I have a 10 ball flat gold plated bearing, got it for free so I don’t know much about it. I usually clean all my dirty bearings once every 2-3 weeks and leave the ones that are smooth and clean alone. The gold one isn’t to smooth and feels sticky so I wanted to clean it. I have acetone and zippo lighter fluid would either of those mess up the gold plating?
Go w/the zippo fluid.
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Thanks!!
I would be careful. I did a little research on this bearing after it was last discussed in these forums. It seems the “gold” plating is very thin and can be damaged by some solvents.
Be careful when you do clean and don’t use lube, run it dry or it will only get worse, trust me, experience…
So should I use mineral spirits? Orange degreaser? Any help would be great I also looked online and read the same thing but I asked on here an dude up there said the lighter fluid would work.
I really want to clean it and haven’t yet. I was able to clean my regular bearing so amazingly.
I cleaned them in zippo fluid, then after they dried I rinsed them in acetone then put them in a pot turned the stove on love to use it to evaporate the acetone and sure enough it left each bearing so dry it spun for 20+ secs on a flick. I’ve never been able to get 20+ secs from a flick untill now! This stove drying worked amazing for me best out all the times I’ve cleaned my bearings
That evaporation method sounds interesting. I’d be wary of condensation on your bearings however, unless they’re stainless steel. And you should be able to clean with zippo like jb said, just don’t lubr it with v4m, yyj lube or anything. It will really gunk up the bearing.
Yes they’re all either just stainless steel 8 balls or center trac, KK, 10 balls etc I haven’t cleaned the gold one yet. But yes I’ve cleaned my bearing using acetone a few times and up untill I used the stove to help evaporate the acetone it they wouldn’t spin very long with a flick, but when they’re super dry using that stove method it literally spins 3/4 times more then when I wouldn’t dry them that way.
I’d like to try this method actually…care to explain the process from beginning to end?
Buy a can of air to blow them dry. Works great and safer than a dry pot on the stove.
I’ve used air to blow dry them both with a can and with a hair dryer and neither dried the bearings as well as the stove method I randomly tried out. I will post steps in the morning I’m super tired just finished my HWrk it’s my first semester in college and I’m 22 haha can you tell I’m slow or what?
There is nothing special about that gold coating, don’t worry about damaging it… just clean it as you would any bearing. The ‘gold bearings’ are just high quality, extremely dry bearings when you buy them… over time if they collect dirt and such, they’ll revert to being just normal high quality bearings. The process used to make them strips the metal of all oils and residue using an industrial process with highly regulated chemicals… but it’s temporary.
All methods we use to clean bearings leave a residue behind, over time that gets gummed up a bit and we have to clean it out again… it also helps trap dirt and debris… the gold bearings don’t have this problem initially due to the process used on them, but every bearing gets dirty eventually, and once you clean it, it’s no different than any other good bearing.
Also, to whomever is drying bearings on the stove… putting acetone and heat together is an insanely bad idea… it’s very much flammable and dangerous, not to mention the fumes are carcinogenic. You’ll get the same results with 10 minutes of patience on a paper towel… minus the risks.
Kyle
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[quote=“kyo,post:12,topic:47752”]
Listen to this man. Do not use a stove. Acetone evaporates incredibly quickly, so an extra drying step isn’t really saving you time anyhow.
Paper towel, or if you must accelerate, some compressed air (if canned, don’t use it for too long or it’ll spit condensation. If from a compressor, you probably want a moisture trap attachment, too).
I didn’t have any problem with it but I won’t do it again. To be honest tho I’ve tried air drying with keyboard cleaner as well as air pressure from air compressor. I’ve honestly never had the bearing so well other then when I used the stove method. I can’t say that it’s a good idea but what I can say is be careful if you do try.
After getting rid of as much acetone as I could from flicking them I put them inside a thick pan ten I turned on the stove and held the pan over it without letting it touch. So whatever acetone was left in the bearings was dried up. It’s not much acetone and its near a open window that I did it. I understand tho now that I think about it this was a insanely bad idea and I’m going to try using a hair dryer. Would that be okay?
The compressed air works great that’s how I did it.