Changing boggie wheel bearings

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This is my experience from two years ago (around this time) rebuilding a set of early kitty boggie wheels. While not being able to find a decent set for replacement and the non-bearing type only being available, I decided to attempt to replace the bearings in the ones I had. I was surprised how well the old bearings held up considering their age (35 years). All of them still turned but everyone seemed to have at least one tight spot, some had dented/damaged seals etc.. I started by drilling out the swaging that held the two stamped steel halves together, if memory serves correct I used a 3/16ths drill for this. I remember having to work it around on a few holes to break all the interrupted metal . Once all halves were separated I gave them a quick cleaning it the blast cabinet and a bug bomb paint job. The bearings trade size I cant remember right now but I think it a 5800 something or another, they are easy to find . Anyways I put everything back together and was faced with how am I going to reconnect the two halves, when I started this project I figured I would just use rivets to pull the two sides back together, however the snout on my rivet gun would not fit into the recess of the stamping to get a good pull, the distance between the halves were also too far apart, so screws were my next option . Of all the screws I tried I ended up using some 4mm screws that were 6mm long. The reason for this was the metric screws use a smaller diameter nut that fit in the recess perfectly and actually held the nut for tightening I used some blue loc-tite to hold everything because a lock washers would not even fit.

If that didn't bore you to death, I will now explain how I changed the bearing in the rear idler sprockets and center wheel (I think 74 was the cutoff for that). The bearings happen to be the same size as the boggie wheels. Knowing a little about plastics, from what I could tell by the age and look, the material was a nylon or some type of nylon derivative. I heated them up in some boiling water and shot some penetrating oil in the bearing area for good measure before I pressed them out. I was planing on purchasing new ones so really I was just playing around hoping for the best. They came out perfectly. No cracking, no breaking the lip that holds them in, nothing bad. Now for getting the new ones in. A quick reheat in the boiling water some grease and pressing flat across the outer race until half way in then switching to an arbor that pushes only on the inner race (I know, I know) to get it pressed the rest of the way accomplished the job better than I ever expected. It took 5 bearings to get all 3 changed due to misalignment that equated to damaged seals. A couple layers of shop towels on the platen kept the plastic in place and a piece of flat stock across the entire bearing kept if from moving just enough. Alignment and speed is key for this.