Hi Lewm,
Actually, someone on the original “Home Despot” thread did exactly as you suggested. He clamped the bearing sleeve with wood. His work was in the back of my mind when I began experimenting with this version. (Actually, I tried it out first in a partially assembled plinth for a Presto Pirouette idler.) Not taking anything away from the original clamp capture, I shied away from it because of the potential of adding sideways stress to the bearing – albeit something that would have more potential for harm in the original thin Lenco top plate than with Peter’s 4mm plate.
To answer your question, it is a tight fit. I drilled a hole smaller than the bearing sleeve and sat down to carefully rat tailed & sanded the hole until the sleeve just went in with a bit of pressure. This hole was the starting point of the plinth build – in other words everything keyed in both above and below to this coupling. Having had to pull the bearing through this hole some eight or nine times in construction has “loosened the fit somewhat. But there’s still quite a bit of contact and I’ll probably smear some non-hardening caulk to the hole sides before “final” assembly.
- Mario