Before you hit the buy button to grab that bearing cleaning kit for your skateboard, try out this DIY bearing cleaner that is simple to make and only takes a few minutes.
Save your money dude…
Bearing Cleaning Kit
We’ll be using some household items and let’s get started.
1: Take a bottle cap and drill a hole in it. You’ll also need the following items:
- ¼” Washer
- Two ¼” nuts
- ¼” x 6” Bolt
- PEN (BIC)
- Rubber Gasket
If you don’t have a gasket, you can also use an electric tape just to make sure that bolt is flush and it doesn’t leak.
2: Take the cap and put it back on the bottle. Now take the bolt and screw it through the hole we just made.
3: Once the bolt is fully screwed inside, take off the bottle cap and screw a nut and washer on the inside of the cap. Make sure to screw it tightly.
4: Take a pen casing and cut it into small half inch pieces. We’ll be using them for spacers. Use the small pieces and the bearing. Insert one pen casing piece into the bolt and then the bearing over it. Repeat this until all the bearings are on the bolt. Also, use another nut to screw on top and to keep your bearings on your bolt while cleaning them.
5: Grab the whole cap with your bearings, and screw it back on the plastic bottle. You can also be a little creative and label your bottle.
I would recommend using a plastic bottle instead of a glass bottle as it is safer and easy to carry around.
So, that’s how you prepare your bearing cleaning kit.
How to Clean Them?
Now that we have made our DIY bearing cleaning kit let’s learn how to use it.
It’s pretty much fun and easy.
I would recommend using acetone to clean your skateboard bearings.
All you need to do is fill half or quarter of your plastic bottle with acetone, screw the cap on it with the bearings in the same alignment as we did above, tighten the cap and now give your plastic bottle a good shake.
This would help to remove any dirt, grease and dust from your bearings.
Isn’t it fun creating your cleaning kit? The same would have cost around $15-$20, but now you can make one easily at home and even tell a friend about it.
Though there are some items like washers, nuts, bolts, etc. which if not available in your basement or garage would cost barely $1.5-$2.
Some tips to Manually Clean Skateboard’s Bearing
- Use a paper towel or an old cloth and moisten it. Wipe the ball bearings and remove any visible dirt. If your bearings are still functioning properly, wiping is sufficient for cleaning.
- Use a small screwdriver, paper clip or razor blade to remove the rubber cover. Put your tool under the rubber cover and remove it carefully. Be careful not to cut the rubber cover or damage the ball bearings. It is not necessary to remove the rubber cover, but you can clean the ball bearings even better. Some ball bearings have more than one rubber cover, which has to be removed to reach the ball bearing balls.
- Put the ball bearings in a glass jar and fill up to half of it with a special cleaning agent for ball bearings, which you can buy in your skate shop. Alternatively, you can also use clear cleaning alcohol, carburetor cleaner or lemon juice. Depending on how dirty your bearings are, let them work for about 10 minutes. If your bearings rust, buy new ones instead of just cleaning the old ones. Cleaning and oiling can ensure that your ball bearings function optimally again.
- After the ball bearings are soaked in the liquid, they whirl around in the glass to loosen further dirt or deposits. You may already see a lot of dirt particles in the glass, and shaking helps to loosen dirt even more efficiently. Swing the glass for about a minute.
- Pour the cleaning agent out of the glass and place your ball bearings on a cloth to dry. Wipe one by one and dry them all as best you can. Move the balls in the bearing to dry all sides. You will never be able to dry the bearings entirely completely but try as best as you can. For even better drying, you can use a hairdryer or fan to help evaporate the remaining moisture.
So, that’s all for today people. I hope you enjoyed this DIY cleaning kit. Don’t forget to share this idea and read our review about what the best skateboard bearings are!