Stephen Howard! ;-)

Hi All,

I've just taken our very old Zanussi TD-534 tumble dryer to bits to
find out what the very annoying screeching was and it turns out it was
as per one of Stephen's machines.

The front of the drum has a fairly wide (20mm) 'brim' and that runs
on (in this case) a felt band on a flange, set inside the front panel
(like holding a round sweet tin vertically then offering the lid up to
it but with some felt in the loose gap. The tin is the case of the
dryer and the lid is the drum).

At the back *was* a self centering bush / bearing of some sort, held
in place by a riveted on, phosphor bronze spring flange. That is in
turn screwed onto spoked section of the rear panel (sort of a
sandwich affair).

As Stephen also mentioned the shaft for the rear bearing was a small
parallel stub, about 25mm long by 10 mm diameter with I guess a
circlip groove at the end (found the circlip but the groove has long
since gone). This stub is now a very weird shape and unlikely to take
anything bearing wise again (or if it did, not for long).
Unfortunately, this whole assembly is in the direct path of the
incoming heated air .. (and hence probably why it wasn't a ball /
roller bearing of any sort)?

Anyway, I see no reason why I couldn't dill out the rivets that hold
the stub and its mount from the SS drum, bore out the remains of the
stub in the lathe and turn a suitable flanged replacement that can be
MIG welded back on to it's mount, that riveted (or socket headed
screws) back into the drum, effectively re-building that whole
component as new.

The worn parts on the back of the dryer could easily replaced if they
were available as spares (they are only 4" round, punched / pressed
steel plates) or if I rotated the plate so the ovalised part was in
the opposite direction I could turn up a new bronze (or PTFE?) bush to
put back in there, should last for a few more years?

Either that or where am I going to get a replacement now ..? :-(

Hmmm, 'repairing the important tumble dryer' might be a good way to
get out of Xmas lunch with some of the outlaws tomorrow (and by far
the preferred option) ... ;-)

D-I-Y isn't *just* for Xmas!

All the best .. and thanks again Stephen (and others) ... maybe I can
turn up two sets of parts up tomorrow!

T i m

I 'think' you will find that machining a new part takes a lot longer.
In my estimation it will take
a) all of lunch prep time
B) NONE of the eating time
c) all of the washing up and luncheon post mortem time
d) 95% of the 'talking to relatives time'


Speaking from experience, make sure you have a oversized piece in the
chuck; when she comes in explain about having to remove loads of
metal. Mention wuffle valves and thringgs, confuses the hell out of
them! As soon as she leaves the workshop, replace workpiece with
something totally different; makes it look like you have done
something. Rushing inside for an elastoplast is also worth 20 brownie
points


Well thats what I would be doing!!!!!!!!!

Would?

Only me, wife, youngest [20 and just back from Uni] and eldest for
lunch so I don't need excuses. Oh lucky me; got them all prepared
for the rest of the hols though! Plus I am on-call all hols as well;
here's a good tip. If you feel the need to do a runner, set alarm on
mobile, when it rings answer it as though it is a legit 'call'. Go
out, do whatever !! Works for me.

HTH !!!