Quote Originally Posted by DennyW
I agree, I was just showing him about the different methods of polishing. I like to see around a 30-32 micro finish or better on them. Then, I am happy.
If you buy that the oil film thickness is only .00005 from the article then a 32 finish would be the worst you would want. According to some bearing studies we did a (long) while back in school I think the minimum film thickness is more like .0001 to .0003. In this case the 32 finish would work great as your experience has indicated.

In high speed bronze hydrostatic bearing applications we usually spec out a ground 16 finish. These are bearings up to 8 inch diameter with a 3 mil per side clearance and a minimum film thickness of 1 mil.

Kitz