On 2016-12-06, Christopher Tidy wrote:
Hi folks,

I need an example for an article. Can anyone think of a modern product
which uses plain bearings in a demanding application? I'm not talking
about the extremes (like dental drills and steam turbines), but more
common applications such as supporting lathe spindles and engine
crankshafts. It used to be common to have plain bearings in these
machines, and some were incredibly durable, but I haven't seen any in a
new product for a long time. Are there any examples, or have they been
entirely displaced by standardised ball and roller bearings?

Well ... how old do you accept as "modern"?

I've got a nice Cameron Precision sensitive drill press, which I
got new sometime in the 1970s which has plain bearings on the spindle.
It goes up to pretty high RPMs. The spindle ends in a JT-0 and mine
came with a 1/8" Albrecht chuck on it. to give an idea of size.)

And -- as far as I can tell, they still use the plain bearings.
(they look like sintered bronze style, not hand-scraped bearings.

Ehre is the page which shows mine as the first photo, excep that
mine does not have the clear plastic belt cover.

http://cameronmicrodrillpress.com/sensitive-manual-micro-drill-presses/

Scroll down far enough and there is a link for contacting for
questions -- so you could verify whether they still use the same
bearings that way.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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