ri702bill 8,296 #1 Posted February 16, 2023 Any of us that use a 32 or 26 inch Gear Drive Rotary Mower will be very familiar with the excessive wear the Hitch Shaft ends get over time. I decided to repair and upgrade this latest one. The plan was to cut down both ends to accept a thin wall 4140 press fit sleeve in the lathe. I made the sleeves in the lathe, but the belt tensioner arm was too long to allow it to get a full swing in the lathe. Moved over to the milling machine and went Old School, using a boring head with the bit reversed to do external cuts. Got about .001 press fit - a bit of red Loctite, good to go. Drilled for a grease fitting and cross drilled a .080 hole. Have yet to do the other end. Total cost (except for the electric bill) was Zero had everything I needed in stock. Bill 2 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHX?? 48,801 #2 Posted February 16, 2023 You guys with all your nice machine tools are really starting to tick me off! 3 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ri702bill 8,296 #3 Posted February 16, 2023 The other choice was to braze or mig weld up the worn areas and then spend way too much time with a Dremel or a bastard file..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ri702bill 8,296 #4 Posted February 16, 2023 16 minutes ago, WHX?? said: your nice machine tools If I had really nice machine tools, like a 4 axis CNC milling machine, I would have spent more time programming it than the time it took to cut chips!!!! 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimSraj 429 #5 Posted February 16, 2023 52 minutes ago, WHX?? said: You guys with all your nice machine tools are really starting to tick me off! Yeah, that! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ri702bill 8,296 #6 Posted February 16, 2023 Sorry, did this kind of alterations on production equipment over the years, then Machine Designing - retired now & got the time to work on the toys that need attention.... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Moparfanforever 844 #7 Posted February 16, 2023 Nice fix !! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimSraj 429 #8 Posted February 16, 2023 Just kidding. Very nice work. I’m jealous I guess 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
