Barden, and Timken. Being domestic suppliers, the largest portion of their products are used by the aviation, aerospace, automotive, and medical industries. None of those companies can compete price wise with the quality Japanese manufacturers referenced above, much less the Chinese. I've priced them for my own uses, and they were a bit too much for me to dip my toe in the pool.
In Europe, GRW is the big player in the high precision instrument bearing market, but like the USA makers, most of their production is for more more critical applications. They are also prohibitively expensive, with GRWs running upwards of $30 USD each if you were to acquire them to use as spool bearings. Abu even uses or did use GRWs in their Ambassadeur Pro Rocket models, and even used them in the 80s and 90s in the 1500C and 2500C variants sold in Europe and Japan.
As far as fishing reel bearings are concerned, the quality choice is NMB, who manufacture consistent quality at reasonable pricing thanks to their volume of production. I run them in all of my reels. They're cheap, durable, and perform very, very well. Even as a reel service owner, I include them with my services as part of my routine. It's simply cheaper for me to swap in new high quality spool bearings than it is for me to go through the trouble of cleaning, testing, maybe cleaning again, and lubricating. They're removed from the package, given a quick clean to remove storage grease, lubricated, and installed. Bing bam boom, done.
Most of the bearings used in fishing reels are of such low mass that if addressed in manufacturing can achieve 50,000 RPM or more. To achieve these speeds the makers place emphasis on retainer materials, machining, ball grade, raceway finish, and lubrication. None of these specifications are controlled by ABEC tolerance standards, they are left entirely to the decision of the manufacturer. This is why ABEC grade has very little to do with bearing performance, but it does make for an easy to sell.
ABEC grades were designated to create a consistent basis for engineers to spec the fitment of a bearing to a shaft or housing. Too loose a fit creates a situation where the bearing isn't correctly seated in place and too tight a fit can compress the bearing rings, removing the internal clearance of the balls, adding friction or even binding. This system was devised in the 30's when machining to hundredths was considered precision. With CNC machining, many quality manufacturers of bearings can hold ABEC 5 tolerances without really any effort.
I hope this cleared up some confusion for everybody reading. I researched this stuff through and through and had a good discussion with a friend of mine who engineers tooling for various auto manufacturers here in the Detroit area. Between my testing as well as customer feedback, quality wins over whatever said manufacturer puts on the label. As it stands, most manufacturers of flavor-of-the-month bearings do exactly that, market to the uninitiated because higher numbers get product out the door. I hope I've helped you all and if you want to know how to get NMB bearings cheap, I will post my method later on. I do order from Japan, and the bearings end up running $1 to $2 each when bought in packs of 10 or more. Stay tuned!
Thanks for that. Is there a way to tell who manufactured a bearing?
Quote from: Swami805 on August 30, 2024, 02:45:14 PMThanks for that. Is there a way to tell who manufactured a bearing?
Yes, NMB has their logo stamped on the bearing shields with most of their models. As a bonus, the shields are very easy to remove with a fine tipped awl. The way I get them, I use a proxy service named Buyee. With Buyee you can shop all over Japan, even with retailers who otherwise wouldn't ship outside of Japan. I use Buyee to go through Yahoo Shopping, and for my search query, I will use NMB along with the model number. You can research bearings through the NMB catalog found here: https://mkt.minebeamitsumi.com/bearing_catalog_en You will be able to decipher model numbers, plus the catalog is so in depth it will tell lubrication requirements, axial and radial loads, etc.
The nice thing with Buyee is they will hold your stuff in storage for up to 30 days, and they do package consolidation to save on shipping. I just received bearings last week; 10x DDL-1150ZZ Y04, 10x DDR-1040ZZ, 10x DDR-1030ZZ, 20x DDL-740ZZ, and 10x DDR-830ZZ. These all ran me $112.24 after shipping. This breaks down to $1.87 per bearing.
That was actually a lot of words about bearings. All useful info. Thank you for taking the time to write it. I've had bearings with NMB stamped on that seemingly performed better than some eBay ceramics. Makes more sense now.
Thanks for posting this tincanary. Some really good stuff!
While I agree with your conclusions on ABEC rating importance as it relates to reels, I have to nitpick a little in the name of technical accuracy. There is a more to ABEC ratings than external fit tolerances. Those are just the ones that affect assembly. There are a bunch more.
Quote from: tincanary on August 30, 2024, 01:35:29 PMMost of the bearings used in fishing reels are of such low mass that if addressed in manufacturing can achieve 50,000 RPM or more. To achieve these speeds the makers place emphasis on retainer materials, machining, ball grade, raceway finish, and lubrication. None of these specifications are controlled by ABEC tolerance standards, they are left entirely to the decision of the manufacturer. This is why ABEC grade has very little to do with bearing performance, but it does make for an easy to sell.
ABEC grades were designated to create a consistent basis for engineers to spec the fitment of a bearing to a shaft or housing. Too loose a fit creates a situation where the bearing isn't correctly seated in place and too tight a fit can compress the bearing rings, removing the internal clearance of the balls, adding friction or even binding. This system was devised in the 30's when machining to hundredths was considered precision. With CNC machining, many quality manufacturers of bearings can hold ABEC 5 tolerances without really any effort.
Here is a good overview of ABEC tolernces/ratings:
https://www.engineersedge.com/bearing/ball_bearings_tolerances.htm (https://www.engineersedge.com/bearing/ball_bearings_tolerances.htm)
This covers pretty much all of the dimensional aspects of the bearing including track and ball dimensions and roundness. Looking at the tables, the differences between ABEC 3 and above are so tiny that it won't matter in a reel. But for precision equipment that runs continuously at high speeds (e.g. a dental drill hand piece), ABEC ratings in bearings of the same quality will affect vibration and the longevity of bearings. There are also cases where super high precision machinery (not reels) require higher ABEC ratings to help maintain tolerances.
Getting back to my agreement with tincanary- for those of you that think that a higher ABEC rating has got to help a reel cast a little bit better:
I got to play with an actual press used for replacing these type of high ABEC (usually 5)/ high quality bearings in dental drill hand sets. It is a strong, accurate, super precise piece of equipment, because in order to take advantage of high accuracy bearings, the bearings have to be pressed into position very precisely into very high tolerance pockets in the handset. This is a far cry from using your thumb or a small hammer to press in a bearing on a reel spool or sideplate. And the accuracy of assembled alignment of the relevant parts of a reel - more like in hundredths of an inch and not ten thousandths! And once you put line on any spool, how balanced do you think it is? Precision is a function of both the bearing and the assembly it is operating in. There will be less resistance if the balls are rolling down the center of the tracks and not up and down the sides.
The other question is probably going to be ceramics.
Ceramic bearings, full or hybrid are used for increasing the replacement cycle on continuous use high speed applications. The ceramic balls are lighter, harder, and smoother, so they wear more slowly. I cannot see an any benefit for putting them on a reel other than maybe using full ceramics to minimize the risk of saltwater corrosion. Ceramics can be run dry, so if you can stand the noise, you don't have to muck with using a very light lubricant that needs to be more frequently replenished as per stainless bearings. I am skeptical that ceramics will ever be noticeable for actual fishing performance when compared to properly lubed stainless bearings.
If you really want to maximize bearing performance for casting- first think about clean bearings and light lubricants. Pushing lubricant around takes energy, and this resistance robs performance. Your stainless spool bearings will actually get the best performance at first with no lubricant, but they will corrode more easily and wear out faster. Also start thinking about bearing to shaft alignment, and if there are things that you can do on assembly to improve it.
-J
Thank You for the great information regarding Buyee & NMB, TC —-
Just in time before I place my next bearing order next week.
Appreciate the detail.
Best, Fred
trbrc.com
Thanks, Alan!
Best, Fred
I know a bloke who is into long casting, & most of the blokes around the world, that do that, use boca bearings, cheers Don.
Quote from: Donnyboat on August 31, 2024, 02:37:44 AMI know a bloke who is into long casting, & most of the blokes around the world, that do that, use boca bearings, cheers Don.
Interestingly enough, I did a spin test between Boca Lightning SMR115C-YZZ and NMB DDL-1150ZZ Y04. The Bocas did spin better when run dry, but when I applied some ISO 10 oil, they were about the same. I initially tested this with an Abu 2500C with zero braking and empty spool. I also tested with a single brake block and the line guide made 3 full trips back and forth with both types of bearings. This tells me that we are always at the mercy of our thumb and the braking system.
I got Roro ceramic bearings in my Black Max 3 BFS.They did 52 seconds
on the pencil spin test.It dont put fish on the table & probably catches more fisherman than anything- like benchmarks for a PC,bragging rights ::) Roro are smooth though :fish
Quote from: jgp12000 on August 31, 2024, 11:55:06 AMI got Roro ceramic bearings in my Black Max 3 BFS.They did 52 seconds
on the pencil spin test.It dont put fish on the table & probably catches more fisherman than anything- like benchmarks for a PC,bragging rights ::) Roro are smooth though :fish
I wish I could get that kind of spin from a Roro. The ones I have will spin about 10 to 15 seconds lol. That's run dry as well.
for spool bearings to get maximum spin, i do the following. first, i pop open one of the shields. then i load it with corrosion x or any medium weight oil. i take compressed air and blow out all of the oil and any grease that may be hiding inside. i repeat the oil and compressed air until it spins like crazy. then i hit it with carb cleaner and a little more compressed air. the final step is a dip into TSI 321. all of this is with plain stainless steel bearings. i never use ceramics.
this has given me the best results over the years. :d
I do mine a similar way. I soak in mineral spirits to loosen and gunk, then shoot them with brake cleaner. I was using CRC electronics cleaner but it's now $10-$11 per can instead of $3. Bums me out, that stuff was great.
I use a few drops of lucas reel oil on my bearings.
Most of us have a decent bearing cleaning system that works for them.
Mine is to pop off one shield and throw it away.
Then a 10 minute soak in the ultrasonic cleaner using lacquer thinner.
Rinse with water.
Dry the bearing, then drop it in a small pimento jar of synthetic oil (I use WRL191S, but any other synthetic oil will work great) for a few minutes while I am assembling the other parts on the reel.
Remove the bearing from the oil and just tamp off the excess oil with a paper towel.
Inject grease into the bearing race. I use Cal's Purple on fresh water spinners, and either Cal's Tan or Yamaha Marine on salt Conventionals or salt spinners.
Install and I'm done.
Unless really badly worn or severely rusted —- 95% of quality steel bearings can be successfully revived using this method.
Best, Fred
I replaced all the spool bearings in my Penn Torques which are 4 bearings that effect the spools rotation. The brake adjustment knob on the right, left side plate, two on the spool. I did this on 4 reels.
Replaced with Acer Racing hybird ceramics.
Damn things can really cast now! I threw a 2 oz jig 50 yards plus, and hit my splice with my 1000 UC Monster, and my Penn Torque 25N IF u try casting any harder, u gonna backlash more!
Quote from: wussero on September 12, 2024, 12:03:21 AMI replaced all the spool bearings in my Penn Torques which are 4 bearings that effect the spools rotation. The brake adjustment knob on the right, left side plate, two on the spool. I did this on 4 reels.
Replaced with Acer Racing hybird ceramics.
Damn things can really cast now! I threw a 2 oz jig 50 yards plus, and hit my splice with my 1000 UC Monstere, and my Penn Torque 25N IF u try casting any harder, u gonna backlash more!
:)
Good that you are happy with your results. But a couple points for other folk considering this:
1. The Torque star drags have a floating spool, which means that the spool turns on a stationary shaft when casting, so only the two spool bearings should be able to affect casting performance.
2. Lubricants will greatly affect casting performance. Sometimes the performance change people see when replacing bearings is more due to the change in lubricants than the type of bearings. Different types or amounts of lubricants and the condition of lubricant is usually inevitable unless you are pretty deliberate about making an accurate comparison with bearings that have been completely cleaned and lubricated identically.
3. Hybrid bearings will need to be well lubricated to protect the stainless races from corrosion if fishing in saltwater. The ceramic balls will help prevent the bearing from seizing up entirely, but the races will still get pitted, robbing performance.
-J
In a metal bearing isn't it usually the race that wears and gets grooves in it rather than the balls? If so, hybrid bearing makes no sense and full ceramic would be the way to go
Quote from: oc1 on September 12, 2024, 07:52:32 PMIn a metal bearing isn't it usually the race that wears and gets grooves in it rather than the balls? If so, hybrid bearing makes no sense and full ceramic would be the way to go
Metal on metal rubbing at high speed causes friction welding, which from what I have read is a cause of wear on the balls and races. Ceramic balls eliminates this issue.
No idea if it is just the races that are wearing on all-metal bearings or if it is just harder to see wear on the balls.
Agree that full ceramic will give you more of the benefits of ceramic bearings. And more of the disadvantages.
-J
Well it is pretty impressive on how the balls are made for the bearings . Of the failures that I have seen over the years the ball starts the process .
https://www.lily-bearing.com/resources/blog/how-are-ball-bearing-made/
Another on failure .
https://www.bdsbearing.com/blog/bearing-failures
I would speculate that close to 100% of ball bearing failures in fishing reels are due to one of three things: corrosion primarily due to salt ingress, other contamination leading to compromised lubrication, and axial deformation due to excessive sideways loading of radial bearings. The bearings will be generally be running somewhere around 1% and maybe 0.1% of their rated RPM; I'd be surprised if bearing wear purely from normal use would be an issue for the vast majority of reels.
My bearing supply was re-upped yesterday. The 10 packs I already had on hand, the 20 packs are what came in yesterday.
(https://i.imgur.com/1cHTjmC.jpg)
These do come pre-greased, so for spool bearings I cleaned them with Brakleen, hit with TSI, and blew out the excess with compressed air. These are the 1150Y04 that were put into some Ambassadeur 2500Cs.
(https://i.imgur.com/Pq95m2X.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Ae6IsWa.jpg)
Grand total was $173.59 after shipping for 80 bearings, or about $2.17 per bearing. NMB bearings run about $5 to $7 each bought domestically, and price breaks aren't available unless buying 100 or more at a time. Even then, they still run ~$4 each.
tincanary,
thank you for this information, piecing my order together for nmb bearings.
Thanks, TC!
Best, Fred
anyone else from california having an issue procuring bearings from japan??? I am receiving a u able to ship due to material...
anyone willing to split an order?
I would like to add as it's not as straight forward as ebay is.
I eventually found a supplier that would ship to usa, by searching "nmb" instead of the bearing part number. this opened up the sellers list that shipped to usa.
be careful to locate the fields that the seller is requesting for example, I bought a 10 pack of bearings and was required to specify which bearings. this was not as clear, and maybe this is due to the translator. I needed up reaching out to buyee support and was able to get my order going.
I hope to recieve here in the next few weeks and i'll reply back when bearings arrive.
thanks again tincanary
steve
update,
I received bearings today. took 14 days exact.
I will be ordering more this way to cover all my reels and some friends.
as stated in my previous post I was not able to locate the options area per auction. however I did write buyee support and they took care of it for me. quickly.
as tincarary stated you can shop and keep things at the warehouse for 30 days and then ship all at once. japanese mail tracking number worked and was able to follow the package from japan to my door.
off to remove shields are clean bearings. i'll loop back when these NMB bearings start to act up.
Quote from: tincanary on August 30, 2024, 01:35:29 PMWhen it comes to bearings, reels are generally not considered a critical application. Chinese manufacturers can produce bearings of appropriate quality for this application, at a price point lower than any other manufacturer. The main problem with the Chinese manufacturers is poor quality control resulting in inconsistent quality. I've noticed this discrepancy in quality control first hand; a pair of brand new bearings from the same manufacturer in the same series, and one almost always spun better than the other. There is little to no consistence in performance. Quality bearings will spin similarly assuming both are clean and correctly lubricated.
The largest high quality manufacturer is NMB Bearing, a division of MinebeaMitsumi. NMB is the world's largest producer of high precision miniature and instrument bearings, supplying over half of the precision bearings used the world over. Their production facilities are located in Singapore and Thailand. They produce bearings for everything from industrial applications to sensitive instruments to dental tools. They are the real deal, and the prices are much cheaper than just about every overly hyped bearings one can think of.
There are other well known manufacturers in Japan; namely NSK, KOYO, and Nachi who manufacture most or portions of the range of bearings used in most mid to high end JDM, USDM, and EUDM fishing reels. They are slightly higher in cost than NMB due to lesser volume, but still excellent bearings nonetheless. This is why I advocate that people retain the factory bearings if they're self servicing, the stuff you have already is most likely superior to whatever you're getting from AliExpress, Boca, or Roro, assuming it isn't worn out.
In the USA, there are three makers; NHBB, Barden, and Timken. Being domestic suppliers, the largest portion of their products are used by the aviation, aerospace, automotive, and medical industries. None of those companies can compete price wise with the quality Japanese manufacturers referenced above, much less the Chinese. I've priced them for my own uses, and they were a bit too much for me to dip my toe in the pool.
In Europe, GRW is the big player in the high precision instrument bearing market, but like the USA makers, most of their production is for more more critical applications. They are also prohibitively expensive, with GRWs running upwards of $30 USD each if you were to acquire them to use as spool bearings. Abu even uses or did use GRWs in their Ambassadeur Pro Rocket models, and even used them in the 80s and 90s in the 1500C and 2500C variants sold in Europe and Japan.
As far as fishing reel bearings are concerned, the quality choice is NMB, who manufacture consistent quality at reasonable pricing thanks to their volume of production. I run them in all of my reels. They're cheap, durable, and perform very, very well. Even as a reel service owner, I include them with my services as part of my routine. It's simply cheaper for me to swap in new high quality spool bearings than it is for me to go through the trouble of cleaning, testing, maybe cleaning again, and lubricating. They're removed from the package, given a quick clean to remove storage grease, lubricated, and installed. Bing bam boom, done.
Most of the bearings used in fishing reels are of such low mass that if addressed in manufacturing can achieve 50,000 RPM or more. To achieve these speeds the makers place emphasis on retainer materials, machining, ball grade, raceway finish, and lubrication. None of these specifications are controlled by ABEC tolerance standards, they are left entirely to the decision of the manufacturer. This is why ABEC grade has very little to do with bearing performance, but it does make for an easy to sell.
ABEC grades were designated to create a consistent basis for engineers to spec the fitment of a bearing to a shaft or housing. Too loose a fit creates a situation where the bearing isn't correctly seated in place and too tight a fit can compress the bearing rings, removing the internal clearance of the balls, adding friction or even binding. This system was devised in the 30's when machining to hundredths was considered precision. With CNC machining, many quality manufacturers of bearings can hold ABEC 5 tolerances without really any effort.
I hope this cleared up some confusion for everybody reading. I researched this stuff through and through and had a good discussion with a friend of mine who engineers tooling for various auto manufacturers here in the Detroit area. Between my testing as well as customer feedback, quality wins over whatever said manufacturer puts on the label. As it stands, most manufacturers of flavor-of-the-month bearings do exactly that, market to the uninitiated because higher numbers get product out the door. I hope I've helped you all and if you want to know how to get NMB bearings cheap, I will post my method later on. I do order from Japan, and the bearings end up running $1 to $2 each when bought in packs of 10 or more. Stay tuned!
Glad to see you preaching the gospel of NMB/NSK stock bearings. Glad to see you taking advantage of the cheap bearings while we can
Quote from: Hella Bread on November 11, 2024, 11:05:49 PMQuote from: tincanary on August 30, 2024, 01:35:29 PMWhen it comes to bearings, reels are generally not considered a critical application. Chinese manufacturers can produce bearings of appropriate quality for this application, at a price point lower than any other manufacturer. The main problem with the Chinese manufacturers is poor quality control resulting in inconsistent quality. I've noticed this discrepancy in quality control first hand; a pair of brand new bearings from the same manufacturer in the same series, and one almost always spun better than the other. There is little to no consistence in performance. Quality bearings will spin similarly assuming both are clean and correctly lubricated.
The largest high quality manufacturer is NMB Bearing, a division of MinebeaMitsumi. NMB is the world's largest producer of high precision miniature and instrument bearings, supplying over half of the precision bearings used the world over. Their production facilities are located in Singapore and Thailand. They produce bearings for everything from industrial applications to sensitive instruments to dental tools. They are the real deal, and the prices are much cheaper than just about every overly hyped bearings one can think of.
There are other well known manufacturers in Japan; namely NSK, KOYO, and Nachi who manufacture most or portions of the range of bearings used in most mid to high end JDM, USDM, and EUDM fishing reels. They are slightly higher in cost than NMB due to lesser volume, but still excellent bearings nonetheless. This is why I advocate that people retain the factory bearings if they're self servicing, the stuff you have already is most likely superior to whatever you're getting from AliExpress, Boca, or Roro, assuming it isn't worn out.
In the USA, there are three makers; NHBB, Barden, and Timken. Being domestic suppliers, the largest portion of their products are used by the aviation, aerospace, automotive, and medical industries. None of those companies can compete price wise with the quality Japanese manufacturers referenced above, much less the Chinese. I've priced them for my own uses, and they were a bit too much for me to dip my toe in the pool.
In Europe, GRW is the big player in the high precision instrument bearing market, but like the USA makers, most of their production is for more more critical applications. They are also prohibitively expensive, with GRWs running upwards of $30 USD each if you were to acquire them to use as spool bearings. Abu even uses or did use GRWs in their Ambassadeur Pro Rocket models, and even used them in the 80s and 90s in the 1500C and 2500C variants sold in Europe and Japan.
As far as fishing reel bearings are concerned, the quality choice is NMB, who manufacture consistent quality at reasonable pricing thanks to their volume of production. I run them in all of my reels. They're cheap, durable, and perform very, very well. Even as a reel service owner, I include them with my services as part of my routine. It's simply cheaper for me to swap in new high quality spool bearings than it is for me to go through the trouble of cleaning, testing, maybe cleaning again, and lubricating. They're removed from the package, given a quick clean to remove storage grease, lubricated, and installed. Bing bam boom, done.
Most of the bearings used in fishing reels are of such low mass that if addressed in manufacturing can achieve 50,000 RPM or more. To achieve these speeds the makers place emphasis on retainer materials, machining, ball grade, raceway finish, and lubrication. None of these specifications are controlled by ABEC tolerance standards, they are left entirely to the decision of the manufacturer. This is why ABEC grade has very little to do with bearing performance, but it does make for an easy to sell.
ABEC grades were designated to create a consistent basis for engineers to spec the fitment of a bearing to a shaft or housing. Too loose a fit creates a situation where the bearing isn't correctly seated in place and too tight a fit can compress the bearing rings, removing the internal clearance of the balls, adding friction or even binding. This system was devised in the 30's when machining to hundredths was considered precision. With CNC machining, many quality manufacturers of bearings can hold ABEC 5 tolerances without really any effort.
I hope this cleared up some confusion for everybody reading. I researched this stuff through and through and had a good discussion with a friend of mine who engineers tooling for various auto manufacturers here in the Detroit area. Between my testing as well as customer feedback, quality wins over whatever said manufacturer puts on the label. As it stands, most manufacturers of flavor-of-the-month bearings do exactly that, market to the uninitiated because higher numbers get product out the door. I hope I've helped you all and if you want to know how to get NMB bearings cheap, I will post my method later on. I do order from Japan, and the bearings end up running $1 to $2 each when bought in packs of 10 or more. Stay tuned!
Glad to see you preaching the gospel of NMB/NSK stock bearings. Glad to see you taking advantage of the cheap bearings while we can
Thank you for the advice. I run them in all of my reels now and have healthy back stock should any need replacing.
If dry ceramic bearings are quiet then they have changed a lot since I last used them. They used to make a noticeable and distinctive noise. Sort of a horse hum.
That's not to say that they didn't work better than steel in a casting reel. If I still used ball bearings then that's what I'd go with despite the cost.
An advantage of dry ceramic is that there is no oil to react with moisture and whip up an emulsion. For conventional casting reels, that emulsion is a killer. Even worse you can't keep the water away from the spool bearings because of the clearance between the spinning spool and the frame.
Do you have any 10*19*7 Cardinal 4 size bearings to spare? If so,
I would like 2-ea to test out.PM me the details for payment? I only replace bearings when I get a new reel so no stockpile required.
Thank you,
James
so it's almost a year now.
what I have noticed.
on the bearings that actually have "nmb" stamped on the shield are have been good with a cleaning and 321 oil. some of the other 8x12x3.5 and some other pinion support bearings seem to be acting up rather quickly. I get about 4 trips max out of 8x12x3.5. then they act up and reel gets noisy.
ill post who I purchased from. even though the ad says nmb. I am stating to wonder. can we share who we buy the bearings from to help the community?
I bought mine from the screen name "Maro" I am looking to get more at the moment but hesitant as I am going thru these often. I am even changing my reel rinsing technique to help keep the bearing alive. now misting the reel with hose nozzle on "mist" reels are dried and spools are partially removed in efforts to let the reel dry out.
so 5x11x4 and 5x9x3 are also bearings I swap out often. oddly all on the right side of the reel. if anyone has any insight or suggestions let me know.
Steve,
Which reel uses which bearings,I am curious & I thought
Somewhere here was a master list started?