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Hi all,

Having been busy with other things, I haven't started to build my stone
polisher yet, but I've had chance to ponder the design a little. Often I
like to do this because I find after a week or two a smart idea will
come into my head, which I would otherwise have missed.

Anyway, I have a small problem with bearings. I intended to use
self-aligning ball races in pillow blocks, but it turns out that the
pillow block for a 1/2" diameter shaft is 5" long! So I can't get the
shafts closer than 5" apart unless I stagger the pillow blocks, which
will look messy. I want about 4" between the shafts, and I might make
this distance adjustable to allow different barrel sizes to be used on
the same machine.


You can get inexpensive ball bearing pillow blocks with
pressed steel housings that are only 3-5/8" long. See
McMaster p/n 5913K41 as an example or download the .pdf on
this page for more variations.

http://www.bostongear.com/products/b.../mounted.html#


Ned Simmons