RE: axe cp thread
You may need to HEAT the aluminum blade-grips in the oven at 300 degrees for 15 minutes, to get them to expand enough so the steel-bearings can be PRESSED-OUT. When you go to re-install the steel-bearings, put them in a zip-lock baggie & into your freezer for a couple hours, warm the aluminum blade-grips up in some boiling water. Pull the BG's out, dry-em off, you only have a short amount of time to get the bearings & spacer into the BG before thermal expansion & contraction take place.
BE SURE YOU PRESS THE BEARINGS IN STRAIGHT, a spare feathering shaft makes an exellent guide-jig for reinstalling the bearings. This is the same procedure I use at work for removing/installing precision high-speed spindle bearings in aluminum housings.
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