Hi All. I purchased a Beaver 3800 6 inch jointer a couple months ago and finally got around to disassembling it for a restoration.

My question is regarding the bearings in the jointer, they are tapered roller bearings set in a metal cup of sorts (my knowledge is pretty limited on this, sorry). The bearings look like they are in good shape,one looked a little dry, but otherwise the grease still looked grease like and not solid soap. I don't have the tools required to separate the bearing cone without damaging them, and would prefer not to spend around $100 on new bearings, so I want to clean and repack the bearings without disassembling them. Would it be okay to soak them in alcohol and then dry them with a hair dryer before repacking from the outside, trying to push the grease in? Or would I end up with dry bearings on the inside?

The other option would be to just use them as is, the tube they were set in was full of grease that looked pretty clean so I could just re use that.

Thanks in advance!