If you need to mount a small beating quickly you can be safe in the knowledge that it can be fitted onto a shaft quite successfully without the need for specialist tools, heating or hydraulic equipment.
The method of cold mounting bearings is simply not practicable in larger applications, but when a bearing is small in size it can usually be fitted onto a shaft with the help of a hammer and a malleable sleeve or drift. The process is as simple as placing the bearing onto the shaft and striking the sleeve with a hammer to secure the bearing in place.
All the blows to the sleeve must be in the same plane as the bearing face and the bearing must always be driven onto the shaft squarely so no tilting or skewing can occur.
Cold mounting of bearings is suitable for bearing sizes up to around 4 inches, however there are outside factors which may have a say in how practicable cold mounting is. Some cases when cold mounting of bearings may not be practicable include:
• When the shaft is to malleable
• When the bearing position on the shaft requires an inordinate number of hammer strikes
• When the face of the bearing is not accessible by the sleeve or drift