Paper bearing?

[John Hill]

I had a little play with my iny Adept lathe which has quite sloppy bushes in the head stock.  I though I would slide some strips of paper in to get an idea of the clearance and found that one layer of newsprint takes up all the slop nicely.  I understand thats about .0025".

But hang on a minute, paper is very tenacious stuff so I put a bit drop of oil in and gave it a spin and found it had a very nice feel about it.
Maybe I will leave the paper in and call it 'fixed'.

[dsquire]

John

That is taking recycling of newsprint to new levels, but if it works why not. At least you will have a ready supply of replacements delivered daily if you subscribe to the newspaper. I think there are a lot of things that could be used as bearings if they were kept lubricated. Glad to see that you are having fun with your new toys. 

Cheers 

Don

[Bogstandard]

Nice 'fix' John.

Try going over it with a grahite pencil as well, built in lubrication.

I use el cheapo market stall aluminium baking foil for shims. That is normally around 0.001" thick, and because it has already has had most of the life squeezed out of it, it doesn't compress much.

There must be lots of things around the house we can use, it is just a matter of finding a use for them.

Maybe you should start up a post, asking what other members use from around the household in their forays into modding.


John

[Majorstrain]

John,
Cut up a few strips, oil em up and flog them off on E-bay for 20 bucks a pop.
Might have to dream up a more scientific name though. 
How about lubricated cellulose shim stock, use olive oil and call it environmentally friendly as well.
Oh don't forget to attach an RHOS compliant sticker as well.

Cheers,
Phil

[John Hill]

Phil, I will send the missus down to the store to get some virgin olive oil.

[andyf]

Newsprint should be OK, but it might be better to avoid high quality papers which contain fillers like china clay, and could thus be just a bit abrasive.

Andy