I went over to my baby brother's shop today (I think I once mentioned that my "baby" brother is 71) and found him struggling to install a press fit bushing into a small motorcycle frame. I figured he wasn't having much success by the volume of the cussing I heard.

We got into an intellectual discussion (it could happen) about freezing the bushing and whether to heat the part with the hole, and if that is the way to go.

I can see freezing the bushing since doing so should cause it to shrink, making it possible to press it into a properly sized hole. Where the conversation got loudest and nastiest was whether heating the part containing the hole would would cause the diameter of the hole to get larger or smaller. I say smaller. He disagrees.

It seems to me that if you take a part, say a steel nut, and heat it up, it's gonna swell a microscopic amount and swell in all directions. I mean, it will be thicker and wider and the hole would be smaller. Like frying a doughnut...... (How's that for a dumb a--ed example?)

So, is freezing the bushing and heating the hole is a self defeating exercise?

........ I guess I probably ought to go outside and find something to do instead of sitting around pondering life's great mysteries.

Jim