On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 02:14:58 GMT, Ken Sterling (Ken Sterling) wrote:

snip
My friend looked into converting it to ball bearings, but there
doesn't appear to be enough room. And one of the roller journals is
made with a taper. We assume that the taper is there to handle
thrust in the machine.

Any chance the taper is just "wear"? Maybe good needle bearings
would work instead of ball bearings - although the bearing bronze
mentioned below would probably give you long enough life provided
sufficient lube was available.
Ken.

No, I don't think the taper is from wear. Both journals are too
uniform, while the bearing retainers have significantly different wear
patterns. Just no room for ball or roller bearings.
John