Thread: Timber for Bearings

[QUOTE=Paul39;1578281]In the US oil soaked maple is used.
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I can remember as a kid 60 years agao a whitemetal bearing on a saw bench got way too hot and disintegrated and the old boys pulled it of a made a redgum bearing block and gave it a soaking in molten lard and fitted it and finished the week {1.5 days ] with that and the guys poured a new white metal over the weekend . dad reckoned she'd have run a few weeks with the lard kept up to it cheers ww.wally

As per Jim, I would've tried Spotted Gum first. The bits that've passed through the workshop have been relatively oily.

Cp. Paul, what's been labelled as Red Oak downunder that I've turned wouldn't do the job. It was easy turning. That said, its roots weren't in sand.

When I was an apprentice at Garden Island we used lignum for the sub shafts.
Cut it into long segments that went around the shaft.
Comet used be to just down the road from me here in Concord and I cut up some blocks of red gum with an interlocked grain which they used to soak in old sump oil for 6 months before turning it to final size.
It was 150 x 150 and quite short,they had injured 2 workers trying to chainsaw it. The Wadkin PK ate it.
I had some off cuts somewhere in the shed also had a pice of lignum but it was from a slip and roughed out similar to how we did the sub bearings.
H.

Originally Posted by rsser

Cp. Paul, what's been labelled as Red Oak downunder that I've turned wouldn't do the job. It was easy turning. That said, its roots weren't in sand.

Here is a chart showing the densities of North American Timber.

http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/rn/rn_nrs38.pdf

It shows the weight per cu. ft. of sugar maple that is used for bearings as 39.3 lbs., Southern Red Oak is 36.8, Osage orange is 53.

I'll bet there is one for AU timber published down there.

Yes. Bootle's book lists averages but there's a deal of variation with some timbers.

There's some online data here: www.timber.net.au - The Australian Database of Timber - Species Timber Plus Toolbox, Selecting timber, Characteristics of timber, Density Table

Hardness or Janka ratings are also relevant:

Wood Species Janka Hardness Scale/Chart By Common/Trade Name A - E
BobL's extract from the above for Aussie species: Timber Hardness ? [Archive] - Woodwork Forums
www.timber.net.au - The Australian Database of Timber - Species