Hello everyone,
A little backstory. I'm a 21 y/o male and a few days ago it occurred to me that I have no idea how to weld. Thankfully my grandfather owns a welder and in two weeks I'll have access to it. I have already seen a few videos with tips and basics of welding and for my first project ( actual project, not just welding random pieces of metal together for practice ) I'm going to make a 4 ball bearing fidget spinner. Recently I found that fidgeting with something helps me concentrate while studying, so instead of buying I'm going to try and make one.
Anyways, the idea is simple, just Google "4 bearing spinner" because the link takes too much space here. I don't know if the bearings will be welded well enough on the sides where they are touching; also I think the heat from the process might cause the metal to warp slightly, inhibiting the bearings to spin inside. If anyone has any tips or thoughts they will be much appreciated.
Thanks.
P.S. The bearings are standard 608 (whatever that means ) and their dimensions are 8 mm inner diameter by 22 mm outer and 7mm wide.

Representative picture

 

I've never had any luck welding anything related to bearings.

Having said that, I cant understand how you are planning on welding these bearings to make a spinner. I cant figure out what part of the bearing or spinner you want to weld on to make this.

In my experience, if you attempt to weld directly on the bearing, the balls will arc against the housing, other balls &/or other parts of the housing & will scar the balls & its going to be like having gravel in there instead of balls.

Also, your going to need a welder with very low temp, like a gas or small wire welder to do this. If you try to weld on what I see in the pictures I googled, with an arc/stick welder, your going to end up with a pile of melted rubble.

 

Welcome to the forums.

Welding the bearings together will not work.
You'd have better results epoxying them together.

 

Your picture shows bearings pressed into a housing. They are not welded together.
Pjmax has it right suggesting epoxy to glue them together.

RR

 

Or even a simple wooden frame and the bearing held in with epoxy or poly glue.

 

The photo shows a housing but the idea was for them to be touching directly and be welded, but apparently that's not happening It's pretty clear that they will be attached in a different way. In my experience a two part epoxy on smooth and shiny surfaces, even when sanded a bit, does not offer a perfect hold, if I drop it I think there is a big chance for it to break. I've seen some people using CA glue, hot glue, etc. Any other ideas for attaching them? If you all think epoxy is the best way to go I guess I'll try it.
Thanks for the quick answers.

 

You never weld a bearing if you want it to work again. The steel used in the race often does not like being welded so you may have difficulty just because of the type of steel. The outer race which you will weld distorts with the heat and can cause the bearing to bind. Then the heat also damages or destroys the seal so you get grease leaking out.

 

The heat will never get to the race before the bearing is destroyed.
The bearings in the pic are rubber sealed and the rubber will melt and the grease will catch fire long before the bearings themselves have a chance to even get warm.

You need to find a practical project made out of some type of structural steel.
Angle iron, square tube and flat bar are all fairly easy to fabricate into something you can use.

 

My son has one of those, it's a cheap chinese toy that he paid like $4.

If you want a welding project get a go cart or mini bike kit and make something that has some content and will be fun to play with when done.

 

Thanks for the answers, I guess I'll just use epoxy. As for a welding project, I'm sure something will pop up soon enough

 

Try metal gates, trailer, or wood splitter. Fun projects.

 

I just received an E-mail and this silly thing is available from VXB.com (bearing supplier) for $9.95. It is called a FIDGET-HAND-SPINNER-TOY. Seems overpriced to me, especially when someone mentioned their son had one that cost about four dollars.