hey i’ve been working on a custom aluminum uni frame for a bit now but i can’t find any aluminum bearing housings for sale and i dont now any one that can build them for me . im looking for the same kind as the ones on the 05 kris holm uni ,if any one knows of any i could by or some one that makes them can you please reply or send me an e mail burg_01 at hotmail.com thanks…joel burgess
Aluminum bearing housing
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Hey Joel,
I have an aluminum fabricator who can make anything out of aluminum. I am designing a custom Coker frame now.
He has built me bearing housings for a project in the past.
I am seeing you in a week. If I can help just let me know.
You can call me at (516)702-9807.
Adam
Wait, if you are making an alumunim frame, then that entails at least making the top half of the bearing holders. If you can’t do that, how will you do the rest?
Bearing holders aren’t that bad with a milling machine, rotary table, and t-slot cutter. A good starting machining project if you would like to learn.
Why do you need aluminum bearing caps, though. I have an aluminum frame, and I use stock Yuni bearing caps on it, because theyy’re cheap, durable, and, well, adaquate. They are better than al. for grinds and pedalgrabs.
Not if he isn’t machining a frame. He is probably building a frame from tubing that is welded.
I considered that, but regardless, he’s going to need some bearing caps to weld on. And even if you weld, there’s still machining involved. You have to machine the seattube bore to the proper diameter.
That’s why he is trying to find bearing housings so he doesn’t have to make them himself. I assume he is wanting both top and bottom parts and will weld the tops onto the frame. The seat tube you can buy with the right wall thickness and standard OD and you can avoid having to have it bored out. With a 1 1/4" OD and a wall thickness of .083 it works out perfect for a 27.2 mm seatpost.
I was thinking about that. You dont have to worry about outside.
In the next twoish years I’m going to make a Ti unicycle. Everything I can out of Ti.
I dont know of any Al bearing housings you might need to make your own.
Yeah you don’t need to worry about it but tubing comes in standard OD sizes and then different wall thicknesses I’m building a frame with a 24.4 mm seatpost and it is a 1 1/8" tube with a .059 wall thickness and seat post clamps are sized to fit standard OD sizes.
I know he won’t find any bearing holders that are pre made but you can have them made for you like Just one Wheel did.
I’ve been through this. i’ve bought Al. tubing of that exact type, however the tolerances on the extrusion aren’t accurate enough for a seattube. At the very least I had to run a reamer through it. In some cases I ended up using a boring bar.
You can buy “tubing” spec’d either way. For tubing it’s spec’d by OD and wall thickness, for pipe it’s spec’d by ID and either guage or schedule, suck as 16 guage or schedule 40. Your average handrail tubing is 1" sch. 40 pipe.
I have only used cromoly steel tubing and have had great luck with that for seat tubes but I haven’t tried building with aluminum. I guess it may be less consistent. All I was trying to say is that there is more than one way to build a unicycle and most people don’t have milling machines of their own but can have these things done by a machine shop if nessasary. But I personaly want to encourage people to give it a try to build their own uni it can be frustrating but also very rewarding.
your right i am NOT machining a solid aluminum frame 
first of alluminum cant be welded to any other metal thats why i need the alluminum bearing housings and i have welded cromoly steel before and i personaly think alluminum is quite a bit harder to weld
Nobody said aluminum was easier to weld.
I know aluminum can’t be welded to other metals, however when i first read your post I assumed you already had the top bearing caps and just needed the bottoms, which is why I reccomended that you use Yuni ones.
Pull out your yellowpages, and look under “machine shop”. Call up some of them, and ask if they will teach you to use their machines on a small project, and then explain the bearing housings to them. Most of the older, family shops I’ve spoken to are happy to help teenagers learn some basic machining, being as very few people express interest in that kind of stuff. I would say you could make the seattube and bearing holders in a couple days if the shop has the time free on the machines.
If you don’t want to do that, draw some plans for the bearing mounts, then take them to a local machinist and ask him how much he can make them for. Ask two or three, because some of them might try to screw you. I would bet that you can get the bearing housings for as little as $25 each, if not less, but don’t quote me on that. Remember, shop rate among professional machinists is $100 per hour. The shop where I work, the guy does $90 an hour, and most of the local shops ask $150 an hour and up. THis is why I reccomend making your own, because it’s just not cost efficient to ask someone to do the setup just for four parts. The Yuni and KH bearing housings are so cheap because the cost of setting up is distributed over hundreds of parts, not just four.
Because of the cost of setup, if you decide to contract a shop into making you a set, ask for at least two sets of bearing mounts. This will make the cost of the initial setup be distributed over more pieces, making the per-part cost lower, and allowing you to make later frames for less.
If none of this works, call up Rick Hunter of Hunter Cycles. He makes his own steel bearing housings for the Hunter Frame, and might be willing to make you a set, but I have no idea how much he’ll want for the job.
I wasn’t trying to stop you from making a frame, I’m just trying to point out that there’s more to them than welding if you want to really customize them. I’m not advocating SH type frames, but it just seems natural to try to make as much of the frame as possible. I guess I’m just being anal, though.
hey thanks very much for the help ill consider all of that !!! … joel