tumbler drive shaft selection help

[Speedy]

Hi another question for my project.

fixing up a old tumbler,
it uses 2 drive shafts to rotate the tumbler drums.

I am re making the wheels and posted about that, I currently am trying to select material for the drive shafts and have a few options

I can use the stock set up, using this sort of pillow block (bronze or oilite)

I need a strong shaft 3/4 thick and unsure which would be good for that bearing and hold the weight of the tumbler drums and content.

the other option is to try fitting pillow blocks but with ball bearings, not sure I can fit this into the stock design.

so hopefully the suggested steel rod for the oilite will work for whichever I end up with.

 

[bazmak]

If you have a lathe you can do what you want.You can turn the 20mm
shaft down at each end and fit say 16mm skate brg.Slow speed and
light load cheap skate brgs would be ideal

 

[Cogsy]

You can get pressed steel housings like you've shown to suit self-aligning ball bearings, you don't have to use cast pillow blocks. They're used a whole lot in agriculture and would handle the load fine. They have several methods of attaching to the shaft - if you go the type with the eccentric locking collar, make sure you tighten the eccentric in the direction of shaft rotation, not against the rotation. This will seem to be counterintuitive but if you tighten it against the rotation it will come loose.

 

[Speedy]

thanks!
do you know if they make the bearings without a lock collar? that is what is making it difficult to fit. the original bushed style has no collars.
I can use 3/4 without turning the ends so not to worried about that.

more concerned at this point the best metal selection that will allow me to machine some flats maybe keyways, should I use cold rolled steel? or drill rod or?
I will leave this in my garage which sees temperature fluctuations

 

[rklopp]

If you are running in oilite bushings, harder is better for the shaft, as the oilite can have some hard, abrasive intermetallic particles in it. (Just see what happens when you machine it with HSS tooling.) In any event, a polished shaft will be better than ordinary cold-rolled steel. If I were in your shoes, I'd look for some turned, ground & polished (TGP) 4140 or 1045 from Speedy Metals, Metal Supermarkets, McMaster-Carr, etc. I think the latter won't ship to Canada, however. W-1 or O-1 drill rod is typically TGP, would be good, not the cheapest option, but convenient.

 

[Speedy]

If you are running in oilite bushings, harder is better for the shaft, as the oilite can have some hard, abrasive intermetallic particles in it. (Just see what happens when you machine it with HSS tooling.) In any event, a polished shaft will be better than ordinary cold-rolled steel. If I were in your shoes, I'd look for some turned, ground & polished (TGP) 4140 or 1045 from Speedy Metals, Metal Supermarkets, McMaster-Carr, etc. I think the latter won't ship to Canada, however. W-1 or O-1 drill rod is typically TGP, would be good, not the cheapest option, but convenient.

that is all readily accessible here, I have more metal suppliers then I can count in my neck of the woods.

how are those for machining? Id likely use my Seig X2 mill to mill flats and maybe keyways (stock never had keyways just grub screw on flats)

if I went with bearings does that change the material?

 

[Cogsy]

If you're using bearings the hardness of the shaft shouldn't matter. You can get the self aligning bearings without collars, they use 2 grub screws 90 degrees apart on the inner ring. I'd machine flats for them just so they don't mark the shaft and make removal very difficult.

 

[Speedy]

hoping to start tackling this on the weekend,

how difficult is it to machine 4140, 1045 or drill rod ?

if I follow the same original design it just uses the grub screws so as cogsy mentioned I will mill flats, for all drive wheels and pulleys.

anyone tell me the characteristics of the steels to machine? id hate to have something my machines cant handle or have to go really gentle on.

 

[Cogsy]

Of the 3 I've only machined drill rod which wasn't bad to machine. I've made I.C. valves sucessfully on my 7x14 from memory and had no problems turning a V4 cam from it on my bigger lather.

 

[Speedy]

I shouldn't have to do any turning, just milling flats and maybe a woodruff cutter for the keyway (if I feel like an adventure)
if not everything gets flats for grub screws like the factory did (even on the pulleys that have keyways! guess that's all that is needed)

hopefully more will chime in
seems like I will be okay in either case