Grease wooden bearings?

[charlz]

I am using part of an old disk in a project and it has wood friction bearings. Since I have it apart, should these bearings be greased? It has what looks to be old tar or something in there, all dried out hard to say if it was grease at one time. There are no zerks etc. so you have to take it apart to grease.

 

[Coolnorth]

I've seen these types on occasion. In fact, I found an old disc unit with a large plate across the top of it, with wooden bearings. I think these had the old fiber grease in them, but will find out a bit more shortly, thus I will keep you "posted".

 

[Coolnorth]

OK, a little bit more info and some miscellaneous background info.

On older water turbines (for power generation and such) the bearings were wood, with no lubricant other than the water they were in, but the wood was that hard and strong - Lignum Vitae - about 3 times harder than Maple on the Janka scale.

Some old bearing applications from stationary equipment such as sawmills and the like used maple, oak, hickory, but lubed the bearings with grease. They were equipped with a grease cup, however.

As for the disc, if there is no hole for the grease to be added, I wonder if it could have been that the designer built it with the slow work speed in mind and determined grease wasn't necessary, especially when it is in contact with the soil so much.

Anyone else have more info?

 

[Captn_Dave]

Here's a link for plastic and wood bearings.... they are still used.

POBCO Plastics, Inc.

Most wood bearings (I've seen) are water lubricated. Actually they are still used in submarines as shaft journal bearings... but not sure if water is used in that application. I've worked in the electric utility industry for over 30 yrs... and we still use wood bearings in our older pumps that are low RPM with high bearing load... water lubricated. I suspect using mineral oil or linseed oil would be safe, and as far as grease we use a clay based grease for these type applications.

 

[Egon]

In the days of your lots of equipment used wooden bearings that one could grease or oil.

 

[KennyV]

Bees wax or paraffin wax soaked before assembly... after they were installed not easy to re-lube...
I have also heard that lard use to be used in low speed shaft wood bearings.

 

[BWBrown]

I've always assumed the parafin or beeswax type lubes were used on the old wood bearings. (My graddad used beeswax blended with bear grease - YEARS AGO! - his bees and his bear)
These days I dribble synthetic oil on'em. Seems to work with no ill effects.

I've seen instances where I think I've observed wood rot made worse with petroleum based oil. But that's for another thread (and might not be the case at all).

 

[cmh61271]

Here's a link for plastic and wood bearings.... they are still used.

POBCO Plastics, Inc.

Most wood bearings (I've seen) are water lubricated. Actually they are still used in submarines as shaft journal bearings... but not sure if water is used in that application. I've worked in the electric utility industry for over 30 yrs... and we still use wood bearings in our older pumps that are low RPM with high bearing load... water lubricated. I suspect using mineral oil or linseed oil would be safe, and as far as grease we use a clay based grease for these type applications.

Wood bearings are about 40% lubricant by weight. They do not rely on water for lube. If you take a wood bearing and hold a lighter to it it will start dripping lube.

 

[Coolnorth]

Wood bearings are about 40% lubricant by weight. They do not rely on water for lube. If you take a wood bearing and hold a lighter to it it will start dripping lube.

I suppose so, yes! A bit would depend on the type of wood, what part of the tree it is cut from (heartwood or outer), etc. Further to that, I suppose that a balsam fir could have the most lube(sap, resin, syrup) but is perhaps too sticky and the wood itself is too soft to use. Black Ash or Oak would be stronger, but less sap.

Thanks for pointing that out CMH61271 - nothing better than learning something new every day!

 

[cmh61271]

I suppose so, yes! A bit would depend on the type of wood, what part of the tree it is cut from (heartwood or outer), etc. Further to that, I suppose that a balsam fir could have the most lube(sap, resin, syrup) but is perhaps too sticky and the wood itself is too soft to use. Black Ash or Oak would be stronger, but less sap.

Thanks for pointing that out CMH61271 - nothing better than learning something new every day!

I think it is Ash that is used in the lube-filled wood bearings. Another selling point of the wood bearings is they dont conduct electricity.