Rikon 70-050vs Bearings

[woodwzrd]

Anyone know of a source for replacement spindle bearings for a Rikon 70-050vs lathe? I need to replace the belt on my 12-13 year old lathe because the original finally broke. I have to pull the spindle to replace the belt and figured I would take the opportunity to replace the bearings while it was half tore apart. Rikon's website shows the bearings as out of stock. The description they give for each bearing is...

Mfg# 1-BRG6004-2RSGB276
and
Mfg# 1-BRG6005-2RSV2

I don't know enough about bearing to know if I can just take these descriptions to an auto parts store and have them cross reference to a match.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[egnald]

I see, Rikon part number P70-050VS-15 (BRG6004-2RSGB276) and P70-050VS-4 (BRG6005-2RSV2) are both out of stock at Rikon.

For the first one, well, I am pretty sure that "BRG" denotes the manufacturer which would be Bearing Technologies, Ltd. The 6004 would indicate a 20 mm bearing. Typical would be 20mm inner diameter, 42mm outer diameter, and 12mm thickness. Designed for high speed and high dynamic loads. The "2RS" is a common modifier that indicates the bearing has Rubber Seals on both sides. As to the remainder GB276, I don't have a clue other than I see that reference in bearings for Kawasaki, Homelite, Toyota, and other companies.

As for the second one, again I am pretty sure that "BRG" references Bearing Technologies, 6005 would be a 25mm ball bearing. Typical would be an ID of 25mm, an OD of 47mm, and a width of 12mm. As with the other one, it is designed for high speed and high dynamic loads and the "2RS" would indicate Rubber Seals on both sides. Although the drawing in the manual of part #4 doesn't look like it, often a "V" on a bearing indicates that it it is a V-groove type bearing where the "V" can either be an inward "V" or an outward "V", but that just doesn't seem to serve any purpose for a typical spindle bearing.

I did find P70-050VS-15 Rikon Bearing on ereplacementparts.com, but it says Special Order which means that they order them from Rikon too, so that probably doesn't help since Rikon shows them as out of stock. P70-050VS-4 is the same.

Unless you want to wait until they are back in stock, I suppose you could pick up a 6004-2RS and a 6005-2RS bearing from somewhere in case and check the dimensions when you have your lathe apart. If they don't fit you would be out about $20 bucks or so. I think they are pretty common so you should be able to find them in stock somewhere.

Good Luck - Dave

 

[Steck]

Amazon will have them

 

[Curly]

The bearings should have the standard numbers you need etched on the side, the ones Dave believes they are. Any bearing business near you will have them in stock and if the numbers on the Rikon bearings are gobbledegook or you can't read them they can measure them and get the proper ones that way. They will be off the shelf bearings as nobody makes special bearings unless it is for something exotic and very expensive. The Rikon bearings will be standard and inexpensive to replace. The bearing supplier may also have the belt too or know where to send you.

 

[duncsuss]

Just phone Rikon.

Their customer support is second to none, if they don't have the parts on hand I'm sure they will give you the exact specifications and save you all the guesswork.

 

[egnald]

Just like Curly said. When I first replaced the bearings on my Shop Fox bandsaw, I just took the sticky ones out and used the number on them to identify them. Fortunately, they were a very abundant standard size, a size typically used for inline skates. I bought replacements that came in standard sets of 8 with, in my opinion, superior seals. With seals designed to keep skating dirt out, sawdust doesn't have a chance. I think the wound up costing me less than $2 per bearing - a far cry from the $10 that Shop Fox was asking. - Dave

 

[woodwzrd]

Thank you all for the bearing education. At Dave's direction I searched Amazon and have a set of SFK and a set of Timken bearings in my cart. Of course they come in packs of two but that's ok because I will have a back up set if the bearings in my 70-100 start going. After a quick google search, SFK and Timken are supposed to be in the top five bearing manufactures in the world which is why I chose them, plus they were comparable in price to all of the other brands at $5-6 a bearing.

I sent an email to Rikon Customer service yesterday before I posted here only because I knew I would not be able to call during their open hours but I'm impatient so I turned to the IAP brain trust for the win.

My plan is to pull the old bearings tonight just to check the actual numbers on them before I pull the trigger on ordering the new ones. Per Curly's recommendation, I may just take them to one of the many auto parts stores in town but I won't have time to put anything back together until next week.