An observation about bearings

decided to try McMaster Carr for the bearings.
Night and day!
I know this subject has come up many times here, but I still gotta say- Brands are not always listed in the McMaster catalog, but we buy alot of stuff from them, and have NEVER been disappointed. Prices are certainly not the lowest, but shipping times and customer service are absolutely the very best I have seen. Quality of parts has never been suspect, and always exceeds the stuff from more traditional/local sources.
 
I know this subject has come up many times here, but I still gotta say- Brands are not always listed in the McMaster catalog, but we buy alot of stuff from them, and have NEVER been disappointed. Prices are certainly not the lowest, but shipping times and customer service are absolutely the very best I have seen. Quality of parts has never been suspect, and always exceeds the stuff from more traditional/local sources.

I second that motion! We order from McMaster every day, the higher price is offset by the time we save not searching multible vendors. Customer service is 2nd to none!
 
Japan makes some excellent bearings. But there are many counterfeit ones trading on the names of good brands. I’ve bought counterfeit SKF bearings on eBay and might not have noticed if I didn’t compare the box and bearing to a real one.


Yes very true, Japan has made high quality bearings for quite a long time, I believe Taiwan and S Korea also make some in a few of the popular sizes, but for any application that is important I'd stick to German, American and Japanese made bearings. About 25 years ago I worked on a JApanese built ship, and every thing on board was made in Japan, generally we had no problem with bearings. A couple of times when we tried to improve the life of a particular bearing, we tried both American and German mad same number etc and found little or no difference
 
Changing bearings is a millwright's bread and butter. One of the millwright I worked with told a story about the last place he worked, the buyer had gotten a deal on Korean bearings. His work load went way up. Something like 1/3 the life of brand name. With management like that no wonder Safeway sold out in Canada.
 
You get what you pay for and if a cheap bearing will do the job then cheap it is. If you want top quality it will be reflected in the price. All top quality bearings regardless of place of manufacture will have accreditation and independent test results available. These days it does not pay to get hung up about country of manufacture. Japan, Germany, Britain, Taiwan, America all good if well known brands. India make some excellent products with first class metallurgy but like China you get what you pay for. Russian stuff is a mixed bag.
Even major brand name bearings sometimes need help, popping the seals on sealed bearings and filling with a really good grease is worth while and cheap bearings can be made a lot better and longer lasting with good lube.
 
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