[Steam-engine] wood bearings

[Orrin Iseminger]

Back on the farm we had many examples of shafts running in wood.  

The wood pitman for our grain binders ran directly upon the crank that
operated the sickle.  

One of our disk harrows had all wood "boxings."  

The "shakers" in one of our grain combines ran wood bearings on steel
shafts.  

Well pump-jacks ran wood-on-steel.

We used a home-built assembly to run our grain elevator off a tractor's belt
pulley.  It consisted of an automotive transmission mounted on a timber
frame.  Both the input and output shafts ran in wood bearings.  The one on
the input shaft had to take considerable strain because of the belt tension.


I couldn't tell what kind of wood the disk boxings or binder pitmans were
made of.  I know for sure they were not oak.  The elevator jack assembly
used oak boxings.  Being porous, oak absorbs a considerable amount of oil
over time, making the bearing self-lubricating, to some extent.  Of course,
they needed to be lubricated on a regular basis, but as the wood absorbs
oil, the servicing interval lengthens.  

In the old days, ships' propeller shafts' strut bearings were made of lignum
vitae.  Some hydro-turbine shafts also ran in lignum vitae bearings.  

Regards,

Orrin

Orrin Iseminger
Colton, Washington, USA
http://users.moscow.com/oiseming/lc_ant_p/index.htm
So many projects.  So little time.   

-----Original Message-----
From: steam-engine-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
[mailto:steam-engine-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com] On Behalf Of
HISTMACHRY at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2005 6:34 AM
To: steam-engine at lists.stationary-engine.com
Subject: [Steam-engine] wood bearings

Do any of you know of machinery, lineshafts, countershafts, where wood is 
used as the bearing? Or as a variation on a theme, where babbitt is poured 
directly on the wood. I'm looking for info, examples, photos of such bearing

arragements primarily in the metal and wood working fields, particularly on
custom 
made machines. As an example there is a cut off saw at the Agrirama's
sawmill in 
Tifton GA, the bearings on this swing saw look as if the steel pulley shaft 
runs on wood. No one at the site could tell me. 


Robert Yuill
_______________________________________________
Steam-engine mailing list
http://www.stationary-engine.com/mailman/listinfo/steam-engine