Pillow Block Bearings

Could this be a $27.00 USD solution?

Thank you Lyn.

It might be. Is that you holding the tool and working on your corvette ? And where did you get it ? I would like to examine it and see if it will work for my needs.

Not me. I'm too old busy overworked lazy to work on my own stuff.

Actually, I have been busy with other stuff.

777motorsport.com is the name of the site selling the tool.

I'd just use a length of 1/4" iron pipe, being the cheapo that I am. It has an OD of .54 inch.

But, that's just me.

If anyone would like to see this tool (or the simple piece of pipe that Lyn mentioned), in use for alignment checking of pulleys to each other, here is the self explanatory YouTube video:-

How to use the pulley alignment tool

Interesting jig that one.

Not much use for longer distances. Pipe or bar sitting in the V works fine too.

$27? a bit steep.

A straight edge (at 0:38) is NOT a "weird" tool.

Buy it or die. This guy has way too much skin on his knuckles to be an authority.

I suppose you'd have to revert to a weird tool for a serpentine belt. Best to avoid death here and buy it any way.

This magic tool which wards away death can indicate false alignment too. What if one pully was tilted? Top lined up and bottom some where else. Give me weird.

So, use the magic tool, or longer wand, and then check the alignment weirdly.

I have to admit to also just using a piece of straight piping to line up pulleys, I would also not waste $27 either!!

I usually use new copper water piping, after checking that its straight, but a laser pointer, with a suitably sized round "barrel" would do a reasonable job too I feel, though never tried it personally.

I am a cheap bastard too! Scottish blood will always "out"!!

By the way, if one goes "around the pulleys" in both directions with a piece of pipe/laser, it may not find that last 1mm of error, but as someone else pointed out, this should be still close enough for years of good service....

"Close enough for Government work" as a US friend of mine always said!!

I haven't had a "true" serpentine belt on an engine, on any car where I did the maintenance, so maybe it might be too much for that....But someone here will surely try it for us!!

With the laser, a white wax marker pencil may be a good idea, but as long as a pulley comes up "central" from the two pulleys it feeds from and to, I personally have no worries......I am sure that there are possibly errors, that I could not see with "our" method, but I also have not had a v-belt fly off since I was a teenager either.....thats good enough!!

String is good, a straight edge has always been the way I have done it.

Hey that was going to be my line! Oh wait, you said string.

Yep, use string for first pass. Tony, you are smart enough to make a dummy shaft of aluminum or copper tubing as Andy suggested, and if the pulleys are straight, and mounted on shafts tight, then the string test may provide free rotation.

If you are super-smart, you will figure out how to get the least amount of resistance to rotation, which is the end targeted result.

Think of it like a slot car, and all will be well.

For $27, that tool should have a telescoping or otherwise extendable rod, and at least one movable sleeve, to accommodate different pulley spacings and diameters.

It's a hot rodder's tool. The guy builds race cars and this is something he did to make money.

I thought it might be a cheap solution to the problem at hand.

I don't agree that for $27.00, in low volume, you could turn and thread the ID and OD for that price.

By the way, the picture I posted is a live link to the Facebook page. Putting the cursor on the picture and left clicking would have taken everyone directly to the FB page.

I'd still go with a length of pipe, painted your favorite color.

"I thought it might be a cheap solution to the problem at hand." Yep!

"I don't agree that for $27.00, in low volume, you could turn and thread the ID and OD for that price." I said nothing about threads! Here's a sketch of what I had in mind, not necessarily to scale:

The blue represents a central rod or tube, probably aluminum. The green is a flanged sleeve, probably plastic, to have a tight slip fit on the rod. The small OD of the sleeve would fit close to the bottom of the V-groove in the pulley, while the large OD would fit close to the top of the V-groove in the pulley. The brown flange, also plastic with a tight slip fit, could be moved along the green sleeve to seat correctly on different diameters of pulley. One or both plastic sleeves would slide along the central rod to adjust the shaft-to-shaft distance.

The deluxe model (additional cost) would have the central rod drilled and tapped at both ends (or drilled and tapped at one end, and threaded at the other, like a gun-cleaning brush) for adding additional lengths of rod for those long belts, and could have multiple sleeves for different belt widths.

It gets to a point, is the tool worth the job it can do.

Threads were just how I'd do it, for the highest quality. And it just HAS to have that cool blue anodizing.

My assessment of your design puts it at more than $27.00.

Sure, you could use an extruded rod, cut to length.

But, then you have to add the cost of either machining, 3D printing or injection molding the two to four plastic parts. Then you'd need to worry about thermal expansion of the plastic sleeves. In the summer time they'd be too loose, in the winter time too tight.

And you'd need stops at each end to retain the sliding che*p plastic parts.

I've decided that 1/2" EMT is lighter and strong enough, probably cheaper too.

......and an IPV6 address with built in wifi and a microsim slot so it can be online. Maybe GPS as well. Smart stick.

A straight edge has non of these. That's why it's weird.

Don't know how you got rated off topic, did you start talking about the magic wand used for pulley alignment, where you just wave the magic wand, click your heels three times and poof!.............. A rabbit.

that tool really sucks,.... And I really don't care for Hasenpfeffer either.

Thanks Andy.

I never knew that finding how to use something on you tube could be so easy.

Like:

1. How to use the ice cream scoop.

2. How to use the nut cracker.

3. How to use the ______________.

...and how you use your brain?

Have a great day......

Thanks Andy for your insight. I really do appreciate it. Your answers are ausgezeichnet !

P.S. It's OK to laugh sometimes.

Remember what Mary Poppins said about sugar.

Its nice to find some who understands my form of humor!!

It "makes the medicine go down!!"

Did you call triangle?

Phoenix :

Nott yet, I will call on Monday. I will see what they say. I will post their response.

a flange bearing is far stronger than a standard pillow-block and probably overkill in this application. you don't need exotic alignment tools. you're just spinning a cage

make sure to have enough of the shaft exposed beyond both sides of the bearing to allow for sanding with sand-cloth for future removal of the bearings and removal of the cage. otherwise the shaft will rust to the bearing and make removal far more difficult. once you have a completed assembly apply a healthy coat of bearing grease on all exposed surfaced to retard rusting. do it this way and future service will be a breeze good luck.

Dear Fredski: Maybe the word " flange " was incorrect, I meant the " ear " of the bearing cage. I am going to guess that you are familiar with the construction of this type of bearing and you know that these bearings cages are made from stamped sheet metal and holes are punched through the ends or ears or flanges, through which bolts are placed to secure the bearing to the blower shaft mounts.

You comments on the rust issue were very interesting, although in this application that would not be an area of concern, mainly due to the composition of of the steel mainshaft and the bronze bearing.

Because of the design, the bronze bearing generally seizes on the mainshaft due to a lack of sufficient lubricating oil in the bearings oil cup.

The resulting wear on the mainshaft is generally from steel oxides forming and and friction from the rotational forces present. In other words, new bearings are round and old bearings are oval.

You might simply insert some stock on one side of the obround hole, thereby fixing the bearing centrally to the original mounting.

Thank you Tcmtch for you answer.

It is not so much that it needs to be precise, it is that a lot of the replacement parts are so imprecise, that taken that a lot are made in china or Mexico and especially with the new coolers I have to take them apart and replace bolts and nuts because even on a brand new cooler many of them are stripped, the panels are misaligned, the units are dented, and recently a cooler I installed started to leak the next day, apparently the basin was cracked and the factory just shot a coat of paint over the crack in the basin, well, 24 hours later water was pouring off the gentlemen's roof.

The old adage " They just don't make em like they used to " holds true here.

That obviously depends on the distance between pulley axes and also differences in diameter. The closer they are together or the greater the diametric differences, the more likely run-out will be an issue.

I'm with Fredski and tcm. I'd put the bolt in the middle of the slot (eyeball it) and call it good. If you want exotic, for $4.99 Harbor Freight has this laser sight http://www.harborfreight.com/laser-marker-93242.html. Hey, what happened to the hyperlink icon? As supplied, it has a beam splitter, but if you want just a line you can remove the splitter. I wired a couple into our garage door opener, and now we can park on a dime.

As has been noted, most belt drives will tolerate a bit of run out, but if you want to be more precise, can't you simply measure the correct bolt centres and mark that on the new mounts, or even simpler, put the old and new mounts back to back, stick a correctly sized bolt through the original holes and mark its position on the new mount, then just install so that the bolts are at those spots on the mounts.

Spades, I like your answer.

I usually just can eyeball these....but a straight edge will work....or you can use a cut, or larger, v-belt, to just lay over the pulleys....

Are the flange bearing oval mounting holes all the same radius from the center of the flange? If not, rotating the flange on the mounting bolts is sometimes used to aligning the bearing to the blower. As the flange is rotated the off center holes (ovals) the shaft center rotates in a small eccentric circle thereby moving the center of the shaft for in a eccentric pattern for alignment.

A system like this is often used with pillow block bearings to align the shaft by turning the eccentric race bodies of the bearings. This is called an eccentric lock and collar. It is less frequently used on flange bearings. http://www.centuryequip.com/service/quality_tips_june.pdf

http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-mounted-bearings/=xtazid

Also are the oval holes used to move the body of the bearing races for alignment? Also if the width of the mounting holes are smaller than the diameter of the bolts, the oval holes might be able to be enlarged in one part of them by drilling, milling or a die grinder to make a wider location for the mounting bolts. This would prevent the bearing body from moving after installed. This would have the appearance of --O--.

A well trained and innovative mechanic should be able to all of these. Innovation is the key trait needed.

Good Luck, Old Salt

see my thread today on "bearings"

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/101760/Bearings

or

here

Tony,

I've done a lot of swamper repairs and one thing I learned early on was to apply some anti-seize compound to the shaft where the bearings and pulleys sit. The amount of water and moisture near those components really poses a problem when it's all rusted and stuck.

Tcmtech is correct on the forgiveness of a belt and pulley setup!

You may find a bearing with round holes but i doubt it. The elongated holes are to accept a small amount of fabrication mismatch.