Hi Guys,

I am looking for some advice on the simplest way of putting bearings/bushings into the following setup.

The arrow dictates the majority of the loading, so there will be vertical and lateral loading

The horizontal piece at the top will encompass a seat at the left hand side and its max capacity would be approx 80kg.

The tube in the ground would be fixed in with concrete etc.

The whole of the inner tube needs to rotate with the seat on the top, i cant just have the seat rotating on a fixed pole. ( that would be easier to figure out but it wont work for what i need)

I am unsure of what the commercially available tube sizes are and i don't know how best to bush / bearing it for latteral and vertical loads.

It is not going to be whizzing round at 300 rpm or anything daft so high quality bearings are not a priority


ideally i would like the inner tube to be adjustable for height somehow but i'm unsure how to achieve that too.

Any ideas?


diger pole

Thanks
Col

[Edited on 28/8/11 by locoboy]

Landrover axles have floating bearings, get a rear second hand one off Ebay, remove diff and half shafts and sell on, then cut the axle tube in half then sink the banjo end in concrete.

If you want it prettier, cut off close to the bearing and weld a bit of scaffold tube here, for adjustable two tubes sleeved like an axle stand.

As it happens i work in a land rover breakers!

I will investigate it if i get a scrap axle.

Whats a floating bearing?

I would like to make it from scratch if possible and without lugging large rusty greasy BIG bits of Solihull's finest iron about!

[Edited on 28/8/11 by locoboy]

Mabye have a look at some modern car wheel bearings, a lot of stuff now uses a complete hub assembly with a flange that bolts to the car upright fixed to the outer race & the hub flange for the wheel & brake disc to bolt to fixed to the inner. You could bolt the outer race to the floor (mabye via a plate to spread the load) & have a shaft coming up through the centre to slip a tube over to give a telescopic height adjustment.

This is a mk4 Astra front one, bolt the 3 hole side to the floor & have the tube come out of the driveshaft hole? You would need the end of the tube threaded on the end so it could pull the bearing tight in the manner the driveshaft would.
VAUXHALL ASTRA MK4 98-04 FRONT WHEEL BEARING 4 HOLE HUB | eBay
Ultimate Styling - VAUXHALL ASTRA MK4 98-04 FRONT WHEEL BEARING 4 HOLE HUB


Or this is a mk4 Golf rear one, bolt the hub flange for the wheel to the floor & have the tube come out of the centre where it would have bolted onto the rear axle stub, again it would need to be made so it could nip the bearing tight.
http://www.vwsonline.co.uk/car_parts_bristol/vw/golf/golf4/rearaxle/1j0-598-477-bq.html



I'm sure there's other cars that could provide similar parts (Front of Transits & rear of later Subaru Legacy's are done like the Astra front) & if you did'nt want to pay for new they would'nt be much in the scrappy, but with the Golf type you may find it leaves one half or the inner bearing race on the axle stub when you pull it off.

You want an office computer chair base. I made a rest for long bars when using the chop saw from an old chair base with a threaded adjustment not the newer pneumatic type.

Floating just means the halfshaft is seperate so not supported by a bearing so no need to keep the halfshaft and support in the middle, its the old way of doing things