Hi folks, this question isn’t directly related to CNCing so excuse me if it doesn’t belong here.
After hours of searching the internet and ruining about half a dozen bearings, I figured I’d ask what seems to be a pretty basic question. I have a 4mm shaft with 4x8mm bearings. Naturally the bearing needs to be tight on the shaft so it doesn’t slip, which makes sliding it in further than the tip of the shaft pretty difficult. In the past I managed to “softly” hammer the bearings inside, but they were bigger. When I tried it with one of these 4mm by tapping it against a table, they barely went in and it also resulted in messing them inside I think. I can now feel the balls as it turns. At some point I even tried heating the bearing, hoping it will expand as a result, but then as it started blowing smoke I recalled it might have some oil or grease inside. So that didn’t work either.
Clearly I have no clue what I’m doing. What’s the proper way to insert a round ball bearing into a shaft?