The Poured Bearing

When you cannot buy one, you can pour one.

Every turning shaft needs a bearing. This book shows you how to make a plain bearing the old way: a thin lining of soft tin-base metal, poured into a hard shell around the shaft and scraped to fit, with a pot, a fire, a ladle, and a scraper made from an old file.

Part One covers what a bearing does, where the metal turns up in salvage, how to sort scrap with no instruments, and how to make your own alloy. Part Two is the pour: the shell, the tinning, heat by pine stick, the mold, and pour day start to finish. Part Three is the fit and the run: the blue fit, clearance by paper strip and soft wire, oil grooves, and a load table for the shaft and the bearing.

Part Four carries two complete builds, a water wheel and a shop line shaft, from the loads to the finished bearing. The leaded path is set apart in a clearly marked advanced section with its own rules.