pedal bearings? maybe sealed?

[young Ed]

so call me over ambitious or what ever! but i am currently writing G&M code (the standard code for CNC machining) to make a pair of flat pedals
housings only and then will nick axles etc from a pair of off the peg cheapo pedals

that got me thinking! (very dangerous) about bearings? cutting the cups in the pedals might be a bit hard even on the metal lathe, so are they press in pieces i can some how extract from the donor pedals and press into the new pedals?

sealed bearings is what i started think about next, ones like this

cheap and easily available and nice and simple
so could i just have a drilled recess and just pop them in and have bearings with an internal diameter identicalish to by axle or i could make up a simple sleeve

any other ideas how i could do the sealed bearings?
Cheers Ed

 

[wisdom]

Seems a good idea as you have the ability and equipment.
Try one and if it doesnt work as expected you can try again.After all in my opinion its just basic engineering as most things bearingwise are now sealed.

 

[young Ed]

Seems a good idea as you have the ability and equipment.
Try one and if it doesnt work as expected you can try again.After all in my opinion its just basic engineering as most things bearingwise are now sealed.

acess to all machining at school and i know one or two people with other potentially useful machinery! so yes i guess it is to simply get going and see what happens
as i always say-i will cross that bridge when i get to it! and my mother says it!
Cheers Ed

 

[ayceejay]

Ed: I have a pair of Shimano SPD pedals you can have. I have the cleats and also a pair of Shimano shoes (size 45) you can have if they are your size. You can have them for the price of the postage that will be somewhere in the region of £17 - £20 as I am in Canada. Let me know and I will find out the exact cost. They are nice pedals that will get you past this problem and you will go faster too

 

[young Ed]

Ed: I have a pair of Shimano SPD pedals you can have. I have the cleats and also a pair of Shimano shoes (size 45) you can have if they are your size. You can have them for the price of the postage that will be somewhere in the regian of £

very very kind but i am about to organise a pair of spd-sl pedals from another member on here (for use as they are)
are your spd pedals sealed bearings? if so i may take up your offer and use then for ideas/parts
Cheers Ed

 

[gbb]

I don't see why you can't just machine out the pedals to accept the bearings. If as you say you are thinking about a sleeve...you still have to machine the pedals, but to a larger bore for the sleeve. There doesnt seem much point.
Just thinking about it, it would seem to me a more difficult problem would be the axle itself....how you actually secure the pedal and bearings to it. Normally there'd be a locking nut on the cone...can you modify that system to work with the new bearings ?

 

[gbb]

Sorry, just re-read the original...you may need to sleeve the internal bore to match the axle.
I still think the pedal machining is simple enough, its modifying it all to suit the axles and retaining the pedal on the axle...do you have specific axles in mind..what dia are they Ed?

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Your plan reminds me that a friend of mine decided to modify a Shimano cone to fit a vintage hub for which parts are no longer available, but he found the cone so hard that the process blunted his lathe's cutting tool in no time. I believe cups are made of even harder steel to allow cones to wear out first, so you are probably wise to avoid a design that requires modifying existing cups or cones.

Typical deep groove radial ball sealed bearings should have a preload system, it is perhaps better to use a pair of opposing angular sealed bearings which can be held in place simply by locknuts on the outboard side, but they are more expensive.