Teres Bearing - How heavy can it take?

[DaveM]

I have a teres bearing from the group buy a while back. I have finally gotten my hands on the material I have been wanting. Work bought a 4"X 12" X 12" block of black Delrin about 3 years ago. I finally weaseled out of their hands and into mine. In square form it weighs about 35 lbs. I have had thoughts of adding brass weights to the outside diameter to increase the mass. Any reason that I should or shouldn't do this?

[3GGG]

I think you should be fine. Possibly build it without the added weight then you can add weight at a later date. You can look at the delrin thrust plate for wear although removing the bearing and putting it back together takes a bit of work to get the correct amount of oil and no air in the bearing. I dont think it would be too difficult to add some opposing rare earth magnets to reduce the vertical force at a later date.

[woodturner-fran]

Yeah, I'd say you'd be fine. Consider lead shot for filling, also you could add a plate to the nottom of the platter for better flywheel effect.

Fran

[DaveM]

The reason I was thinking of using brass weights was that... well, I have them and they were free. Also I thought that I won't need to worry too much about balance if I do everything with my rotary table. 1 setup and cut all of the critical features. This will keep balance issues to a minimum. This is much harder with lead shot.