My metal lathe starting making noise.  Without pulling it apart I knew it was a bearing but could not find the part numbers in the manual or online. I had an exploded view but it was only one step better than worthless. So yesterday I started taking it apart.  It came apart fairly easy, and I was able to get the bearing/race numbers off the parts in the lathe, BUT I could not find those parts locally and had to order them.  I use my lathe all the time and didn't want it to be down until the bearings come in so I greased up the old bearings and started to put it all back together.  Problem is I needed specific sized tubing to drive in the races and press on the bearings AND all the tubing I had on hand was close but not correct.  The solution was to use a die grinder on the I.D. of one size of tubing and an angle grinder on the O.D of the other size of tubing. The two tools I had to make took me over an hour each and had I been able to use my lathe to make them I probably could have done them both in 15 min or less.  I hate irony!!