Bearing Spinning

Bearing Spinning

How do you get a ball bearing into a piece of wood?

I have an axial ball bearing I am trying to pressure fit into a piece of wood. I need to get it so the wood securely holds the ball bearing, while the inner ring of the ball bearing can freely spin. How do you get it to be secure in the wood?
I have an axial ball bearing I am trying to pressure fit into a piece of wood. I need to get it so the wood securely holds the ball bearing, while the inner ring of the ball bearing can freely spin. How do you get it to be secure in the wood?

-hammering it in, wouldn't that damage the bearing?

I don't know what you are going to use this for so the following might or might not work for you:

Drill a hole in the wood which is exactly the diameter of the bearing. Then drill two holes for bolts and nuts on either side of the bearing hole at right angles. Then saw the wood into two pieces. The saw cut should be at right angles to the bearing hole and the bolt holes and it should the cut the bearing hole exactly in half. Assemble the bearing between the two pieces of wood in its hole (now two half holes) and clamp the two pieces of wood using bolts and nuts in the other two holes. The wood lost from the saw cut will give you enough play to tighten the wood firmly onto the bearing. No need to force the bearing into a hole.

Alternate method: Drill the bearing hole exactly the right size. Freeze the bearing. It should shrink slightly. Insert it into the hole. Hold it in place until it warms up. It should then expand to fit tightly in the hole. This is the opposite of the way they fit iron tires onto wheels. There they make the rim slightly too small, heat it up to expand it and place it around the wheel. It cools and shrinks for a tight fit.

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