You can't have a spinning wheel without some sort of bearings.
If you look into watch and clock making, there are no ball bearings,
except for really big clocks like tower clocks and the like I suppose.
Watches have a bushing type of bearing, which is just an axle in a hole,
the hole is usually in a piece of polished corundum either sapphire or ruby.
Clocks have metal bushings pressed into the metal plates used to build the clock.
For my huge bevel gear I had no choice due to it's weight, size and orientation.
Not to mention the big hole in the bottom for the axle of the drive system.
I concluded the majority of force on this wheel is along the axle, which is called thrust force.
And not coincidentally these bearings are called thrust bearings.