Work Table For Wheels

[CharleyFarley]

My new cruiser developed wheel bearing problems by time I'd put 600 miles on it. The wheels were hard to turn and literally were grinding. When I took them apart at least one of the ball bearings wasn't in place on the front wheel. So I cleaned and greased them and put the wheels back on the bike. The front wheel still wasn't right so I ordered new ball bearings for front and back wheels.

Today, I'll be putting new tires on it so I figured it best to do both the bearings and the tires at the same time. After taking the front wheel off and turning the axle by hand, it was grinding. The seat is fine so I put new 3/16" ball bearings in and it's silky smooth, now.

This isn't so much about the bearings job, but more about making the job as easy as possible. Here in Florida it's another 100º day, so I took the wheels off the bike and brought them indoors. My fifty-gallon trash barrel makes an ideal work table for changing wheel bearings. I inverted the lid so it catches the ball bearings as they fall out. And the sides of the lid supports the rim while I clean the seats and install the new ball bearings.

I don't know if anyone else has done such a thing but if it makes someone's life a little easier, then it's all good.

[Papa Dom]

kudos!

[Jesper]

Good job man! I've done something similar with a shallow box on top off my drafting table; l can custom set the working height and angle.

[CharleyFarley]

(07-03-2020, 11:35 PM)Jesper Wrote:  Good job man! I've done something similar with a shallow box on top off my drafting table (l can custom set the working height and angle.

Thank you, Jesper!
This wasn't the first time I used the barrel to replace wheel bearings, but it was the first time I thought about bringing the wheels and barrel indoors because of the heat. Although I had used the barrel for wheel bearings on other bikes, when I first took the wheels off my new cruiser because the bearings were grinding, I had them on the floor of the porch, and I bent over them to clean and grease them. The next few days I felt like I'd been kicked in the butt. I won't be doing that, again. Same thing when I repaired a lady's trike a couple of months ago. I turned the trike upside down in order to replace the freewheel. All that bending over things is fine at the time but hurts for the next few days.

Not everyone has a fifty-gallon barrel they can bring indoors, but I would have found another way to support the wheel. A box would work well, even better when you can adjust the angle.

[Lemon]

Great! I love all these DIY solutions. Do you use it for changing tubes and tires too?

[CharleyFarley]

(07-19-2020, 06:25 PM)Lemon Wrote:  Great! I love all these DIY solutions. Do you use it for changing tubes and tires too?

I never even considered that. I just stand and change those because they're usually quick jobs. I just recently put two new tires on my cruiser and one of them was rather tight, needing some soapy water to ease it on. Using the barrel would probably have helped. The other tire went on, quickly.