I've got some play in my rear wheel (on-one 29er) and was going to have a go at replacing the bearings, I've never done cartridge bearings before so has anyone got any words of wisdom?
I've done a search and fitting them seems to be straight forward but I havent found any tips on removal yet.
Could even price it up at the LBS, but Ive always done my own maint up till now.

ive just stripped and cleaned mine out, undid the non drive side lock nuts, and using a rubber mallet tapped the axel out, popped out the other side with the bearing on as it should (not undone the drive side nuts) then use a suitible punch from the drive side to tap out the bearing,
just make sure that the drive side Nuts are tightened Right up as they are the ones that work loose first apparantly!

in the worse case senario, if the bearing are really really badly worn, they may fall to pieces, leaving you with the outer metal ring of the bearing stuck in the hub.
To fix this, go see a local garage or engineering shop and ask them to use a bearing puller to remove it – easy to do if you have the right tools.

Heat the hub – tie a rag around it and pour boiling water over it. Makes it much easier

right, so the diameter of the axle is larger in the middle which pushes the bearing out as you tap the axle through. It makes sense now. Will try the boiling water as well, cheers. Just got to sort out a spare wheel as the bike is used every day and it means I wont have to rush it.