My previous team went through bearings like water. With prototyping, two robots, replacements, and an effort to keep previous years’ robots together we used a lot in a season.
It got me wondering, where do AndyMark and VEXPro get their bearings? I assume they don’t make them themselves, and it’s conceivable that they both get them from the same manufacturer.
Primarily I’m interested in the 1/2 hex and 1/2 round flanged shielded bearings. I’ve done some looking and can’t really find a whole lot on them. They’re mostly used in FRC. I’d like to find a supplier that sells them wholesale or with bulk pricing.
As far as I’ve seen, only FRC specific suppliers have hex bearings as a standard item.
As for other bearings, we buy shielded and sealed (depending on application) FR8, R8, FR6, R6, R3 and 6805 from usabearingsandbelts.com.
The quality is reasonable. I’ve certainly found better prices, but this is cheap enough for us and I don’t want to take a gamble on an order of 100 bad bearings.
Just since we’re talking about bearings already… For years when we’re trying to do some really tine stuff (a lot of our 2012 gearboxes), we like to use RC car bearings. They can be found reasonably cheap on ebay, and come in some really thin sizes! We’ve used 5/16" ID 1/2" OD 5/32" wide a few times (2011 rack and pinion elevator, the 2012 gearboxes, etc…). Even more options and better prices exist if you’re willing to use metric.
Another option is igus. They donated some bearings for us in this past season, and while I doubt that they’d donate them in the quantities that you seem to need, they’d be worth asking, either for a donation or a discount. I talked to them for a while in St. Louis - they seem like nice people, so I’d give them a shot.