Neat trick I used to clean cruddy loose bearings

[Guest2]

I wanted to share a quick story from this morning...
I was re-assembling a front hub on a bike I just bought from an awesome Caber buddy, ( Thanks @hm. ) and it was time to clean the loose bearings. I had them soaking in WD-40 & was going to scrub them with a stiff bristled toothbrush. The very 1st one I started on popped out of my fingers, hit the worktable, then that awful sound of it rolling across my deck. Then silence...
It fell between the deck boards....Nooooooooo! Fortunately, I noticed it resting between 2 boards. I grabbed this little stack of very powerful industrial magnets I have from a past job. (the little stack with the Lonestar Beer bottle cap "handle" in the pics)
POP! It flew to the magnet & I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
This gave me a thought...I bet the magnets would hold the bearings while I scrubbed them up. Viola! Worked incredibly well! I was amazed...

Repacked the hub, popped them lil' suckers in, slide in the axle & job complete!
Just thought I'd share, hopin' to save some peeps the headaches of losing bearings...we've all been there!
Thanks

 

[Guest2]

Redneck parts washer!

 

[GTs58]

Harbor Freight has cheap magnetic bowls and I use those at work sometimes to clean very small greasy machine parts like small springs, screws etc.. I have a habit of dropping everything that's small.

 

[Guest2]

Harbor Freight has cheap magnetic bowls and I use those at work sometimes to clean very small greasy machine parts like small springs, screws etc.. I have a habit of dropping everything that's small.

Me too! The West Coast Choppers bowl in the pics is magnetic as well, which has been handy in more than 1 situation!