How do you manage oil in a mounted sleeve bearing?

[jscpm]

I am mostly familiar with frictionless bearings, but am experimenting with plain bearings and am wondering how to manage the oil flow. For a mounted bearing such as the one shown below there is nothing to prevent the oil from leaking out onto the shaft then centrifugally spinning around the shop:


Both sides of the bearing have a machined face but it only about 3/16" wide for a 5/8" shaft size bearing. I notice that one can get wiper type oil seals that look like this:


However, as you can see they require a good sized recess to sit in; a 1-1/8" bore in the case of a 5/8" shaft bearing. It would not be possible to turn this out of the bearing itself because that would reduce the bearing surface area, so the only thing I can think, is that I am expected to make two large hubs that would attach to either side of the bearing and the hubs would be bored out to receive the oil seal. Is that the expectation? If so, it seems like a lot of additional metal necessary to seal the bearing.

Another option I guess would be to solder a ring to both sides of the bearing and the ring would form the bore for the oil seal--a fair amount of additional work to make the bearing usable.

 

[Joe Gwinn]

How fast will the shaft rotate, in rpm?

 

[jscpm]

Max RPM would be 1750

 

[mattthemuppet]

I've used oil slingers before, a large thin ring (usually a random large washer) epoxied to the side of the pulley on the shaft. That way the oil coming out of the bearing got slung up the wall instead of getting on the belts. They are constant loss bearings after all, constant flow through helps clean out any crap or old oil.

If you want to slow down the leakage, a groove machined into the shaft right outside the bearing could hold an appropriately sized o-ring.

 

[dana gear]

Going to be messy at 1750 rpm any way you look at it, why plain bearing?

 

[chipss]

What thermite said.

 

[michiganbuck]

A splash shield, controlled oil feed, and Chanelle's leading to a catch can.

Oh, wait Therm already said that.

 

[jscpm]

I am going to try a felt washer on either side of the bearing and see how that works.

My backup plan is to make a PTFE seal by putting one smaller washer on the outer face of the bearing, and then have a mating washer mounted to the shaft. Apparently PTFE resists oil pretty well and even seals with relatively large gaps can effectively block oil flow.

 

[jscpm]

Thanks for the snark. Believe it or not some people still use plain bearings--like Hewlett-Packard for example.

Also, if you want to get elitist about it, I believe hydrostatic plain bearings are the most high precision type of bearing in ordinary use.

Also, in terms of size and power and cost, I believe plain bearings win again with all of the largest and most costly bearings also being plain bearings, such as those used on drive shafts for ships.

So, it's not really right to characterize plain bearings as some kind of caveman technology that nobody uses anymore.

 

[DDoug]

Thanks for the snark. Believe it or not some people still use plain bearings--like Hewlett-Packard for example.

Also, if you want to get elitist about it, I believe hydrostatic plain bearings are the most high precision type of bearing in ordinary use.

Also, in terms of size and power and cost, I believe plain bearings win again with all of the largest and most costly bearings also being plain bearings, such as those used on drive shafts for ships.

So, it's not really right to characterize plain bearings as some kind of caveman technology that nobody uses anymore.

Yabutt..... your posting about using the cheapest HVAC blower bearings.

 

[GregSY]

...it would be easy to machine a seal holder that bolts to the side of the housing, if a seal is what you want. 3/8" thick aluminum with a recess for the seal, 4 or 6 screws.

 

[michiganbuck]

What therm said:

Tritan UCP205-16 $15.44 Pillow Block Bearing, Ball, 1" Bore | Zoro.com

Order Tritan Pillow Block Bearing, Ball, 1" Bore, UCP205-16 at Zoro.com. Great prices & free shipping on orders over $50 when you sign in or sign up for an account.

www.zoro.com

 

[R. Dan]

"Mail order" giants of the 1940's shipped kid's toy "litte red wagons" with "Congo wood" plain bearings. I had one.

My dad's 1940's vintage IH go-devil crop cultivator used hardwood bearings for the drums and disks. Pounded the grease to them twice a day and I don't recall ever having to replace any. Plus, that was a hand pump grease gun. not electric like they use today. So it was a good job for a developing young man to build both muscles and character. And to get greasy.

 

[GregSY]

There is no inflation, only signs of a very healthy economy plus some bastardly price hikes thank to Putin. On a related note, my balls have really been hurting. Could that mean I'm pregnant?