Flexane

[jackrae]

I'm thinking of making some resilient bearing carriers by using the Devcon eurathene rubber product Flexane.

Project is a 7.25 guage electric loco and i'm looking for a simple bogie arrangement with minimal machining requirement or precision self aligning bearing requirement.

Basically I'm proposing to mould some roller bearings into oversized hornblocks using pourable "rubber"

By this means I'm hoping the bearings will be able to tolerate some angular movement so permitting the use of roller bearings without the problem of alignment.

Anyone any experience of either the product or the concept.

regards
jack

[chris vine]

Sounds interesting.

Are you planning on getting the vertical movement for springing from the rubber or just the flexibility for alignment?

Some london underground trains appear to have the only movement from what looks like a laminated rubber spring almost sideways on to the axle box. In other words the vertical movement is shearing movement on the rubber sections. Maybe I have seen this wrong but I am sure someone else will have noticed it.......

Chris

[jackrae]

Hi chris
I was indeed thinking of using it instead of springs.
At present our club riding bogies have no springing and in an attempt at redesigning to provide some level of springing, I thought about the possibility of using soft rubber.
It's not exactly spinging, but infinitely better than nothing at all.
I had anticipated mounting the bearings in square blocks which themselves would be bonded to the frames within oversized hornblocks, the flexane filling the gaps between the bearing block and the hornblock sides.

[Tim Bayliss]

Jack,
I would suggest you use self aligning pillow blocks ( they have a partial sphere in the housing holding the bearing itself) and mounting them on a lump of fairly hardish `rubber'.
This should give you a bit of flexibility with the ability to allow for some angular misalignment.
They are fairly reasonably priced and readily available from bearing suppliers.
Regards,
Tim

[Tim Bayliss]

P.S.
If you can get hold of some rubber car engine supports with a bolt size to fit the pillow blocks that you choose this would make a good combination as the engine suports are designed for shear as well as compression loads.
Tim

[Malcolm]

For my driving trolley, I used self-aligning plummer blocks, as mentioned, with small rubber balls, as sold in toyshops, as suspension. The result is a trifle heavy, but works very well. Incidentally, the newer Blackpool trams use sideways-on rubber, as mentioned in use on the Underground.