[TheForge] Re: Timken Case Hardening was File Making

[Mike Spencer]

Dave wrote:

> We could walk by the equipment, and they would say "this is where we
> case harden the bearing races" and then they would say "that is all we
> are going to say about it".

Michelin gave us a long riff on not talking about their technology.  I
did see  a couple of things I thought were clever but not clever
enough to be big secrets.  OTOH, and being a diligent learner, I
looked up wire-making in the 1910 Brittanica where I found pictures of
some of the "secret" machines at Michelin (circa 1974).

> One thing you can do with very large roller bearings (56 inches OD
> for example) is regrind the inter and outer races and put over size
> rollers and get a second life out of the bearing.  We had Timken's
> largest bearings (about 80 inches OD) on our big plate mill at
> Davenport, IA and some of those bearings where rebuilt after about
> 20 years in service.

Yow! Cool.

Okayyy, so how do you -- er, they -- make spherical bearing balls?  I
recently had some enlightenment from the list about making flat things
using three pieces and a scraper.  So how you you make spherical
things to close tolerance?


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^