Yesterday while beginning assembly of my 4x4 one of the linear bearings slid off the rail assembly. When it hit the floor I thought I heard what sounded like 2 pieces hit. One was obviously the bearing assembly. I was afraid the other could have been a ball bearing. I know there is a cautionary note about leaving the plastic wrapped around the rail in place until rail is assembled to the struts. But in removing the rails from the box I removed the plastic wrapped around without realizing that it was restraining the bearing. I carefully removed the other bearing from the rail and compared the 2 but could see no difference between them. My questions: if a bearing ball fell out would it be obvious? Should I do any further inspection before continuing assembly? Do you have other comments?
Thanks for your help!
So upon further inspection I found several bearing balls on the floor. I also have noticed that there are 4 rows of balls in each bearing. Evidently the balls came from the less obvious row in the bearing. Beware, getting these little beggars back where they belong is, to say the least, aggravating! I’m not at all confident that I recovered all the balls but I replaced what I found. Heed the warning not to let those bearings slide off the rail. It would be a good thing for Sience to better mark or restrain the linear bearings so this doesn’t happen.
Same happened to me when flipping the table after installing the crossbeams and legs. Both linear bearings on the left y rail hit the floor and bearings went everywhere. I just contacted Sienci to order replacements, I’m not even gonna try to fix them especially knowing I didnt find all the bearings. I felt really stupid when it happened. Now to wait for the new ones to arrive so I can continue assembly!