I need to make a hole in aluminum material to press fit a bushing with a .5 O.D.

What size should I ream my hole to?

Thanks!

is it a sintered bearing? if so they are oversized and after pressing into a reamed .5 hole will yield the desired ID. you can change the ID via how much interference there is. if its just a regular press fit, machinery's handbook will help you out, I'd guess 1/2 a thou, but you also have to pay attention to how much material is around the hole, ie how much can it/will it stretch. accurate interference fits in small dia's makes for some precision machining - would the simpler solution of loctite work in this application?

for alum .499-.4995, you may want to have part out of vise or unbolted from table. if you can hold down by hand this way if your tool is not running concentic the part will move with tool and you will not cut oversize. if you do take a ball bearring and ding up top side this will form an edge

The bearing appears to be about .0005 over.

Thanks!

if you bought the bearing from a dealer or Supplier call them they will have that if for you

Is this a test???

As a "lead professor of CNC technology", I'd have hoped that you would be more inclined to calculate the proper press fit than to merely go to a M/B and ask for what is essentially a SWAG that may be based as much on folklore as anything else.

A "press fit study" serch on google uncovered some intersting links to enginering based fit calculators that would be good places to refer your students to so as to start looking.

A bit of rummaging around on google found this interesting one that has charm:

http://www.tribology-abc.com/calculators/default.htm

specifically C5.13