[TowerTalk] Thrust bearings

[Bill Aycock]

Charlie- a few disconnected comments--
1. With plastics, particularly Teflon, cold flow is a problem.
2. Rohn always said to NOT grease those bearings, because it just picked 
up dirt and grit. On the other hand, their bearings were very poor; 
Steel balls running in Aluminum races ??
3. Lignum Vitae is overkill; plain Oak is good, and you just soak them 
in oil, every few years. The oil is mostly to shed water. There is even 
a Rohn part number for them.

Bill--W4BSG


On 10/9/2011 9:55 PM, Charlie Gallo wrote:
> Hey Gang,
> Reading the Nth thread on lubing thrust bearings, and just had a thought - would it be a good idea to design a thrust bearing that works based upon an 'ultra high molecularly weight filled self lubricating plastic" (aka something like a filled teflon - or rulon or even vespel) - nothing to ever rust/lubricate, and they can take decades of low to medium speed rotation/sliding - heck, in theory, if your mast was truly round, you could just have 3 or 4 pressure blocks, and it just rides on that
>
> BTW, for that matter, if you could assure it stays WET (not dry, WET), I'd bet a lignum Vitae bearing would be about perfect for a tower thrust bearing
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