Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

I've been curious why your Hub on your Samson is different than mine. I wonder if they changed it on the bigger mills mine is a 8ftr.

Dan , thank you for posting the photo's . I am always amazed at the different / complex designs that engeneers came up with ,
to do the same thing , pump water .

Everybody thought they had a better idea and the only guy who really did was Thomas O. Perry the designer off the Aermotor wheel. Same thing in the time of the gas engines and designing of the first tractors. How many different designs do we see in gas engines just to make the belt pulley spin.

Yup .

Windcatcher530 Dan wrote: ↑Fri Jul 07, 2023 6:51 am I've been curious why your Hub on your Samson is different than mine. I wonder if they changed it on the bigger mills mine is a 8ftr.20230707_074432.jpg20230707_074402.jpg

That's interesting Dan, there was also a 14 footer at Al's place and both had this style of hub. Wonder if they switched hub style at some point or year.

Did you replace your bearings with Brass it looks like?

No Brandon it's poured Babbitt and if I remember correctly it was about 10 different pours. I did replace the oil covers with copper ones.

Thanks Dan I'm sure I'll be reaching out once I get to this one for some tips on pointers on these old ones. I like the copper oil covers, I only have one original oil cover left on it currently.

Don't know about the bigger ones, but late in the era of open gear Samsons, they offered smaller models with optional Hyatt rollers instead of babbitt. Larger mainshaft, and seperate carriers for the bearings that sit into where the babbitt was poured. I'm not sure if the mainframe was cast different to accept the carriers. I have restored each kind. Also, a larger mainshaft has a different pinion than the other.

The Boerne area had a handful of big Samsons. One ranch we worked on west of Boerne had the tailbone and vane sheet for an 18' Samson at a well. I'm not sure if the big samson next to the Walmart is still there or its been moved but that was at least a16' mill.

In reference to different style Samson Hubs. At one time Stover windmill dealt with the kregel windmill company who produced the Eli windmill, just a thought!!! FYI at one short lived time the Stover windmill co. made a Direct Stroke open gear Samson.