I get the bearing off the armature by using single edge utility knife blades. Get a bunch of em and slide them in one at a time between the bearing and armature on opposite sides. As they get tighter slide the sharp edge between the blades that are already wedged in there. Light taps with a hammer on each new blade will pry the bearing right off. Good luck
Foamer, Thanks for the tip. Have you ever seen the plastic single edge blades they use in auto body work? Wonder if they are stiff enough without the risk of a slice to the fingers?
JimtheG, Thanks for all your info, not just here but on all threads. Very helpful. One more question, What is the make or, what does your bearing puller look like? Is it for Skil only? (I guess that’s two questions and prob not last.)
I’ll have to take a look, I searched for years for a thin forked bearing puller, all of the ones I had looked at were too thick to slide under the cutter head bearing.
I had used discarded cheap stamped out wrenches and ground the open end down to paper thin to drive between the bearing and cutter head, it worked, but you don’t want to be hammering on the parts that keep the tool working, so I was always rolling the dice when I changed a bearing.
Also re-installing the bearings calls for a gentle touch too, I have a section about 2" long of delron with a 1/4" hole in the center that I use to drive the bearing back on