I need to make a live center for an old wood lathe that I have, and
need to find a smallish, inexpensive thrust bearing, say 1/2"+/- ID,
1"+/- OD. If it was near Seattle I could go and pick it up in person.

Also, what kind(s) of thrust bearings will work? I'm clueless as to
what to ask for. Are there sealed thrust bearings? Do I need to take
radial loads into account as well as axial loads? Will one bearing work
or do I need for each kind of load?

On 20 Dec 2005 13:59:05 -0800, wrote:
I need to make a live center for an old wood lathe that I have, and
need to find a smallish, inexpensive thrust bearing, say 1/2"+/- ID,
1"+/- OD. If it was near Seattle I could go and pick it up in person.

I've got an unused live center, what are the specs of whatever you'd be
putting it into? What kind of taper, or ????

wrote:

I need to make a live center for an old wood lathe that I have, and
need to find a smallish, inexpensive thrust bearing, say 1/2"+/- ID,
1"+/- OD. If it was near Seattle I could go and pick it up in person.

Also, what kind(s) of thrust bearings will work? I'm clueless as to
what to ask for. Are there sealed thrust bearings? Do I need to take
radial loads into account as well as axial loads? Will one bearing work
or do I need for each kind of load?

I have a live center for a wood lathe with a 2MT tailstock. It was made by
Shopsmith, and it just has a regular little sealed ball bearing in it. I live
near Seattle, you're welcome to come look at it. I replaced the bearing when I
got it - the old one was crunchy as old toast - and it was quite difficult to
remove it, but once out the new one just pressed right in.

If you have a Morse taper tailstock, it's easy to find live centers.

GWE

I have made kind of a live center using a tapered roller bearing which
works for both radial and thrust loads.

The bearing was a front wheel bearing.

Where are you located?

Dan Caster
Kitsap County

Likely you need a Morse taper.
The question is what one.

If your thumb fits or just about (average thumb) - that is a Morse 2
Some old machines used Morse 1 and 0. You need to look up the spec -
or tell us the mouth inside diameter.

Up where you live - they have plenty in lumber yard / wood supplies stores.
Look for skews and other wood working - likely to the side away - in a gold area -
and the lugs that slam heavy hammers - not wanting to look at precision rules and
the like.

Martin
Martin Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
NRA LOH & Endowment Member
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder



wrote:
I need to make a live center for an old wood lathe that I have, and
need to find a smallish, inexpensive thrust bearing, say 1/2"+/- ID,
1"+/- OD. If it was near Seattle I could go and pick it up in person.

Also, what kind(s) of thrust bearings will work? I'm clueless as to
what to ask for. Are there sealed thrust bearings? Do I need to take
radial loads into account as well as axial loads? Will one bearing work
or do I need for each kind of load?


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Sears used to be my source for these for my old wood lathe, ran about
$6 for #1 and #2 Morse tapers. Designed for wood lathe service.
I've seen them on the pegs in the larger stores, don't know what
current cost is, though. Probably cheaper than messing with bearings
and turning up centers, unless your time is worth nothing.

Stan

1) I live in Woodinville.

2) Thanks for the offers, but the reason I need to make a live center
is because this lathe is quite old, and does'nt have a taper-mount live
center. The head and tail stocks have flats and the spurs and centers
slip on and are fixed by set screws. Clearly, the thing I need to do
is buy a new (to me) lathe, but until I find the cure for cheapness I
need to make my own parts.

I though about a wheel bearing. What car model should I look for for a
little one?

Just ask for an A-1 bearing at any auto supply store.
That's the smallest common wheel bearing set.
It's about 1.25" OD on the outer race IIRC.
If you want to try a sealed ball bearing, the ubiquitous 203FF (203DD,
203SS) in a generic brand is about as cheap as you get. It's commonly
used for idler pulleys and older alternator front bearings.

If you get a blank stare from a teenager, try another store.

- -
Rex Burkheimer
WM Automotive
Fort Worth TX

wrote:
1) I live in Woodinville.

2) Thanks for the offers, but the reason I need to make a live center
is because this lathe is quite old, and does'nt have a taper-mount live
center. The head and tail stocks have flats and the spurs and centers
slip on and are fixed by set screws. Clearly, the thing I need to do
is buy a new (to me) lathe, but until I find the cure for cheapness I
need to make my own parts.

I though about a wheel bearing. What car model should I look for for a
little one?

wrote:
1) I live in Woodinville.

McLendon is in Woodinville and they have small cheap bearings in stock. They are
in the plastic bins on the west side of the main fastener aisle, on the north
end of that aisle under the security cameras.

For small bearings you can't really beat roller skate bearings. There is a
sports equipment rental outfit in Woodinville, can't remember their name,
something like Play it Again Sam, anyway they rent rollerblades and as such they
have to rebuild them and they have tons of old bearings. I once bought half a
coffee can full for five bucks from them. Or you can buy new ones at the Target
store in Woodinville, you get eight ABEC-7 bearings for like $14.

GWE

Grant Erwin wrote:
For small bearings you can't really beat roller skate bearings. There is
a sports equipment rental outfit in Woodinville, can't remember their
name, something like Play it Again Sam, anyway they rent rollerblades
and as such they have to rebuild them and they have tons of old
bearings. I once bought half a coffee can full for five bucks from them.
Or you can buy new ones at the Target store in Woodinville, you get
eight ABEC-7 bearings for like $14.

That reminds me - I bought about 50 of them, half were new, for $1 at a
garage sale last year. I had no use for them, but I couldn't pass up
a deal

Ah, McClendon's! One of the last real hardware stores. I almost never
go to the Borg anymore, and if I need to go to a big box store, I go to
Lowe's. Not as rapacious as the Borg.

Can roller blade bearings handle continous axial loads? The loading on
a live center is primarily axial, I believe.

wrote:

Ah, McClendon's! One of the last real hardware stores. I almost never
go to the Borg anymore, and if I need to go to a big box store, I go to
Lowe's. Not as rapacious as the Borg.

Can roller blade bearings handle continous axial loads? The loading on
a live center is primarily axial, I believe.


Ya know, for a quarter or so, I believe I'd make one up and if it failed,
replace it .. however, radial ball bearings (including skate bearings) can
obviously sustain some axial loading because if they couldn't they'd simply fall
apart sideways. How much and for how long is a matter of debate best solved by
experimentation. However, you can be comforted by the fact that at least one
other live center (the one I rebuilt from Shopsmith) used such a bearing, and
you are even welcome to come look at it, or to look at a Skoda live bearing set
for a metal lathe, which has a bearing with 7 replaceable heads, or to look at
any article which has ever appeared in "Home Shop Machinist", "Projects In
Metal", or "Machinist's Workshop" which has to include at least 3 or 4 live
center designs. I live down in Kirkland, and if you want to stop by, please
email me by visiting http://www.tinyisland.com/email.html because this email is
hopelessly unrelated to anything real at all.

Of course, what you'd *really* want is a Timken tapered roller bearing. Now
you've jumped up in price by somewhere between one and two orders of magnitude.

Without knowing any more details than your tailstock is flat, it's hard to help
design a live center.

Grant Erwin
Kirkland, Washington