OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Reel-Type Mowers Scott Bonnar 45 Restoration - Crumpet

Another reason for using brass on the Series 1 machines could be, that Scott Bonnar were brassfounders for much of their history. There's a thread on ODK HERE that mentions their exiting this business in 1974, so does the timeframe for the height adjuster material change seem about right?

Hi Gadge,

I'd say you are spot on with that observation, but I feel that they continued to use their own foundry for diecast opposed to brass as it was fast becoming the cheaper alternative and had become the new wonder metal in the 1970's as it lighter and was easy to cast, easy to machine and certainly made your tooling last much longer and lastly was so much cheaper. For a manufacturer it was a win win situation.

Sadly it's draw backs are, lack of strength, non ability to weld it successfully and basically a tad too soft. In America it was basically known as "Pot Metal".

Cheers,
BB.

here is a pic of the chain tensioner i made up too.
I need to remove a link out of the chain aswell

Hi CP,

That's a great replacement you've made there as the series one tensioner hasn't been available for years. I have to ask the question though, why do you need to remove a link from the chain ?

Cheers,
BB.

Hi BB

Did thay roll tho or did they sit stationary and the chain just wear in one spot until next service
I dont really but to allow for chain cover clearance it is a new chain and I might have missed counter the number of links

The originals were just bolted stationary and as you suggested and rotated at service time.

I must admit if I could find some round ones I would fit them onto my series one machines opposed to modifying the series two units to fit.

OK I wasn't aware that you've changed chains, thus that explains it.

Cheers,
BB.

Thanks Bb

The info is great .

Do you know if the outer rear roller bearing can be swap with any other bearings that I can get form a local bearing shop

Thanks for your time
PS some pics to come of the rebuild

How do I get this apart

HI CP,

Honestly there is no reason for stripping these halves down any further. If the reason is purely cosmetic then I'd advise that you get the rusted sections bead blasted as those bolt heads will instantly shear off if you attemp to remove them.

Cheers,
BB.

Hi BB
Thanks for the advice
It's just that inside of them are badly rusted so I was hoping too strip it out

Again, I would bead blast them as it will be more drama than it's worth in the long run as those spider cages are well and truly rusted to the outer roller drum.

Cheers,
BB.

Hi CP,

Just letting you know that I was going to pull a roller out and source the manufacturers number from it and then cross reference it to a generic number, but in actual fact you have already done that now with your roller being out, thus you should have the bearing available to read the number from it.

Can you also tell me the number and also what the manufacturers name is on the bearing, maybe "Hoffman", "Anthony Bearings" of Melbourne ?

The quicker you can give me that number the quicker we can source a much cheaper alternative as all the sellers on eBay etc. are just milking us for easy money.

Cheers,
BB.

BB it is the age old problem, when an interest group forms on anything the prices all go up

Hi Norm,

For those exact reasons I won't participate in Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram or Twiiter. It's all over rated and I'll just go back to basics and find components that are just a generic part at a generic price and not a "Twit" price.

Just look at the prices of the fashionable model 45 clutch halves, just blatant profiteering at around $90 odd dollars when I can still source them at around $61.

You and I come from a time long ago and can see through all the hype and bulls%@t.

Cheers,
BB.

Ditto on the 'social media' thing here, BB. More like 'social pestilence', I reckon!

Some say ... Norm and BB come from pre-recorded history.
Some say ... [like Gadge] that social media is a fatal disease.

Some - like CyberJack - agree.
Imagine the resultant base level of communication if we all
communicated by emoticons

Imagine the resultant base level of communication if we all
abbreviated feelings - LOL, OMG ...
What silliness ... http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php

ODK has remained popular because some folks want better communication.

WTF
---------------
Jack

Hi Guy's,

Thanks for all the support in that retched medium.

Now back on topic,

I had a look out in the "Boneyard" in the 41 degree heat today (Beautiful Adelaide ??) and found a Rover Red rear roller that I've previously removed from a cancer riddled chassis that was cut up for scrap and thus I removed the original shaft mounted bearing and carrier.

Well the information is not good as they had no bearing numbers on the outer race and I have since found out that they are a peculiar bearing with an oddball size outer race, just a millimetre smaller OD than an RLS5 which is what is used the cutter bearing.

I really can't see why they had to use such an oddball size bearing when they could've stayed with the same size as the reel bearing thus doubled their sales in the same size bearings and reduced their overall buying price.

If you check the prices on eBay for the roller bearings you will see that they are through the roof in price point and nearly $45 ~ $50 per bearing and that's absurd.


UPDATE !!!!

Well I've just been speaking to my contact in that industry before I posted the initial post and I've found out that these bearings are made to order as there is no generic equivalent nor a replacement. These bearings are made in batches of about 20 at a time and thus this makes them expensive to manufacture and that cost is passed on to the end consumer.

Now my question is, why did Scott Bonnar have such an oddball bearing made for them as believe me the originals are no precision High Speed bearing and neither are the new ones that are now sold on eBay. Maybe they were made on a tight budget as they are made of substandard materials that's for sure and thus it was cheaper than a high speed RLS5. We'll never know, but honestly I feel it would be cheaper for some one to tool up and press out the sheetmetal bearing carriers to suit the far more common RLS5 bearing that you can buy for around $5.00 per unit.

Thoughts ??

Cheers,
BB.

Hi guys how was your day

BB it is a "Anthony Bearings" of Melbourne not sure of the numbers as thay are at the bearing shop as they are trying too find them for me.
But I don't think they can help me with them

Hi CP,

Well it proves that Anthony Bearings was one of SB's suppliers, so thank you for confirming that for me but I guess the answer is in the above post and with that it's a definite NO for finding a substitute.

Cheers,
BB.

G'day BB and all
I think an argument can be made that these bearing were deliberately
designed for the application , like the 45 clutch hub bearing, to work
reliably at very low speeds ... like in a landroll. They also had to
be hard wearing enough to withstand very infrequent lubrication.
I think they do a pretty good job for their service life.

Do we have accurate measurements?
Perhaps a specialist bearing company might have the answer.
I do not feel looking in high speed ball bearing catalogues is the
right approach.

-------------------
Jack