It's my first time working with bearings, but this is a necessary part of my robotic arm project. I have some $10 bearings that are 24mm OD. I want to fit these tightly in a hole, ideally getting a press fit or interference fit (steel bearing, aluminum block).
I ordered a reamer that's 24mm and plan to ream the hole on a lathe, but I am worried - what if the bearings are themselves OD undersized (I don't have any fancy measuring calipers by the way). I think ideally I want a hole of maybe 23.99mm.
Thinking ahead, if I run into this problem, could I cool the workpiece in ice before placing it on the lathe? This way the workpiece would be reamed in a shrunken state, and then expand as it warms up to room temp? The last thing I want to do is break a tool, but this seems like it could work.
Wikipedia says aluminum has a volumetric thermal expansion coefficient (av) of 69, and for Silicon Carbide (the reamer is made of this) 8.31.