How To Clean Your Bearings The Easiest Way Tutorial!

How to clean skate bearings

Cleaning your longboard or skateboard bearings is quite a fourth dimension-consuming do, just it's worth doing if y'all've got the time, inclination, and you want to relieve yourself a few quid on some new bearings.

The basic sequence of events we're going to prove you lot goes similar this:

1. Degrease your bearings
2. Clean your bearings
3. Regrease your bearings

At present you know the basics, it's time to go everything y'all need together!

• How to clean your bearings - Pace by Step
• Do I really need to remove the balls and muzzle from my bearings to clean them?
• I damaged the muzzle taking it out. Tin I run my bearings without it?
• I lost a ball bearing... does it thing?
• Can I clean metal shielded skate bearings?
• What happens if I bend the shield accidently?
• Tin y'all use WD40 on skateboard bearings?
• What do you lube skate bearings with?
• Tin can I use regular oil (similar 3 in 1) in my bearings for extra speed?
• Does lubing my skate bearings really make that much of a departure?
• Is white lithium lubricant spray good for bearings?
• Can you over-grease skateboard bearings?
• Can I use olive oil on skateboard bearings?
• I'm lazy and I tin't be bothered with all this. Is there a quick way of cleaning skate bearings?

1. Tools Required

You will need:

• Most half an hour that you value less than spending £fifteen on a new set of bearings. If you're reading this it's probably dark outside, or raining, or both. If it's sunny, terminate right now and go skateboarding - cleaning your bearings is non for daylight!
• Skate Tool or 1/2" Socket to take your wheels off
• Knife bract, pivot or something else small, abrupt and pointy
• Grease - for maximum protection againist water at the expense of roll speed, utilise a thick engine grease. Nosotros recommend Bones Speed Foam or Sabre Bearing Lube - these are skate-specific lubes that don't protect from water ingress besides, only are specially designed for skateboard bearings and rolls much faster. Here'due south a bit more detail on recommended lubes for skate bearings.
• Degreaser or solvent - we utilise Citrus degreaser for this. Petrol is a good culling, as is White Spirit. WD40 works if can't notice anything else. Engine degreaser or similar volition work also. If y'all're really desperate, you can degrease your bearngs with washing up liquid and warm water - only make sure you lot dry out your bearings out afterwards!!!!
• A fleck of rag
• A metal or plastic tin with a chapeau
• A apartment work surface that's clean, dry and well lit.
• Optional - Hair dryer. We're using a heat gun set on the "cold" setting.

3. Remove shields

Use the knife blade or whatsoever you have to remove the rubber shield. Exist very careful not to bend the shield when taking information technology off!!!

Some rubber-shielded bearings ("RS" type) have a tiny gap in between the shield and the inner race - apply this gap if you can to get the shield off, as information technology'due south much less probable to be damaged. You should be able to slide the very tip of your knife to accept the shield off from the inner race - once information technology's free of the inner, it'll merely popular off.

If you accept quality bearings like Basic L2 Bearings, Bronson G3'due south or Sabre Built In Race Bearings, it's likely that your bearings have Labyrinth ("RU") shields. These are a bit harder to get off - over again, go from the inner race, apply the very tip of the pocketknife and be very, very conscientious not to pierce or bend the shield. If your Labyrinth bearings have two shields per begetting, consider simply taking the inner ane off and leaving the outer i alone. Labyrinth bearings are way meliorate sealed anyway, and then they demand cleaning a lot less.

3a. OPTIONAL - Remove cages and balls

If you're feeling brave and really want to practice a proper job, you tin take the assurance and cages out and clean and then individually. Use your knife blade to prize the cage out. Exist VERY conscientious not to damage the muzzle, you're buying new bearings if you practice.

Push button all the balls to one side of the bearing race and drop the inner race out. It brand take a bit of force to do this. Exist VERY careful not to loose any of the balls! If yous insist on doing this step and so we can recommend doing the whole operation on a tea tray with a lip, this way if yous drib anything you shouldn't loose information technology. A well-organised and well-lit working surface area really pays off hither.

4. Soak

Put the bearings in your tin, and make full with degreaser. Put the lid on the tin, give everything a skilful milk shake. You tin leave the bearings for a few minutes/and 60 minutes/overnight if y'all're not in a blitz - it'll help all the one-time grease and dirt come off.

5. Make clean

Employ your rag to make clean each begetting, spinning it until it'south smoothen. If you've taken all the balls and races out, put the bearings back together after you've cleaned each role individually.

6. Dry

You lot tin just get out your bearings to dry, or yous tin can give them a quick smash with a pilus dryer to speed things upward. About degreasers simply evaporate by themselves fairly rapidly.

7. Regrease

If you're using a thin grease, dab a spot on each ball. If you lot're using a thicker grease to continue the water out, pack the race full of it!

See our recommendations for greasing skate bearings here.

eight. Put Shields Back on

If you lot managed to keep your shields apartment when you lot took them off, they should only drib directly back in. Delight be gentle to avoid bending!

If y'all did bend a shield, information technology might be better to leave information technology off and put the shieldless side dorsum in on the within of the cycle. Decent bearings similar Bones Bearings only have on shield anyway.

9. Reassemble and skate!

Put information technology all back together and go for a curlicue on your smooth new bearings!

Step 3A seems pretty hardcore. Do I really demand to remove the balls and muzzle?

You can definitely skip this footstep if you lot're not feeling dauntless.

Whilst removing each ball does let y'all to clean each private brawl and check the races for wear, it does make the whole process a lot more time consuming and fiddly. Your chances of loosing or damaging something are besides increased, so it could event in being more than expensive if you end upward having to purchase new bearings anyway.

back to top

I bent or damaged the cage in Footstep 3A. Tin I run my bearings without the muzzle?

No. Please don't try.

back to elevation

Tin I clean metallic shielded skate bearings?

Cheaper skate bearings have a metallic shield, which is much harder to remove.

If yous accept metal shielded bearings there will exist a circlip that holds the shield in place, just pop this out with a pivot and the shield should come off.

Proper skate bearings have rubber shields partly becuase they are much easier to remove without damaging them. Metal shielded bearings are a lot more fiddly to bargain with.

dorsum to acme

What happens if I bend the shield accidently?

It'due south VITAL that the shields remain flat.

A bent shield volition result in a rough-rolling bearing, with a bad seal. It's possible to unbend a aptitude shield, but information technology needs to be perfectly apartment in social club to exercise information technology'southward job.

We would suggest that if y'all bend a shield taking it off, y'all're probably amend off only running your bearings with a single shield on the outside of the bearing, leaving the inner side unshielded.

dorsum to height

Tin can y'all utilise WD40 on skateboard bearings?

NO. WD40 is a degreaser - not a grease!!

The object of cleaning your bearings is to remove all the grease, clean the bearings, then add together grase back in. Spraying WD40 will remove the quondam grease, but information technology won't clean your bearings, and it won't regrase them subsequently.

Filling your bearings with WD40 and skating them without regreasing will result in destroyed bearings. Don't say we didn't warn you lot!

While nosotros're here, WD40, GT85, PTFE spray and similar "teflon" based lubricants are REALLY bad for the environs. They usually comprise Perfluorooctanoic Acid ("C8"), a toxic long chain carbon chemical which cannot be broken down natually and persists in the environment for centuries. Look for "PFOA gratuitous" on your degreasing/lubrication products!

What practise you lot lube skate bearings with?

When you cull a lube for your skate bearings, you can choose rolling speed, or long life. All skate lube is a compromise between these two things.

• For 98% of skaters reading this, we recommend a thin bearing grease like Sabre Bearing Lube, Basic Speed Cream, Tri Flow, Sewing Machine Oil, Dry Chain Lube (for bikes) or similar. Synthetic Engine Oil works quite well too...!
• For skating in the rain where coil speed is less important than keeping h2o out, we recommend something similar a Marine grease or engine grease - the thick green or blueish stuff that you go out of a grease gun or in a tub. Pack your bearings full of grease and they will concluding a lot longer! This is also a good option if you are lazy and can't be bothered to make clean your bearings often.
• For maximum speed, If you lot actually await subsequently your bearings and don't mid lubing them really regularly, the you can use a very light oil - but please read the 3in1 point below! Oil allows the bearing to spin really really fast, only you'll demand to keeo them lubed and your bearings will have no protection if you lot skate in the rain.

back to top

Tin can I employ regular oil (like three in 1) in my bearings for extra speed?

Yes - see higher up - Merely be enlightened that centrifugal force will spin oil out of your bearings and you'll demand to regrease them regularly to stop them seizing upward.

It'due south suprising how fast an oiled begetting looses its lubrication, and as before long as there'southward nothing left to lubricate the bearing, you lot risk overheating it and melting a wheel. Aye, y'all read that correct... and trust united states, melting or "puking" a wheel is not something yous desire to experience first hand!!

back to top

Does lubing my skate bearings really make that much of a difference?

Yep - but information technology is quite fiddly and time consuming, and then a lot of skaters only buy fresh bearings instead.

Cleaning your bearings is a good way to rescue a set that yous have skated in the rain, and will prolong their life quite substantially, saving yous some cash in the long run. But nosotros find that wheel option makes more than of a departure than cleaning your bearings, unless your bearings are really and so bad that they hardly spin circular.

One thing yous tin can practise that volition really aid is to keep a set of skate bearings filled with as thicker grease as your "rain" bearings that you tin can abuse, and then accept a gear up of dainty make clean ones for when information technology'southward dry. Ten minutes in moisture weather condition can be enough to destroy a skillful set of skate bearings, so it's worth keeping a nice set up back for special occasions.

dorsum to height

Is white lithium lubricant spray good for bearings?

Not actually. Aerosol spray on grease is messy to apply, and evapourates to nothing leaving your bearings unlubricated. You are much ameliorate off with a thick grease from a tub, or a super-light grease from a pipette (like the skate-specific lubes we offering here).

back to peak

Can you over-grease skateboard bearings?

If you lot want maximum curl speed, also much grease will tiresome your bearings down. Still, a grease-filled begetting will be really expert at keeping water and dirt out, and volition final a lot longer before it needs cleaning. So if y'all skate in the rain a bit, then make full 'em up!

back to top

Can I use olive oil on skateboard bearings?

(Facepalm)

back to top

I'm lazy and I tin't be bothered with all this. Is there a quick way of cleaning skate bearings?

The super quick and dirty way to make your bearings run faster is to just chuck some Bearing Lube in there.

This might do quite a good job of pushing whatsoever moisture out and preventing whatsoever rust - but it will not remove any dirt from your bearings, which is what causes them to wear and run slowly.

Lubing without cleaning can produce suprisingly good results if you exercise it often, but we actually recommend doing a full strip-down clean every now and and so to prolong your bearing life and get maximum speed out of your bearings.

back to elevation

How To Clean Your Bearings The Easiest Way Tutorial!,

Source: https://vandemlongboardshop.co.uk/pages/how-to-clean-skate-bearings

Posted by: thompsongreirrom.blogspot.com

Share this post