anybody tried these? if so, how much better/worse is the performance compared to other bearings?
Mercury if handled is extremely toxic and can drive you insane why would you ever want to try this?
its a brand of bearingsā¦
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it is necessary, trust me.
Oh i totally knew that 
They are cheap bearings that have been cleaned extremely well. They are cleaned with an industrial (highly regulated) process that basically sucks all of the oils out of the metal. They are ultra-clean.
When we clean our bearings with things like acetone, mineral spirits, etc. there is a residue left behindā¦ they are never truly ācleanā. This residue is actually part of the reason we eventually have to clean them againā¦ it starts to break down and attracts particles which then stick.
The process used for the āmercuryā bearings uses very strong chemicals that leave no residue behindā¦ they are the closest you will get to bare metal. This means that in theory, they spin more freely than other bearings, and wonāt get dirty as quickly as those packed with oils/greases/etc.
However, the nature of bearings is to eventually get dirtyā¦ especially when you surround them with things like response pads, dirty string, etc. You will eventually have to clean the bearing yourself, at which time it will be absolutely no different than any other bearing you can buy. My problem with mercury bearings is that while they will perform well initially, when they eventually revert back to ānormalā bearings, they arenāt particularly high qualityā¦ so some will be good, some wonāt, some will seize up due to the wear and tear of not having any protective oilsā¦ youāre never quite sure what youāre going to get.
Also, if you see those āgoldā bearingsā¦ re-read this entire post and substitute āgold bearingā for āmercuryāā¦ same exact thing, just with a pretty coating to help prolong the bearing life.
Kyle
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Mercury is liquid at room temperature. not sure how that would work outā¦
Iāve never tried one. I donāt buy specialty bearings.
As mentioned already in this thread, āmercury bearingā is simply the BRAND of the bearingā¦ itās a name, not a literal description. It was used because they are copies of the idea behind the āgold bearingā that was popular at the timeā¦ but they were silver colored, not goldā¦ so they were called mercury bearins.
Kyle
yeah i tried the gold. very good for a while but then died haha. thanks for the info though.
I was under the impression that the gold layer does some pretty gross stuff as it wears down, killing the bearing fairly quickly. Iāve always avoided them.