Shaft sizing

Aug 22, 2010 16 Replies

I have an old cement mixer. The shaft size that is on there for the steel wheels is about .7000+. I have some rubber tires with tubes that have a hub axle diameter of .625, or thereabouts. I know that all rods come in standard fractional sizes. Is there some standard deduction when one is calculating a shaft versus an opening size so it will just slide on, and not be a press fit requiring hydraulics, beating with a large hammer, or immersion in dry ice or liquid nitrogen? This is going to be max 200 rpm for 200 yds, so it is not critical. Is there a place to buy this slightly less than nominal diameter material in a cold rolled, so it will be a little stiffer than the normal rod?



Thanks



Steve



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Why not take a piece of 3/4" rod, and turn the ends down to 5/8" and put a cotter pin in each end so the wheels dont fall off? If you want to be fancy..you can thread both ends for .625 and put a lock nut on both ends?

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

Grade five or grade eight bolts should work well.

Otherwise, I bet your tires are made to take standard dimension stuff and work. Mcmaster carr has a great selection of high quality rod.

karl

Max clearance would be .001".

The hardware stores around here have a selection of cold-drawn shafting, which is what you want. Machines like crap, so the nominal size had better be what you want. The one hardware store had it labeled as drill rod, which it wasn't. Has a drawn finish vs. ground for drill rod. You want a "running fit", such info is in the manuals, see "Machinery's Handbook". IIRC, it runs around .001" per inch. If all you're doing is trundling the thing around by hand, basically if the wheels stay on, you're golden. Wouldn't matter if the clearance was 20 thous.

Stan

Stan

That would require knowledge, expertise, and a lathe, of which I have none.

Steve

And yet you complain if we employ them.

Can you drill and tap the ends for 5/8" bolts? Their shanks are somewhat undersized.

jsw

Oops. Min clearance would be about .001". Max clearance would be determined by how much wobble you could tolerate. Rule of thumb: .001 to .005 for nice-running wheels.

As a fellow CABG vet, I bet Gunner would turn down your shaft if you sent it to him. I certainly would. I'd make it about .622 on each end, you say how long, leaving enough addendum for cross holes for cotter keys. Wouldn't take 20 minutes.

Blink blink....really????

Want a lathe? I can find you one cheap.

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

Hell yes.

Give me a print and Ill even thread it and supply lock nuts and washers.

Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

Need a mill?

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jsw

Lathes, mills, shapers the whole works...80+ machines

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Gunner

I am the Sword of my Family and the Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn everything you love, and kill every one of you. (Hebrew quote)

As others have said, plain 'ole cold rolled should be fine. I've used it to re-life wheels from lawn mowers, etc without problems.

Bob

"Jim Wilkins" wrote

And yet you complain if we employ them.

huh?

The hubs come out of these wheel assemblies. I'm going to take one of them to the store today, and look for some bolts that will work. I can weld on the bolts, but I think I need to add a diagonal support cage/frame that will run from the frame to the outside of the bolt's threads because the axle is getting fairly wide, and with the machine and 180# of mud, it might bend. Not the bolt, but the angle iron frame. I could make it bolt on for quick change tire repair. Have to get a tube repair kit, too. These things are a PITA, but it's almost done, and I'm ready to pour some footers for another metal shade cover, and some retaining wall for walkways, plus some brick work. This mixer looks like the perfect size, just have to get it so it moves around good. Right now, the original steel wheels don't roll very well in our sandy soil.

Steve

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Hell, yes, I want one. Now, do I have the time to learn to use it? No. But there rarely passes a day when I think, Man, if I only had a lathe.

I keep saying that I'm going to get the book out this week, but it actually looks like this week may be it. It is done as far as the proofreading and collating. Now, just to put it on the website, and promote it. I'm going to send it to Oprah, and see if I can get on there. Limbaugh, Hannity, and Levin, too. My SIL has been on twice, so that might help. We are talking to St. Jude's Children's Hospital and McDonalds Ronald McDonald House, and some other big dogs. I didn't hit the $80 million PowerBall Saturday, but I have plenty of tickets. If I was to get a windfall, believe me, a lathe would be one of the top ten items. Concrete floor insulated metal framing electrified sandproof shop would be #1. In the meantime, life is good with what I got. I got more than a lot of people in this time and age. I'm thankful.

I went out yesterday, and in 100 degree weather, made a tongue and hitch for the mixer, and finished off some small things. Actually felt good, even with the temperature. Pulling together things at the containers, having boxes and boxes of stuff to sort through, and hangers to make and stuff to organize. It's like going shopping, you find new stuff all the time. There are actually instances starting to happen when I need something, and I can find it! Go figger.

My friend is bringing me six more huge parking lot lights, too. Hooboy. Will post a pic. They are sweet weatherproof metal halide lights with aluminum heads that are at least one cubic foot each. Transformer from 110 to 220v. The price was right, too. Free.

The wirefeed seemed to work fine, guess I had the tensioning nuts too tight. The big wing nut on the hub seems to tighten up on its own, so will figure out something to stop that. Maybe a double nut if I can find some thin nuts.

Life is good.

Steve

visit my blog at

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your free book. We only have 999 billion left electronically, and they are going fast!

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