[TowerTalk] Plastic thrust bearings

[Steven M. Simons]

A comment about thrust bearings;

In the past, I have used stainless bodies from 3" ball valves as the thrust
bearing "holder". This body was simply bolted to an aluminum plate that was
fastened across the tower section's horizontal bars. The actual bearing
surface was made from common schedule 80 PVC pipe that was turned in the
lathe to have the correct ID as well as a small lip on the top to keep it
from sliding through. 

These homebrew bearings have been used with steel and aluminum masting with
no problems.

73,
Steve

W1SMS
Steven M. Simons
Tel.203.733.2110     Fax.203.746.1459
33 Ball Pond Road  Danbury, CT 06811
Mailing Address: PO Box 8066  New Fairfield, CT 06812 
FN31FK Lat 41.442718 Long -73.505777 
(Ex KF6AJ, WA3WAS)