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Comments
Just completed order for 50 NMB 608ZZCM !
https://www.ebay.com/itm/50-NEW-NMB-608ZZCM-DOUBLE-SHIELDED-SKATEBOARD-BEARINGS-NIP-MAKE-OFFER/331655099699?hash=item4d382f3533:g:jH0AAOSwo~pc8StA
Nice, they seem like great bearings to me so far. If you wanted to stock up on more those links I sent seem to be a very good price and I think have a ''best offer'' option so maybe you can get them even cheaper.
My NMB bearings say 627 Thailand on them.
Yeah, can't tell where these are from, inspecting the listing. I saw other NMB offered online that said Thailand. These are the only NMB 608zz I saw. Well, I did see some at Alibaba.com but couldn't order without a complex registration process that broke down on me, I finally went "meh," IIRC they didn't have a quantity/price quote, the page doesn't seem to be set up for independent buyers. They wanted to know what valid company I worked for!
Yup, I was thinking another sleeve of 50 might be a great idea. I'll see what I get, make sure I like them. Got two sets of Kryptonic 70mm 78A wheels delivered a few days ago. I figure slap these NMB's in those wheels and have quick change-outs any old time, using my socket and cordless screwdriver! 🧐
Edit: Ah! Looking at the listing image of the packaging closely (in magnification) I see that it specifies Singapore!
I'm not sure if there's any difference between the Singapore and Thailand ones, probably not. I tried the exact same thing on alibaba and gave up as well hahaha.
At worst, you'll have a bunch of spare bearings you can use in an emergency or give away. But from what I have experienced they seem to be really good overall, especially for the price it's an absolute steal compared to buying skate branded bearings.
I'm optimistic about those NMB bearings.
Been buying various skating accessories recently. The NMB bearings are in shipment. As stated, have 2 brand new sets of Kryptonics 70mm 78A wheels, and a 3rd set that I recently started rolling that have the Oldboy ceramic bearings in them that I mentioned above. They could maybe stand a cleaning already after the close to 500 miles I've put on them over the last few months rolling the street.
I also have two new unused sets of ceramic bearings I bought over the summer/fall: Kveni ceramic I got off Amazon and a set of 16 Kwik ceramic gold nitride coated surface ceramic bearings, favorite of @sevenspirals who posts here.
I recently finally received a bearing cleaning bottle from IIRC Singapore that remains in its shipping plastic! It accommodates 16 bearings, if I read the ebay listing right. I have some acetone, but am low. I have some gasoline! Paint thinner too. Even some 99% alcohol! Yesterday I ordered a set of dental picks off Ebay. I hope they will enable me to pull off shields from double sided bearings, if I need to.
How does the cleaning bottle compare to the Bones one and is the listing still up? The one I have only allows for about 8 bearings, but seems to do a good job. Recently I've been using an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner to clean bearings though.
Opened the NMB 608zz bearings roll (50) packaging.
Not what I was expecting.
The packaging (which can be seen on the Ebay listing) shows manufacture in Singapore. However, oddly, the bearings themselves, on both shields show this:
NMB 608zz Japan
The bearings were (according to the packaging, and I don't doubt it) manufactured in Oct. 2013. I figure the roll was sitting in a warehouse all this time. Maybe it suffered excess heat sometimes. Whatever the reason, there's a dark patch running all along the length of the interior of the roll, which I take to be the lubricant having leaked out of the bearings and formed something like a puddle at the bottom. Removing the end caps, I took out 3 bearings. They are covered in a very very sticky goo. Holding the bearings between thumb and forefinger and spinning, they don't spin at all. I feel much resistance. I figure that skating on them won't bring the lubricant back to life. Heating from friction will likely do little to eliminate the resistance. I realized right away that I'd have to clean the bearings.
Soaking (and shaking) in a jar with gasoline removed most of the sticky goo. After wiping off the gasoline, adding a drop of 3 in 1 Oil may have helped. I can get the 3 bearings I worked with to spin for 11, 9, 6 seconds (they vary!).
I suppose they're good enough bearings once cleaned and lubricated, and I figure I shouldn't be surprised.
Don't know if I should use 3 in 1 Oil as lubricant, but figure it's maybe OK. I have lots of sewing machine oil too. Without taking off a shield I figure I can't get a thicker lubricant inside, and I prefer to not deal with shield removal and replacement if I can help it.
I figure to clean all 50 of these NMB bearings with acetone when I get a good supply, which should be soon. I got my first covid-19 vaccination dose 1 week ago. The 16 bearing capacity plastic cleaning bottle I bought from Shanghei off Ebay for less than $8 shipped works well:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/402576438815
Put them in a mesh bag with detergent and washed them along with the rags from every-day engineering/repair stuff. After drying them, pack 'em with grease and roll into the sunset. XD
Bearings usually come pre packed with grease. What appears to be sticky glue would suggest an anti rust coating
Oil wouldn't be the best idea especially if it's thin & watery like any engine oil. Even diff oil would get spat out pretty quick. There are treacle like oils (really thick & tacky. Would require heating first to make it runny)
chainbar lube for a chainsaw would be a reasonable one (mild heat applied from a saucepan will aid penetration. Yes i've used this method) however like any oil your wheels will need cleaning as the oil when it gets spat out collects a ton of dust & crap lol
The bearings i used chain bar lube on were brand new from china & were as tho they were used. Horrible bearings, even the bearing cages touch the inner race & the seals may as well not be there since they don't actually seal anything,however they'll do for now hahaha
Faking it till i make it
I had some oil specifically sold for chainsaw chain lubrication (if that's what you're referring to), but last time I needed any for my electric (pole) chainsaw I bought a bottle of canola oil. It's eco-friendly and does an OK job according to the info I found online.
Seems that there's not a lot of consensus on how to lubricate skate bearings. I've seen all kinds of suggestions, many contradicting others. Really, it's hard for me to think that what I just received off Ebay, those NMB 608zz's made in Singapore or Japan (I suppose I should honor what it says on the bearing shields more than on the packaging), are OK to use as is. They won't spin at all right now and are super sticky. That can't be anti-rust formulation, after all they were in a plastic sleeve and the joints at both ends were covered with plastic tape. I don't see how moisture could penetrate that.
Interesting to hear your bearing story. They obviously didn't send you the same bearings as advertised so I'd contact them and see if there's anything to be done about that.
However I also got some new old stock bearings (NOT NMB) recently that also has that sticky thing you described and didn't roll well.
However once I put them in the wheels they spun just fine, so I don't trust free spin at all. I would use them as is, then just pry off the shields and clean them once they get dirty from using them for a while.
Gasoline seems to remove the sticky stuff readily enough, and I have already done that with about 20 of the 50 bearings. I don't have much acetone left, but used some in an attempt to further clean the 20 bearings. Unfortunately, the plastic cleaning bottle system I received from Shanghei wasn't up to the acetone. The bottle itself may be fine, but they supplied little plastic washers to place between the bearings. I figured them for nylon (they are whitish), but the acetone attacked them terribly. They didn't totally dissolve, but I'd say that 50% of their mass was dissolved into the acetone their whitish substance was all over the bearings, interior of the bottle and the threaded bolt in the cleaning devise!!! Ugh! I reasoned that the thing to do was to remove and discard what was left of those 16 plastic washers and replace each one with 2 steel washers and the now-covered-in-white-plastic bearings and reclean with acetone in that bottle. I did this a few times. The bearings seem pretty clean now. I figure that any plastic inside the bearings will probably not withstand the steel parts inside and will be whittled away soon enough when skating. Anyway, they spin decently now.
Around 4 of the 20 bearings I cleaned don't spin nearly as well as the others. I've got them soaking in gasoline now, hoping they'll come around. If they don't, I'll simply discard them.
I still am not certain what I'll use for lubrication, maybe a drop of 3 in 1 Oil placed on the edge of the bearing. Presumably that drop gets drawn into the bearing when spun by hand and distributed within to the races, balls and cage structure.
I just have no confidence that skating the uncleaned bearings is smart. I can't imagine that the heat generated by the friction of skating will transform what's in those bearings into a lubricant. I think whatever was in there has likely deteriorated into something completely other than a lubricant, thus think removing it with gasoline and/or acetone is the thing to do. They then seem (mostly) to spin freely, but figure some lubricant should be used, maybe not so much to reduce friction when skating as to reduce the wear they will experience without lubrication (??).
Hmm I will be testing them out with that substance so I'll let you know if they fail or not haha.
I just ordered a 12 pack of zoom spout turbine oil to lube some bearings, I'm just not going to worry about it since that's what my coach has used for years and I destroy bearings so easily anyway.
@Muse, I generally don't open up double metal shielded bearings. That's the point of the two shields. It does a yeoman's service keeping the dirt out, and keeps them from needing routine cleaning. If they get the the point where they need to be cleaned, use a sharp pick and pry out one side. If it's a metal shielded bearing, chances are good that you've just converted it to single shield. Some shields like the Qube, Bones, others, are soft and can be replaced.
Because bearings and their uses are so varied, there's no One True Answer.
@Muse, regarding your tube of NMB bearings, I would not expect the best one on the planet to spin in your hand. That's in no way an adequate test. Those bearings are greased and will last a lifetime, but even with a wheel on them, are not going to just spin forever. On your skates however, they'll be smooth and quiet.
After soaking them in solvent and whatever else, you've almost certainly compromised the lubricant inside, so you're going to have to remove one shield and clean them out and lubricate them. They're still good bearings, but no longer have the benefit of being sealed on both sides. 3-N-1 is a perfectly adequate lubricant for skate bearings.
Well, I only cleaned (soaked in solvents) about 20 of those 50 NMB bearings. I find it hard to believe the other 30 will work as-is in skates. Perhaps if I wipe off the gummy/sticky stuff on the surface? You're suggesting that skating on them will loosen (reinvigorate) the lubricant inside? If you really think so I'll try that.
It's not possible to remove one shield from the bearings I already soaked in solvents, lube and effectively replace the removed shields?
They should spin a bit as there's very little grease in them. Just a few back & forth motion on your palm should create enough friction to get them to spin a little bit, even if it's only about 4 or so revolutions. Use a heat gun or direct sunlight & warm them up & see what happens. The tack on the outside shouldn't make a dam bit of difference unless it's internal. Open one up will tell you what you need to know & how to proceed
Faking it till i make it
The materials used in bearings are one of the primary things to consider when buying. Bearings are normally engineered from either steel or ceramic, with the former considered as the industry standard.
Steel bearings are the preferred choice because of their value, especially if you are replacing your bearings for the first time.
Ceramic bearings are gaining traction in the community because they are smooth, thus producing little friction for smoother rolling. Because they are more resistant to dust and rust, ceramic bearings are designed to require no maintenance. They are a value for money in the long run because they require little or less maintenance.
For those with an extra budget, titanium bearings are a great option. They perform smoothly the way steel bearings do, and are lightweight and highly rust-resistant for longer-lasting performance.
When it comes to ceramics it's best to follow the manufacturer's specifications as they may recommend not using solvents to clean or specify using grease vs oil as well as when to clean. They'll also specify the amount of lube required & type. For longevity of anything it always comes down to maintaining
Faking it till i make it