I have absolutely no chance of answering all of your questions correctly, but I can do a few:
- You can screw it directly in which=bad idea. What you do is to place a nut in the wood which the axle screws into.
- You can use heavier types of wood or weight rings.
- Give it coating I suppose
- WHen you use a 10ball the width could be like 4.5mm or something in that area.