Since gears seem to be the topic of the month, I borrowed an idea from a guy on YouTube who built new arbor plates to allow for pressing off carrier & axle bearings.
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1” thick steel (needed 14” but had to buy 10’), drilled out to 3/4”. Let me tell you, that drilling was hard. With the final plunge, I broke my free-to-me low-end HF drill press. So I moved over to my impact, which does surprisingly well (I had used it earlier in the long drilling process), but then it snapped off. Fortunately I had bored out enough to get the bolt through. I’ve been wanting a new drill press anyway, this was my excuse to buy a nicer one.
For the long bolts I needed something like an 8” long 5/8” fine thread bolt. Hardware stores don’t sell anything nearly that long, and even at 4” they were like $4 ea. So instead I bought a second bearing separator from HF for $33, because the screws it comes with fit the bill exactly. I needed it yesterday, but I may return it and buy proper bolts for about $10 ea.
The only trick is you have to be ready to catch the carrier. And also for what I spent on steel I could’ve just bought a clamshell puller, but like Alton Brown I hate one use tools, and I already had the bearing separator so I didn’t need TWO one use tools that perform the same task. These new arbors are probably actually better than the ones that came with the press, too.
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