Full complement ceramic bearings

[Albert Araujo]

OK Mark and David,

I just spent a small fortune buying ABEC 5 full ceramic bearings for my engines. These are full ceramic on the races and the balls with the plastic retainers, NO METAL AT ALL. What is the final deal with this???? I got confused in reading the last post from Mark regarding the heat in the CNC machines and not sure if this comment was regarding the ceramics. I understand that tighter fits develop more heat from the oil and require cooling in the CNC machines. I had several of these machines and know the drill. My bottom line question is if the ABEC 5 full ceramic races and balls will work well in our engines. My primary reason is to not worry any longer about the nitro and water tarnishing the surface finish of the balls and races.

Bottom line is what is the very best bearing for our engines leaving cost aside? Is it a full comp steel race with ceramic balls, steel on steel with retainer or full ceramic all the way through. Now on the full ceramic would a full comp work better or with the plastic retainer?????

Albert

 

[tnrcboatracer]

In my experience, the most important thing is the fit. Also the flushing of the motor at the end of each run. I would be concerned with the ceramic races standing up to the hammering of our motors. The full ceramics work well in turbines and dental drills at 100,000 rpm. But again these are not subjected to hammering loads. These applications also preset the axial load. Our motors do not. None of the 100+ CNC spindles in my plant use ceramic bearings. They have mist lube and run at 10,000 rpm. Our bearings are from NTN and are a mix of angular contact and roller bearings,

 

[dwilfong]

Albert

I have bin running full complement bearings now for about 6 months. the bearings where all sent to Greg Settle to have them checked and reballed with the right radial clearance. the balls are ceramic of the highest grade made. All the bearings are checked first to see what the run out is then the radial clearance is checked. now the bearing is dis assembled and the balls replaced with ones of the right size to obtain the radial clearance needed. this will be different depending on if is the front or rear bearing. thy take different clearance settings.

The full complement set at the right clearance with ceramic balls and cryro treated steel races will not swap steel. thy run very free and will spin up quicker.

Greg has spent many years testing bearings in nitro eng to obtain the right fit needed to run at high RPM's.

His bearings have bin used in many record setting eng's

As for the full complement this is some thing he did for me as I wanted to test them.

Thy hold up much better than any bearing I have used so far.

The bearings I sent him where less than $10 and he redid them for $35 so thy are a very good bargain to boot.

My RS 1.01 loves theses bearings.

 

[Albert Araujo]

Albert

I have bin running full complement bearings now for about 6 months. the bearings where all sent to Greg Settle to have them checked and reballed with the right radial clearance. the balls are ceramic of the highest grade made. All the bearings are checked first to see what the run out is then the radial clearance is checked. now the bearing is dis assembled and the balls replaced with ones of the right size to obtain the radial clearance needed. this will be different depending on if is the front or rear bearing. thy take different clearance settings.

The full complement set at the right clearance with ceramic balls and cryro treated steel races will not swap steel. thy run very free and will spin up quicker.

Greg has spent many years testing bearings in nitro eng to obtain the right fit needed to run at high RPM's.

His bearings have bin used in many record setting eng's

As for the full complement this is some thing he did for me as I wanted to test them.

Thy hold up much better than any bearing I have used so far.

The bearings I sent him where less than $10 and he redid them for $35 so thy are a very good bargain to boot.

My RS 1.01 loves theses bearings.

David, I purchased full ceramic bearings, balls and races. Can Mark give us the specks to have them built to? For the money I am paying I might as well get them with the correct fit from factory. Have you ever run the full ceramics? They were not available back when we built our turbines or we would have runn them. Let me know about Mark and if you have run the full ceramics. My guess is that if built with correct fit they must be awesome.

 

[NeilLickfold]

I have bin messing with some new bearing and thought I would let every one know the results now that I have some run time on them.

I bought some inexpensive full complement bearing made for mountain bike hubs. $6 each.

Thy are made with steel balls. not very good ones at that.

I sent some to Greg Settle to check out and the races turn out to be real nice and true.

Greg re-balled the bearing with the right size top grade balls to set the clearance to his specks.

Thy are looser than any stock bearing out there and are set to the right clearance using differing size balls.

Well I have run them in my RS 1.01 now and have 3 gallons of fuel on them. thats about 20 runs.

thy are as smooth as if thy where never run.

Wiss or other bearings I have use would be done by now and need changing.

The front bearing was always the one going bad quick.

Not any more!!!!!!

The full complement is taking the load real good and the balls are not swapping steel with the races.

Thy are the way to go If you ask me.

I am sold!!!!!!!

I know this is an old post. Do any photo's of your bearings? How were these created ?

Thanks, Neil

 

[lohring]

The model gas turbines have been running full complement ceramic ball bearings for years. They operate at a lot higher rpm and temperature than our bearings. The pounding is less, naturally, but the hardness and smoothness of the balls means they don't generate heat and wear when they rub. These days a lot of people run them successfully. I was impressed a few years ago with how smooth they ran in a K&B outboard pto.

Lohring Miller