Eclipse Rebuild

[wetsand]

Getting ready to put up Eclipse. Was going to run through the mechanical side and upgrade a little. Was going to leave super original. I was going to add a oil imbedded washer where sets on base and spins around. Question to all you ....

Oil embedded thrust washer with a steel thrust washer on bottom.

I am attaching Shaft pictures. I have been told to use two oil embedded bushings, have the shaft machined to clean up the bearing surfaces and the housing machined to accept the new bearings or you can repour the Babbitt.

I am overwhelmed at that approach. Can your members look at the pictures and see if it would be okay to use as is....make a gasket and fill with oil.

Question: What is best oil?....ideas on gasket material? ....and finally I was going to replace this old chain that lifts the wait with a cable to make it more user friendly. Am I okay to assume this will slow down the windmill in heavy winds if I pull up the weight and tie it off?

Thanks for all your help.

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[Windcatcher530 Dan]

If you're not going to let it spin all the time only once in a while your bearing is fine. If you decide on new bearings i would pour Babbitt it's a lot less work than taking the wheel off and hub to machine the shaft and head to fit the brass bearings. Clean up the shaft with roll sand paper and coat the Babbitt bearings with grease and put some sheep's wool in your oil reservoir and keep oil in them and i think you'll be fine

[CTXmiller]

I took the oil impregnated bronze bushing approach on a windmill, upgrading from the original Babbitt bearings. My windmill was not an Eclipse. When I cleaned the saddle where the Babbitt was, it cleaned up pretty well to accept the bronze bushings. No machining involved in my case, just cutting a bushing in half..really several of them as there were multiple bearing saddles. McMaster-Carr has a good section of bushings if you go that route.

I used leather as a gasket on the windmill in the photos as it too had oil reservoirs on the upper bearing saddles and is an open gear. Find a flat piece of leather or order a piece from eBay, etc. if you go that route. I soaked the leather in left over oil, so the oil on the leather will repel water and the leather will last a long time…at least that is my logic.

[wetsand]

So is that section in the middle that has no babbit (babbit on both sides) supposed to be open like that? Then does the wool go into both reservoirs at the top? ...confirm sand existing babbit, grease , then add oil from the top with wool stuffed in those oil reservoirs? what type of oil?

[Windcatcher530 Dan]

Yes the wool goes in both reservoirs and that's where the oil goes. Oil weight depends on climate,hot thicker oil or even grease where it gets really hot. Cold weather maybe 20. You don't want the oil to empty to quickly or to slow.

[Wayne]

I use chain saw oil in reservoirs as it is sticky and seems to coat the parts better. I have some gas engines that i use the oil in their reservoirs and windmills also.

[wetsand]

I like the bushing approach. Questions:
Is it possible to cut bushing in half with a high speed grinder? I have a workbench buffer/grinder to clean up edges.
Do I need to grease or oil the bushing once in place? Any oil in reservoir?
Does the ID have to perfectly match dimension of the windmill axle rod? What about the OD matching the babbit trough?
Do you epoxy or glue the bushing to the trough?

[Windcatcher530 Dan]

If you're going to go with bushings get the graphite that are oil impregnated inside diameter same as outside diameter of your shaft. You could use a band saw to cut them in half. The only problem is getting them to fit properly in the trough because it's a rough casting meant for Babbitt which would fill in imperfections.Yes you would have to drill a small hole through the bushings so the oil can reach the shaft.You also might have to make a gasket to space the bushings if there to tight when bolted down.

[CTXmiller]

I like the bushing approach. Questions:
Is it possible to cut bushing in half with a high speed grinder? I have a workbench buffer/grinder to clean up edges.
Do I need to grease or oil the bushing once in place? Any oil in reservoir?
Does the ID have to perfectly match dimension of the windmill axle rod? What about the OD matching the babbit trough?
Do you epoxy or glue the bushing to the trough?

Much like Dan said…

I cut the bushings in half with a sawzall in a vise. Took more luck than skill to keep the cut straight. A bandsaw would have been a better option, but I don’t have a bench type band saw. I’m sure you could cut them in half any number of ways. I then cleaned the edges with a belt sander as I recall.

I looked for graphite type bushings as well, but could not locate any in the exact size I needed. There is a better selection of oil impregnated bushings.

Because the bushings are oil impregnated, I don’t plan to add oil to the oil reservoirs. However I might squirt some oil from time to time directly through the oil reservoirs hole(s) and on to the shaft. This excess oil might get displaced on to the leather (shim/gasket) that is already soaked in oil. Again, my mill is not an Eclipse like yours, but the Babbitt troughs cleaned up great after removing the Babbitt.

I measured several times to get the correct trough size and also measured several times to get the shaft size for the bushing. I practiced cut on an older bronze bushing (non-oil-impregnated) of similar size to make sure it would all work. I then ordered the correct sized bushings. I scuffed up the back side of the bushings and used some JB weld on that scuffed side to secure them to the troughs.

[wetsand]

Wanted some feedback on the pull chain; does it essentially work as a brake? Planning for putting the windmill 25 feet in air and wanted a reliable way to slow down or stop it. Was thinking of replacing the original chain (seems a little fragile for reliability).

Was thinking of replacing with cable or a lightweight winch rope so I can easily pull and tie off.

What are your thoughts?

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