For me it would be SKF but to be fair I’m not conversant with the other makes

H

All those make a high spec bearing.

The best roundness bearing balls are ceramic grade3 balls.

Finally comes to price or availability.

FAG, NSK, Nachi, SKF, are all local for here in Hamilton.

Sometimes the only ones available are the cheapies , and have sometimes found them to be as good as the more name brand bearings. Where possible, I will go for one of the above 4 brands as my first choice.

I make up ceramic bearings for my model engines, and find that the FAG and SKF bearings have a very consistent outer race way diameter, as long as the bearings being used, come from the same plant. If they come from different plants, ie Japan for one batch and then Portugal, for another batch of the same brand, the outer race diameter can be as much as 30um different. The bearing will have the same clearance, but that does not help if you are trying to match an outer race with a shaft that already has the inner race groove ground in it.

All of those brands are good but they all sell different grades of bearing.

Just a comment. In the UK when buying bearings from a bearing supplier, ask for a discount. You will usually get one. If you are buying quite a few you may get better than 50%. Like car tyres, bearings are generally emergency purchaces and in such cases the buyer can pay a lot of money.

JA

JA has a good point ! The list price is just a starting point, in most cases a hefty discount will be available – Just ask and yes 50% up is possible. Noel.

Hi, well in my old maintenance job, I’ve fitted hundreds of all of them except Nachi, but they all last about the same amount of time, however, frequency of use and the environment conditions they are used in, do make a difference. But the old company used SKF mostly, especially where they would have a hard life, but they also used a lot of Cooper bearings as well.

Regards Nick.

I have a friend that used to work for SKF and I was amazed when he told me of the discounts that they give, depending on who you are. Their regular customers that buy big get big discounts, like 50% and Joe Blow that makes a small one-off purchase pays full price, 100%. Others get something in between.

Hi Bernard, Cooper has been part of SKF for some time now.

Regards Nick.

On 28 July 2024 at 00:41 Nicholas Farr Said:

Hi Paul, the company I used to work for got big discounts on many things, from many firms, including bearing companies, but the way it worked was that they got annual rebates through using the same suppliers, but they did have one company they dealt with direct, that gave a bigger discount than the suppliers could get, but there was very many thousands of pounds changing hands in the course of a year.

Regards Nick.

Probably over 20 years ago now, I called into my local bearing supplier for a couple of fairly common bearings.
The chap I normally dealt with was on his lunch, so I was quoted a price by someone else behind the counter, seemingly full retail, as I didn’t have a trade account with them.
I can’t remember the exact prices now, but it was well up to £40 per bearing + VAT.
Fortunately my normal contact appeared and I questioned the price, as I only wanted two, not a box of ten.
It turned out his colleague hadn’t applied my discount, which was clearly shown on the written receipt when I paid just under £4 each inc VAT
Discount -93% I couldn’t believe it at the time, though that figure has stuck in my mind, and no they weren’t clearance stock.
Bill

Yep as a simple example a bearing using just the numbers for my CNC would be £15 if I add the letters after the number you can add at least another 0 to the cost and that is after discount.

You might also try smbbearings.com – they do EZO Japanese brand which I’ve found good, and they’re helpful over the phone.