Lithium white is not the ideal grease for these bearings, you want the thickest possible grease, preferably with molybdenum. and push the rod straight in. If you push the rod in at even a slight angle, you'll catch a few balls on the sharp edge of the smooth rod and push them straight out. By doing it this way and stopping whenever I felt resistance and then building back up, I had only screwed up 1/20th of me. These are not highly stressed bearings, spinning them by hand and feeling the balls stick is not a fair test. Let me tell you, the 19 I've successfully grabbed are absolutely smooth. There is some play of course, these are not lightly preloaded $15 NDK bearings. Of course, if packaged incorrectly, you'll dig up some bullets, they have plastic mounts, not metal mounts. If you are looking for preloaded bearings with metal retainers, you will need to look elsewhere. However, they are ideal for 3D printing.