Copper for a bushing

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Im building a snow blower. The auger flighting will be welded to a piece of 2 inch sched 40 pipe. The pipe will be bushed and shear pinned to a 1 1/4 solid shaft. Steel on steel will rust and lock the joint, making the shear pin useless. I have no brass or bronze at the time, would a piece of copper pipe work to isolate the two. ie press a copper sleeve into the bushing to let it rotate on the solid shaft if the shear pin breaks.
I don't think it would wear well if turning for long but this would be very intermitant when the shear pin breaks.
Yes I know Im being cheap and should buy a propper bronze bushing but 1 1/4 aren't available locally.
Thanks
Greg
 
Hey Greg, I think it would work in a pinch, but like you mentioned, it wouldn't live long if spun for long. Grease would help for a short while though.
What kind of RPM are we looking at?

Paco
 
Greg what if you where to make your bushing from stainless steel or steel and pack it with Anti seize. I work as a service tech on car wash's and use a lot of that stuff and it never lets me down. Dave
 
As a real life example, I installed 4 bushings from 1/2" copper water line exactly as you are describing in the worn out wheels on my lawnmower several years ago. They were all loose and wobbling all over the place (my dad and I bought this mower at Marshall-Wells in the 70's!). Anyway, the copper worked fine for about two seasons of grass cutting normal city yard, then they were worn as bad as the first ones. But they did last for the couple of years...

-frank
 
My Kubota has grease fittings and no bushings (steel on steel). I grease the heck out of it every season. I've broken way too many sheer pins (gravel, firewood, rocks...) It has never seized up. I use that heavy duty red grease.
 
Wish there was an Ace hardware, but not around Calabogie Ontario. lol
The auger will be running at about 250 rpm Paco. You'd notice within a few seconds if the shear pin broke and the auger was free wheeling. The grease idea has merrit, I could drill the bushing and put a fitting on it to keep it flooded.
Though about making the bushing / spacer between the 2 inch pipe and shaft out of stainless but the piece I have is only 2 inch, the pipe ID is slightly over. That would have been the easy / quick method. I'm not confident anti seize would stay in the joint when it gets wet.
The problem with shear pin joints like this, is they may not get sheared for a couple of years so you don't know if they've seized.
Thats sounds real promising Frank. If you got a couple of seasons out of them thats a LOT more turns than this should ever see.
Thanks
Greg
 
I should mention that I use anti-seize on the sheer pins themselves. The hardest part is usually aligning the holes to drive the broken pin out.
 
Was afraid steel on steel might not work Rich probably over thinking this. Im using the drive shaft from a tiller right now on my tractor mounted rear blower. It has a friction clutch in it, I jam it regulary with as you say rocks but mostly wood the dog has laid as land minds in the snow.
Is there a grease fitting to feed the joint?
Thanks
Greg
 
I think the copper would be fine for your application. Nothing wrong with a little frugality. I replaced the shifter rail bushings (5spd manual) with 1/2" K-copper in our old 95 Honda suv. It was all that I had available and it worked fine for several yrs, and was still shifting great when we sold it. Mike
 
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