Which type of bearings are preffered by model steam engine builders. Most of the plans that have been listed on the board are plain bearings or Oilite type bushings. Is this a case of, that is what the drawing calls for, or is it a norm for building small steam engines. Right now I have two engines in the shop, but both have ball bearings as mains, crank and slide valve eccentric bearings. These are both Hasbrouck designs but the bearings have been changed to use metric size bearings which are readilly available. Alignment for bushing type bearings is very critical to avoid friction. Ball bearings are a little more forgiving and have less internal friction which gives you more output in your engine for the same steam input. Rick made a comment in one of the other threads today about using the old types of packing to be more faithful to the origins of the machine. Am I off base using ball bearings on model engines.
Ed Miles
Ed Miles