Hi all,
Back in the old long board skate boarding days we used to use speed washers. They are really just a skinny washer that goes between the nut and the bearing on one side of the wheel assembly and the bearing and the hanger on the other side of the wheel assembly. I don't see them showing up in the forums. Just curious if this is something you guys use.
Thanks
-Anthony
I wonder what the purpose of those was? Keep the bearing cleaner??
The only commonly used washer I know of is for clip axles. (no nut)
A clip axle is a certain width. If the wheel is not snug in that space, the spacers take up that space to reduce lateral slide of the wheel on the axle.
For normal nut on axle setups, I have never seen it. If anyone IS using them, I think I can pretty much say it is not common.
I'm sure they are available somewhere. I recall having them on a couple of different plates.
The are intended to keep everything but the inner race from contacting the truck casting. I found them to be unnecessary in almost all cases, so I abandoned them in favor of simplicity.
[
attachment=283]Heres a picture of the 7MM washers.
SESS. South East Skate Supply sells them. most skate dealers can order.
But. All modern skate bearings (not industrial types for electric motors shafts etc) the inner race is fabricated .010 to .020 outside of the outer race surface.
So, the inner race contacts the truck surface and the back side of the nut before the actual bearing shield etc.
And your correct about the old days. Skate trucks were just free cast from molten aluminum poured into the open mold. Then polished only for appearance. The aluminum flash was not always cleaned up.
Net speed washers were invented to obtain the offset to keep the bearings rolling free. Not needed today. just about all trucks are Pressure die cast into a net size mold. Only need minor polishing for shiny look.
"OKIE"
I had to get some for my son's skates. We changed his wheels from 50/50 to some Backspin BluePrints. His axles aren't threaded far enough in, causing some play in the wheels with the axle nuts fully tightened. We utilized these washers to move his wheels outward from the truck to stop the wobble.
Thanks guys. I'm guessing I probably won't need them. -Anthony