Sources for Pin sleeves?

[bx24]

Having always used scrap parts to build things, I find myself looking for tubing to use as sleeves. As an example, on any pivot point on a BH or FEL, where the lubricated pins go, they "arms" are reinforced with sleeves.

In the past I have used various sizes of black pipe and tried to find pins that match in size, and I know you can find places online to purchase brass inserts to reduce wear, but where would I go to get heavier walled "pipes" or sleeves that fit snuggly around pins with no slop? Do I need to check with local metal shops? Metal suppliers? Online? Having never learned any metal working skills from the pros, I am ignorant as to where to find things like this.

Paul

 

[tlbuser]

McMaster-Carr or Enco - Guaranteed Lowest Prices on Machinery, Tools and Shop Supplies or just try an automotive parts place

 

[DieselPower]

McMaster-Carr, MSC Industrial Supply Co., Lawson Products, Granger.... Most any industrial supply company sells such products. You might want to take a look at lubricated bushings like oil impregnated bronze sleeve bearings, PTFE filled bronze lined sleeve bearings, Vespael high performance sleeve bearings and Rulon sleeve bearings. They provide better wear characteristics than steel sleeve bearings.

 

[Farmerford]

Paul:

Check with any of the online metal suppliers: Metal Express and Metals Online are two I use. You can buy 1026 DOM (drawn over mandrel) tube in many different IDs, ODs, and wall thicknesses. 1026 is easy to weld, can be hardened with an oil quench if that is important to you, and since it is seamless and has been drawn over a mandrel the actual ID is usually within a thousandth of an inch or so of nominal. They sell it by the inch and the prices are not too bad for a couple of feet.

They also sell nonferrous metal and I use their phosphor bronze rods for pins that are not under too much stress because they are naturally more slippery than steel and will wear before the steel bushings/sleeves (which are more trouble to replace). I drill an 1/8" or so hole down the center of the rod from one end to the middle, drill a cross hole in the middle, and then enlarge the end hole a bit and tap it for a grease zerk. These have been on a small (1000# capacity, 1" OD pins) FEL and a medium (3000# capacity, 1 1/4" OD pins) FEL for several years now and seem to work very well. The small loader does not have replaceable bushings in the pivots and I wanted to reduce wear on the welded in sleeves to defer replacement as long as possible. So far there has been barely measurable wear on the pins and none on the sleeves.

Of course, the pin OD and sleeve ID are nominally the same. In some cases there is adequate clearance as they come from the warehouse, but the sleeve is usually welded in place and it shrinks a bit from the welding. If you don't have a lath a couple of thousandths of clearance (1/1000 per inch of diameter is an accepted rule of thumb) is easy to get with a flap wheel applied to the inside of the sleeve (McMaster Carr has some small ones) and it also gives the inner surface a smooth finish.

If I have alignment problems, instead of a fixed sleeve I use the three point hitch ball ends because of the swivel feature. You can get just the inner ball and outer race, or you can get the "ends" ready to weld onto a bar. They are cheap and last a long time, though they are not as tight as a pin and sleeve and are only available in a few sizes (3/4", 7/8, 1 1/8, etc.)

 

[RonMar]

Like Farmerford mentioned, if you are welding in the DOM sleeves, you will most likley need a reamer to resize the welded area to your pin size.

For lighter load applications, I like a lower tollerance welded in pipe sleeve that is oversized(less expensive than DOM and available locally), then a bronze "collared" sleeve bushings driven in from each side. The collar on one end of these stops the bush when it meets the end of the sleeve and these bushes provide some thrust bearing surface. Kinda like putting a bronze washer on each end of the pin between the inner and outer welded sleeves. The bushes typically don't go full depth so it leaves a gap in the center of the inner sleeve as a grease resovoir. Uns CTRL +PAGE DOWN buttons to zoom in on the attached bitmap.

 

[jimgerken]

From my local steel supplier I buy what they call "bushing stock". It is very heavy walled, and comes in normal quarter-inch increments. Like, there's a very handy one that I use that is 1 inch ID, and 1.5 inch OD. It is so accurate that often the purchased pins wont fit thru it freely.

 

[bx24]

Thanks guys, this is exactly the information I was looking for

 

[dfkrug]

From my local steel supplier I buy what they call "bushing stock". It is very heavy walled, and comes in normal quarter-inch increments. Like, there's a very handy one that I use that is 1 inch ID, and 1.5 inch OD. It is so accurate that often the purchased pins wont fit thru it freely.

That's the stuff I used (lot's of it) to build my CADDigger. Very hard to
find locally, so I ordered it from Metco. 1.000" ID, which fit 63/64" or
25mm rod perfectly. I also had a long 1.000" hand reamer, cuz I always
had some alignment issues after welding this "mechanical structural
tubing".

 

[3RRL]

Is that stuff DOM you're referring to like Ron mentioned? (Drawn over mandrel) You will need to open the ID to nominal on that stuff.
What about those hardened bushing most tractor places carry? For bushings, they are pretty good unless you specifically need heavy walled material. And they are very hard and have nominal OD and ID too.

 

[dfkrug]

Yeah, that is DOM tubing, Rob.

I have never seen any bushing stock at the 2 tractor dealers I go
to.....I will have to ask next time. Good suggestion.

The 1.000"ID/1.500OD stuff I bought from Metco seemed very
precisely made. I think it was $20/foot or so, + shipping. Heat
management in welding made big difference.

Another choice for lighter duty applications (not greased pivots)
is using shed 40 steel pipe and drilling out the weld lip inside. One
size fits a 1" pin very well; another fits a 3/4" pin very well.