Tricks of the trade

[Olaf Hart]

Just thought I would share this...

Last year I was given an Ampair wind generator, it had been around the world and worked fine, but the support bearings were on the way out, so it rattled and whined.

I sourced a bearing repair kit in Singapore, so thought I would try to repair it, don’t have any plans to use it but I am always a sucker for a project and like recycling old stuff.

So the support bearings and slip contacts came out reasonably easily, but I was left with a blind bearing at the top of the support tube that was frozen in, steel in aluminium, that sort of thing.

Tried heat and cold, modified a bearing puller so it fit the small 1/2 inch center and tried that, no go.

Thanks to Utube, I found out about wet toilet paper, the trick is to drive it into the center of the bearing and it gradually forces the whole thing out of the blind socket.

I ground down the head of a bolt so it was a snug fit in the 1/2” bearing center hole, packed in wet toilet paper and drove it in with the bolt, had to repack it around a half dozen times.

Worked like a charm, drove the bearing out and left behind a donut of packed wet toilet paper....

Some people also talk about grease working, but the paper seems cleaner.

[Ken Heaton (Salazar)]

Here's an example, using bread the same way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00OlG5E8vLk

[TheOffice]

Love it!!

Thanks for the cool tip!

Joel

[BeauV]

That is a GREAT technique!! Thanks!

[H B]

Whoa..nice!