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Calgary Source for Oilite ?
- Thread starter CalgaryPT
- Start date
You might want to try some of the bearing supply places just on the off chance. I have seen some of the bronze bushing suppliers supply blanks which can be further machined but this was on USA bearing suppliers. I havent shopped much locally. Or, depending, on your size, maybe you can find a standard part oillite bushing / sleeve to modify to your dimensions? I had to make some bronze parts for my lathe & ended up sourcing the material from OLM. It was phosphor bronze though, not oilite.
link here https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/material?q=:name-asc:Material:Bronze
I cant recall the alloy# of oilite off hand.
link here https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/material?q=:name-asc:Material:Bronze
I cant recall the alloy# of oilite off hand.
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I didn't answer your question if MS carries it. I do recall phoning them at the time & it was crazy expensive, plus I needed other materials from OLM at the time. But USA shipping doesn't lend itself to onsey-twosey. Also check ebay for oilite 'parts' that you can re-machine. Straight bushings are pretty common but if you need a flange or special dimensions then that technique doesnt work as well.
Yikes. That would be for a massive bushing...or a lot of swarf!
I need some 1" OD, probably 6" of it. BUT I MAY HAVE FOUND SOME
@PeterT gave me an idea and I just checked through my junk gear and motor drawer. I found some 1 1/4 bushings with 5/8 bore. I need a 1 inch flange with a 1/2 bore, so I can machine these I think. The mounts are mangled so I'm hoping the bushings are still OK. I'm going to remove the shaft and check them out tonight.
932 would be OK as well. I'm just used to the 841. It machines well as long as the tool is really sharp or carbide. I find if the tooling is dull it makes a heck of a mess. But at least I am used to it. I read if you re-machine older 841 you should heat it first so it bleeds, then allow it to cool quickly so the capillary action draws the oil back in further. Apparently it machines better then. Never tried this though.
I think 660 is easier to work with and would be fine even.
Thanks—I may contact you if the old bushings are toast or I can't remove them without wreaking them.
What were you using the 6" OD for?????? Your fishing reels?????
I need some 1" OD, probably 6" of it. BUT I MAY HAVE FOUND SOME
@PeterT gave me an idea and I just checked through my junk gear and motor drawer. I found some 1 1/4 bushings with 5/8 bore. I need a 1 inch flange with a 1/2 bore, so I can machine these I think. The mounts are mangled so I'm hoping the bushings are still OK. I'm going to remove the shaft and check them out tonight.932 would be OK as well. I'm just used to the 841. It machines well as long as the tool is really sharp or carbide. I find if the tooling is dull it makes a heck of a mess. But at least I am used to it. I read if you re-machine older 841 you should heat it first so it bleeds, then allow it to cool quickly so the capillary action draws the oil back in further. Apparently it machines better then. Never tried this though.
I think 660 is easier to work with and would be fine even.
Thanks—I may contact you if the old bushings are toast or I can't remove them without wreaking them.
What were you using the 6" OD for?????? Your fishing reels?????
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Chicken lights
Forum Pony Express Driver
Yikes. That would be for a massive bushing...or a lot of swarf!
I need some 1" OD, probably 6" of it. BUT I MAY HAVE FOUND SOME
932 would be OK as well. I'm just used to the 841. It machines well as long as the tool is really sharp or carbide. I find if the tooling is dull it makes a heck of a mess. But at least I am used to it. I read if you re-machine older 841 you should heat it first so it bleeds, then allow it to cool quickly so the capillary action draws the oil back in further. Apparently it machines better then. Never tried this though.
I think 660 is easier to work with and would be fine even.
Thanks—I may contact you if the old bushings are toast or I can't remove them without wreaking them.
What were you using the 6" OD for?????? Your fishing reels?????
That’s what I use for pulling bearings. Longer legs and a couple adapters
Or, if you just have a bearing plate and a hydraulic press, put the bearing plate on two blocks and push on the shaft. Done that lots without hurting the bearing plate
Yup. Great tools. I've got a very similar one but not as "experienced" as yours. I just looked at the price of Oilite and boy is it expensive. I got this big rod at a garage sale and it still had the price on it (as well as the alloy stamp). It was 3" OD and 2 feet long for $5.00. I must have got a deal because even 1" OD is over $100 a foot. For my purposes, the cheapest alloy will do. Hope I can get the old bushings out later.
As Brent says looks like it has SAE alias's. I might have it wrong but I thought oilite was sintered material (fused powder) so that its porous vs. other bronze 'bearing alloys' were cast or drawn, ie molten metal. I might have this wrong though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oilite Oilite material is the most widely used of all the types of Oilites. Standards that encompass the Oilite material are: ASTM B-438-95A Grade 1 Type II, MIL-B-5687D Type 1 Grade 1, CT-1000-K26, SAE 841, and old SAE standard Type 1 Class A.
...And then there is oilite plus & super oilite.
And then there is oil impregated bronze which goes by SAE 863 (among others) which is not called Oilite
https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/1172
Attached cheat sheet of mine. I think copied from OLM but there are ore authoritative sources on the net.
I only have experience machining C544 phospor bronze and C932 (SAE 660). Use sharp tools for turning & be aware of the grabbiness risk when drilling the stuff. Its a bit worse than brass IMO so best to use dubbed drills unless you like potential excitement in your life. Or better yet if you get a solid rod, use an annulur cutter & then you get to keep the inside core for another project.
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historicalarms
Ultra Member
This might seem waaayyy out in left field but if your project has a big enough "hold in place" casting, an oil soaked hard wood bushing might be usable...I can see the "ya right" look on your face from here LOL.
Early farm equipment and some industrial equipment used hard wood for years until manufacturing standards of usable metals pretty much replaced it. Many millions of acres of crop have been harvested with combines that used oil soaked hardwood blocks as a bearing race for straw walker crank shaft's...every old farmer alive knew how to give his combine the block shims a click-check before every season and probably one in mid season. Some of those wood blocks have seen 30 yrs of yearly service and these things took a beating, both from load shocking & rotational in the worst dust conditions you could imagine.
if your requirement is for just rotational control, oiled hardwood might be a viable option.
Early farm equipment and some industrial equipment used hard wood for years until manufacturing standards of usable metals pretty much replaced it. Many millions of acres of crop have been harvested with combines that used oil soaked hardwood blocks as a bearing race for straw walker crank shaft's...every old farmer alive knew how to give his combine the block shims a click-check before every season and probably one in mid season. Some of those wood blocks have seen 30 yrs of yearly service and these things took a beating, both from load shocking & rotational in the worst dust conditions you could imagine.
if your requirement is for just rotational control, oiled hardwood might be a viable option.
That's insanely cheap. I just don't pay attention to garage sales & kijiji ads, maybe I should.
Peter, are the bushings for heavy mechanical application or you just need self lubricity properties? I might have a stick of either UHMW or nylon plastic around 1.75-2" dia. I turned some flanged spacer bushings for a friends race car. Something to do with the suspension system. After running & inspection the metal shaft that slid within it was shiny & the plastic showed no appreciable wear. But plastics can only take so much load.
It is cheap. And I never go to garage sales, I just happened to be walking my dog the day I found this. I avoid Kijiji. Others have great luck—but I get Freddy Krueger or Johnny Millennial at my door. (I prefer Freddy).
To answer your question, and the very kind offer of others here, no...it isn't a heavy duty application. In fact it is just more of a flange collar to reduce the size of a 1" OD tube down to 1/2" so I can insert All-Thread for my front wheels (stem casters) on my RC Lawnmower. I decided to do this to give more lateral support to the stem caster rather than have 5" of All-Thread taking all the bumps on the front of the mower. In reality I could make it out of steel or brass or UHMW or wood as the rotation of the caster comes from the built in bearings anyways.
My request for Oilite was just because I am used to machining it and its behaviour. I used to make a lot of bushings for older motors from cheaper bronze. Then when I found this piece of Oilite at the garage sale years ago, I fell in love with how well it worked. I don't make bushings that often these days, but thought it might be good to have the stuff around just in case. Then I saw the real price of the stuff and realized what a great deal I had got years ago. And I also realized that I'm not going to pay that kind of money for something "just in case." Really it is just a reducer I need.
Good news is I did get the some old bushings out last night that can be reworked. And I have steel and brass round bar that will work. I may even have Delrin somewhere that will work.
I hope I am not turning into one of those cheap retirees that rave at the price of everything now that I am on a fixed income. But I think I am.
Actually I appreciate the idea and the technology. It was good enough to get my great grandfather into the prairies by wagon and in areas that have true hardwoods (not the softer birches and populars we have out west) they still use it in some applications.
A couple of years ago I posted a vid about 1100 lbs wagon wheels. Hard to scoff at older technology when they achieved results like this:
Johnwa
Ultra Member
Welcome to the party!
PS. I’ll try not to brag about the stuff I’ve bought on amazon while I’m down in the US.
historicalarms
Ultra Member
I'm gonna have to watch that vid on a cold day, I still use some "turn of the century wagon wheels & axles" on my "historical creations" all the time, good ones are getting hard to find (most have sat in one position with grass growing around them and rot where the grass holds moisture) but once in a while you get lucky and find a few good enough to use that don't even require repairs . Amazing how some of that wood cut 125 yrs ago, spent its whole life outdoors and even now only has a bit of surface crackling.
Johnwa
Ultra Member
Pictures please!
Yes, pictures please...I agree with @Johnwa !
On a historical creations note...when I took welding classes decade ago in Calgary there was a guy in them who owned a property right around where the west ring road at Stoney and Trans Canada Highway is being built. He made "historical" tack and especially all the metal parts used on wagons and anything else metal you'd see in western movies. He did this for a living, and catered to the movie industry in California and some parts of Europe. He never met his customers, but instead sent all his historical creatures by courier around the world. His orders came in by fax (originally) then later email.
I have a lot respect for people who manage to survive in niche industries like this. I can't recall the prices he charge but I know a lot of stuff was thousands. Very cool.
Chicken lights
Forum Pony Express Driver
Long story short there’s a mechanic shop closing up locally. He said a crokinole board maker was moving in where he was.
Crokinole boards....