Best pillow block bearings?

[Oil pan 4]

In your opinion what is the best brand of pillow block bearing for longevity in 1 inch size?
I need ones that seal up for my stump grinder. Dirt gets inside them I get accelerated wear spinning at 2,400rpm. Mainly on the pulley side bearing the one that sees the most stress. I have less than 10 hours on it and I'm already getting the slightest little bit of play. I pump them full of grease about 7 pumps after every use.
The idle side has no play, yet.
I have one extra cheap one and I would be fine running the cheap one on the idle side. The pulley side I have to take it all apart to get to it.

 

[mcfarmall]

Dodge, Link-Belt, anything with rubber seals versus shields.

 

[Tx Jim]

I saw this company mentioned on another forum but I've never needed to order a brg from them.

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[GreensvilleJay]

Any way you can modify to add a 2nd bearing assy ?
I did that to a manure spreader beaters drive and solved the 'needs new bearings AGAIN' problem.

 

[D2Cat]

If you have an industrial bearing supplier handy they can advise on quality, mfg, availability, and save you money over other suppliers.

 

[ferguson]

Was in the Quarry biz, 30 yrs any name brand / grease is key any kind & not to over grease

 

[Dustyx2]

Highly likely over greasing is causing your failures. Factory fill on a typical ball bearing is 30%, not because they're trying to save money on grease, but because more than that creates internal friction from churning the grease and causes the rolling elements to skate instead of turn. The extra grease also causes heat.
If you're getting dirt in the bearings they need to be shielded somehow. if you have a manual of this, does it have a recommendation for greasing?

 

[Oil pan 4]

The ones I have now can't be over greased. They have a very tiny gap all the way around on both sides, problem is it let's grease out at high rpm.
I have seen larger ones, about 3 inches with a felt seal, if you put too many pumps of grease in them they blow out the seal and putting it back in with a little screw driver sucks.
I worked in the worlds most powerful cheese plant for 7 years, I always pumped any pillow block that wasn't one of those felt seal units full of grease. Bearings on my side of the production line by far lasted the longest, by several times compared other guys who were worried about "over greasing" and we're only putting a few pumps of grease in 2 and 3+ inch bearings. I was doing like 20 to 70 pumps.
The brand they used was "seal master". But seal master doesn't appear to make 1 inch pillow blocks or I just can't find them.

I built my stump grinder mostly out of junk I had laying around, no manual.

 

[Tughill Tom]

SKF, Lee, Browning it's a long list. Think about switching over to a Roller instead of a ball style. Also look into a grease relief so it can't be over greased.

 

[Oil pan 4]

I looked around and found a place that has Timken 1 inch pillow blocks instock. From what few good upclose pictures I can find on the Internet it looks like the timkin pillow blocks have a grease gap too, but it's like a flange where the excess grease will have to flow along the inside diameter of the bearing houseing.
Problem with the cheap ones is the gap runs along the outside of the bearing, so when bearing is spinning over 2,000rpm and nearly all the grease just slings out along that edge gap.

 

[Dustyx2]

The ones I have now can't be over greased. They have a very tiny gap all the way around on both sides, problem is it let's grease out at high rpm.
I have seen larger ones, about 3 inches with a felt seal, if you put too many pumps of grease in them they blow out the seal and putting it back in with a little screw driver sucks.
I worked in the worlds most powerful cheese plant for 7 years, I always pumped any pillow block that wasn't one of those felt seal units full of grease. Bearings on my side of the production line by far lasted the longest, by several times compared other guys who were worried about "over greasing" and we're only putting a few pumps of grease in 2 and 3+ inch bearings. I was doing like 20 to 70 pumps.
The brand they used was "seal master". But seal master doesn't appear to make 1 inch pillow blocks or I just can't find them.

Was any failure analysis done on the bearings at the "most powerful cheese plant"? We have had Timken come in to analyze failures and make recommendations. In my career as a machinist and now maintenance/millwright I have attended both Timken and SKF "Bearing Maintenance Training" schools over the past 35 years. I've installed bearings from 1/4" shaft to over 30" and everything in-between so I've been round a little. A sealed greased for life bearing might be the best bet on your stump grinder. Do you have any pictures of this pillow block set up? That wouldn't be my first choice for that application.

 

[GeoHorn]

With respect toward Mr. Dusty… I believe “over greasing” is a red herring. While it’s wasteful and sloppy…it cannot cause bearing failure. (It can cause seal failure however, and that can allow dirt to get inside the bearing raceway and contribute to mechanical failure.)

What CAN cause bearing failure is using the Wrong Type of grease. For example, using a “moly” grease on a roller or ball bearing can cause the type failure Dusty describes because “moly” will allow the roller or ball to “slide” rather than “roll”. That will rapidly fail the bearing.

Moly grease is intended for pins and bushings not bearings.

Cheap bearings from china are common these days and should be avoided.

Good brands are Timken, Torrington, SKF, NSK. And buy from authorized distributors and bearing companies…NOT from Ebay or online discounters to avoid counterfeits.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Bearing type also plays a big part in 'wear'.
'stump grinder', 1" shaft, I don't think a ball bearing would be the best choice considering the rotating mass and the stress of 'chipping',there's also a LOT of side to side stress involved. Has to be a website somewhere that details bearing choice. I know bearings are rated for speed (RPM)as well as axial loads.

Keeping 'dirt' (grit, sand,slivers) out could be as easy as cutting up an old inner tube into a protective 'booty' with an access 'flap' to grease the Zerks

Is the cutting wheel perfectly balanced ? If off just a tad that could affect bearing life as the shaft is going 'up-down' every revolution. maybe not much (1-2 thou) BUT over time it's not good !

it'd be interesting to see what Vermeer and the other 'big boys' do/use ,cause they seem to run great ,all friggin day long , around here...

 

[lynnmor]

This company is a customer of mine, he can do lubricant and bearing analysis.

 

[Dustyx2]

With respect toward Mr. Dusty… I believe “over greasing” is a red herring. While it’s wasteful and sloppy…it cannot cause bearing failure. (It can cause seal failure however, and that can allow dirt to get inside the bearing raceway and contribute to mechanical failure.)

What CAN cause bearing failure is using the Wrong Type of grease. For example, using a “moly” grease on a roller or ball bearing can cause the type failure Dusty describes because “moly” will allow the roller or ball to “slide” rather than “roll”. That will rapidly fail the bearing.

Moly grease is intended for pins and bushings not bearings.

Cheap bearings from china are common these days and should be avoided.

Good brands are Timken, Torrington, SKF, NSK. And buy from authorized distributors and bearing companies…NOT from Ebay or online discounters to avoid counterfeits.

And you would be absolutely wrong. I've seen it in electric motors and the schools had boxes of failed bearings showing different failure modes and how to identify them. Over greasing was one of them.
Rolling elements skating instead of rolling damages both the rolling elements and the races and any grease can do that. It's the being over filled and increased friction that is the problem.

Other than the "cannot cause bearing failure", the rest of your post is spot on.

 

[Oil pan 4]

Was any failure analysis done on the bearings at the "most powerful cheese plant"? We have had Timken come in to analyze failures and make recommendations. In my career as a machinist and now maintenance/millwright I have attended both Timken and SKF "Bearing Maintenance Training" schools over the past 35 years. I've installed bearings from 1/4" shaft to over 30" and everything in-between so I've been round a little. A sealed greased for life bearing might be the best bet on your stump grinder. Do you have any pictures of this pillow block set up? That wouldn't be my first choice for that application.

Since the old bearing almost always have to be cut off the shafts it's pretty easy to tell how they failed. Corrosion and lack of lube is the main reason, outside of the line I worked on. My bearings failed because they just plumb wore out or abuse, undersized for the job.

 

[Tughill Tom]

Since the old bearing almost always have to be cut off the shafts it's pretty easy to tell how they failed. Corrosion and lack of lube is the main reason, outside of the line I worked on. My bearings failed because they just plumb wore out or abuse, undersized for the job.

I've changed a lot of bearings and I count on one hand that needed be to cut off????

 

[Oil pan 4]

And you would be absolutely wrong. I've seen it in electric motors and the schools had boxes of failed bearings showing different failure modes and how to identify them. Over greasing was one of them.
Rolling elements skating instead of rolling damages both the rolling elements and the races and any grease can do that. It's the being over filled and increased friction that is the problem.

Other than the "cannot cause bearing failure", the rest of your post is spot on.

I'm not wrong and these are pillow blocks, not electric motors. I can't over grease these.
Did you read any of the post? My problem is nearly all the grease flings out of my pillow block bearings within a minute or 2 of startup and dirt gets inside the bearings because it's a stump grider.
The original application for these bearings was not a stump grinder and ran 360rpm or less, I built that project back in 2018 and it still has the original bearings, these were leftover/spares.
I'm well aware of over greasing motor bearings. One bank of motors I worked, are little 700hp motors that ran 24/7 for months at a time. The only way to manually lube them was to put 3 to 5 pumps of grease at a time every few hours or the bearings would over heat, as there were temperature probes installed in the motor next to the bearings. Eventually I got the boss to install auto greasers, problem solved.

 

[Oil pan 4]

With respect toward Mr. Dusty… I believe “over greasing” is a red herring. While it’s wasteful and sloppy…it cannot cause bearing failure. (It can cause seal failure however, and that can allow dirt to get inside the bearing raceway and contribute to mechanical failure.)

What CAN cause bearing failure is using the Wrong Type of grease. For example, using a “moly” grease on a roller or ball bearing can cause the type failure Dusty describes because “moly” will allow the roller or ball to “slide” rather than “roll”. That will rapidly fail the bearing.

Moly grease is intended for pins and bushings not bearings.

Cheap bearings from china are common these days and should be avoided.

Good brands are Timken, Torrington, SKF, NSK. And buy from authorized distributors and bearing companies…NOT from Ebay or online discounters to avoid counterfeits.

My problem is there never was a seal.
I figured it could be a problem, but greasing it after every use would make the life acceptable. Nope.
I think the higher loaded bearing on the pulley side is going to be gone by 24hrs of run time. I have one more spare so I'm not broke down when it goes.
I bought these bearings for another project, that was only ever going to run a max speed of about 360rpm, not nearly as much load, kept/used inside, essentially no dust, no water and they have lasted 4 years and at least several hundred, probably over 1,000 hours by now. They get one pump of grease on each bearing after every use and that makes a little grease squirt out around the gap. Just to keep what little shop dust there is on the outside of the bearings as I may not use that machine for up to a few months at a time.

 

[Oil pan 4]

I've changed a lot of bearings and I count on one hand that needed be to cut off????

It's a wash down environment with loads of corrosive chemicals being used. The corrosive chemical is one of the big reasons why I don't work there any more. We expect any bearing replacement require the old one to be cut off. If it came off with out cutting it off, we just got lucky that time.