I've seen it all

As I've gotten older I've realized that there are certain situations where going to the dealership for a real part is necessary. It usually just means doing it once as opposed to doing it again in six months and then finding out the part that should have worked fine also wrecked what was still a good part of the machine.

I have a friend and his father whom are willing to rig up anything. They always have the best of intentions but are stuck thinking that corn picker they shoved in the tree row 15 years ago stil only needs that one chain. They have a few acres but fired their renter so they are going to "farm".

I was talking with them yesterday and his father was talking about a bearing that had gone out on his disk. This would be the same disk that he welded a shattered disk blade on last week (those may not be cheap but I just keep a couple on hand). Well, they still make that roller bearing but it is $200. He found that if he cut 17 pieces of a 7/16 bolt they fit in there. I'm as frugal as the next guy, but sawing 17 pieces of bolt would have just undone me. I believe I would have just replaced the beating grumbling all the way.

Sometimes a external_link rig will get you buy pretty good other times and most times it's better like you say to just get the right part and do it right the first time . What will that 200 dollar bearing really cost when it ruins the shaft the housing and whatever else but we just can't afford to spend that money for the right part . I've welded disks before found out your better off just cutting the blade off as small as possible so you can keep the gang tight a welded disc will brake the first big rock you hit anyway

Well , there are a lot of us old timers out here that still subscribe to the adage " it ain't how much ya make , it's how much you keep ". He knows he is only going to use that disc once or twice a year and he may rent the land out to someone else next year so the disc may just sit another 10 yrs unused. So why put a $ 200 bearing into it. In his world he just made $ 200 an hour tax free and his disc is working. And if he has my luck he would've made 2 trips 50 mi one way to get the bearing. (you know they are going to give you the wrong one the first time) Add that all up and he made pretty good $$$ for an hour work and back discing while he would have been still on the road otherwise. Now if I were a part time farmer with a good payin' union job and a wife working at the local University, I would look at thing differently. Life's situations determine everything.

That reminds me of a Minneapolis Moline disc we had for years and years that had bearings made of oil impregnated wood.

Hey, don't knock it if it works. Years ago a guy gave me an old side delivery rake with the two steel tail wheels. Drug it to the house and discovered one of the tail wheels needed a bearing. Obsolete. I got to looking at it and discovered a 5/16th bolt would work. Had just enough on hand to work. Cut the threads and head off and made me a bearing. Still working when I sold it.

Bought a Minneapolis Moline drill the bolt that held the disc on was replaced by a spark plug out of a w d allis . I also got a Wagon that had a tire with a big triangle shape that was ripped but the tire was put on so the rotation of the tire pushed it back in and wouldn't catch. Both still work.

Hey if You can pull it off and it works more power to ya I've had scab jobs go both ways my bent loader cylinder rod is just one such job hoping it'll work . I kinda get a kick out of seeing what will work but most of my stuff has to be in pretty top shape so it'll go when I need it

Nope, NOPE, you haven't "seen it all".

There's always gonna be someone who does at little better job at being a MENACE and a torturer of machinery!

Most of the old discs used wood bearings and you could buy replacements at local hardware stores.

Better been grade 8 bolts, but then they don't saw so easy.

What gets me is these people have all kinds of time to do this. They never heard the saying time is money!!!

lol, i guess im as guilty as the next guy of engineering a fix, sometimes due to cost vs how much i need to use whatever im fixing, the other is time and availability, parts in the nearest town over the last 10 years have gone from reasonable to practically basic, maybe, [ they do have lots of overpriced real estate and cheap made tourist gee gaws] and the next town from there is a 140 mile drive which takes time i may not have

I'll bet in this case he was discing before he could have gotten home with the "correct" bearing. What's that about 'time"?

I have seen people take days to cobble some thing up, if there time was worth anything they would buy a new part!!!!

I've got one if you want one. No hack saw needed. Just a block of Maple and a turning lathe.

The motor-to-chain gear/sprocket on an older garage door opener gave out last year. It was a one-piece plastic part, opener and part both obsolete. I took a washer and made my own sprocket, bolted it to the motor drive plastic section with (2) 4-40 SHCS and it lasted almost a year until the 2 bolts holding it together sheared off. Obviously I didn't engineer it correctly :wink: so I just added 6 more bolts. Been doing fine since. In fact, it's better than new as a metal sprocket will hold up a whole lot longer than a plastic one. Wife said to just spend the $160 for a new opener. My name isn't "jerry" for nothin'. :lol: