Lathe Made 42 Deck Pulley and Spindle

[Lost Pup 172]

I have a 42 SD Deck to repair. Two of the pulleys released one did not. The center two pulley drive spindle was cut off and removed with great force.

Cutting the spindle as well. 

 

I never made a pulley before so it was a good project. The critical spacing for the pulley was the lower one ( smaller) with the deck belt so it would line up with the other two pulleys. The top side was less critical as it just just to the PTO side alone.

Dimensions were copied from the existing spindles and the original mangled pulley. The double small same size pulley on right is for the bagger unit.

Curious to see how the now heavier Steel pulley runs on the deck,

 

Comments and Questions Always Welcome.

 

 

Edited October 4, 2017 by Lost Pup

[Ed Kennell 38,022]

Nice work.   New spindle housings next year?     

[Lost Pup 172]

8 minutes ago, Ed Kennell said:

Nice work.   New spindle housings next year?     

 

Not hard to make up a solid aluminum set on the lathe.

 

Can/should I soak the housings to arrest the corrosion a bit ?

Will it help ?

 

[Ed Kennell 38,022]

I don't know if soaking would help.    I am amazed how these housings are eaten away.   Sometimes I think there must be some kind of electro/chemical action involved.

[KC9KAS 4,741]

Very nice work.

I admire people with talent to use a lathe!

[cleat 5,809]

Very nice work. I am not a big fan of the stamped pulleys and yours look fantastic.

 

Please keep us updated on how well the aluminum lasts.

 

I hope you put never seize on the shaft so the pulley does not corrode to it.

 

Great job.

[wrightorchid 261]

Yes, mixed metals can corrode much more that if by alone.  Aluminum and steel together does cause galvanic corrosion (google it for much more info), much like steel and copper do (which is why you have to have a proper junction in plumbing).  There is actually a mild current flow that causes this.  This is worse, when the metals are wet, such as wet caked grass on the spindles and deck.

[Lost Pup 172]

3 hours ago, KC9KAS said:

Very nice work.

I admire people with talent to use a lathe!

Thanks

I am self taught machinist. Books , You Tube and the Web are my sources.

Picked up my South Bend 10K Lathe off Craigslist maybe 6 years ago. $300 bucks from a local Retired Locksmith. 

 

Trust me , i had had quite a few of those **** moments while using it.

 

1 hour ago, cleat said:

Very nice work. I am not a big fan of the stamped pulleys and yours look fantastic.

 

Please keep us updated on how well the aluminum lasts.

 

I hope you put never seize on the shaft so the pulley does not corrode to it.

 

Great job.

 

The new pulley is made from C1018 5 inch round Steel.

[MalMac 1,331]

Freshly cut grass clippings, especially damp green grass have a acid like property to them. That’s why the aluminum is eating away, plus as already said the mating of the two different metal caused oxidation. This is also sped up by the grass clippings. Wet grass when left stuck to the bottom  of a deck for any length of time just eats away at it. That’s why I scrap mine often and at the end of mowing season they get power washed before being put up. 

 

Good looking lathe work. I’ve been making my own spindle shafts for some time now. 

[Lost Pup 172]

The spindle is made from 4140 alloy steel 3/4 diameter.

 

I threaded the spindle on the 3/4 ( blade ) end and used Red Loctite to place the thin 3/4-16 Grade 8 hex nut in the proper location on the spindle. This saved from buying hex bar and turning the whole length to the 5/8 an 3/4 diameters.

 

I may cross drill and pin the lower 3/4-16 with the red loctite. No need for it to ever be moved once placed.

The blade side nut is grade 8 3/4 16 as well.

 

The pulley spindle end threading is 5/8-18. Grade 8 as well. 

 

The spindle is cross drilled and I need to pick up grease fittings to finish them.

I also need the O rings for the spindle. Two of three were still there when disassembled but they just fell apart when rolling them off.

 

The bearings seem fine.....roll smooth. I did not remove them from the housings.

 

Should I pull the bearings to soak and clean them or leave alone. ??

 

I assume the inner grease shields are removed to allow the grease fittings on the spindle to purge them with fresh grease. Maybe just grease them heavily the first time ?

 

What do think ?

 

Thanks

 

Edited October 4, 2017 by Lost Pup

[Lost Pup 172]

11 minutes ago, MalMac said:

Freshly cut grass clippings, especially damp green grass have a acid like property to them. That’s why the aluminum is eating away, plus as already said the mating of the two different metal caused oxidation. This is also sped up by the grass clippings. Wet grass when left stuck to the bottom  of a deck for any length of time just eats away at it. That’s why I scrap mine often and at the end of mowing season they get power washed before being put up. 

 

Good looking lathe work. I’ve been making my own spindle shafts for some time now. 

Thanks

 

Raw material was well below items cost. I think the spindle and pulley were $50 apiece.

The 5 inch round was a cutoff for $20 and the 4140 3/4 was a long length for $25.

 

The steel shop did offer to face or cut the 5 inch round to width, I should/will do that in the future. It took forever to face of the extra 3/4 inch off the back side, filled the trash can with a huge pile of chips.

 

 

 

[pacer 3,168]

14 minutes ago, Lost Pup said:

assume the inner grease shields are removed to allow the grease fittings on the spindle to purge them with fresh grease

 

Heres an option that I'm now doing you might consider. Couple years ago I was replacing some of the bearings in spindles and after fighting/removing that huge wad of old grease and looking at those nice new 'sealed' bearings I'm thinking, hey, they are sealed for a reason I'm gonna leave the seals alone and try running them with out having to grease them (I had had a Yard Man and its deck ran with sealed bearing just fine) I've just finished up the 2nd season on those bearings and they are still going fine.

 

By the way, NICE lathe work! Aint it a good feeling to make stuff like that? I have a lathe and a mill and honestly I wonder if I could get by with my horses having to run down all the parts - I probably make 50-60% of my parts, bushings/ trunnions/levers/rods.....and, spindle shafts & pulleys!

[Achto 27,505]

Very nice work!!!  

[cleat 5,809]

My mistake, I thought it was aluminum.

Steel will be much better wear wise.

Give it a good coat of paint (hate to see your nice work rust).

 

I would still use never seize on the pulley to shaft and also on nuts on both ends.

 

You could likely make some money if you were to make those up and sell them.

You could also make the pulleys and spindles for the 48" deck as well.

 

Thanks for sharing your work with us.

 

Cleat

[Sarge 3,463]

If you can get those housings cleaned and blasted - using aircraft acid primer for aluminum and painting them will stop the corrosion - I've done a few of mine in the past and they still look good .

 

Sarge

[ronhatch 406]

Nice work! Now that I'm retired, I sure miss the machine shop I had at work!

Did you consider making the larger driven pulley about an inch smaller in diameter, say 4", to speed up the deck for a better mowing job?

 

 

[Lost Pup 172]

19 hours ago, ronhatch said:

Nice work! Now that I'm retired, I sure miss the machine shop I had at work!

Did you consider making the larger driven pulley about an inch smaller in diameter, say 4", to speed up the deck for a better mowing job?

 

 

Possible I could just swap the double bagger pulley to the center. The PTO deck belt might be a bit long at that point. 

A smarter guy would talk about blade tip speed and rpm. Comparing my Craftsman mower with the Wheel Horse decks, the Wheel Horse cuts and mulches much better to my eye.

21 hours ago, Sarge said:

If you can get those housings cleaned and blasted - using aircraft acid primer for aluminum and painting them will stop the corrosion - I've done a few of mine in the past and they still look good .

 

Sarge

I going to give it a try. Waiting for ordered new blades, Metal Clean and Etch and Aluminum Primer.

I do have a sand blast cabinet with glass beads so I am set. 

Edited October 5, 2017 by Lost Pup

[Sarge 3,463]

It will take some time with glass beads but be sure to get all that corrosion off - otherwise it can start again under the primer from moisture . My first try at these failed when the paint later flaked off despite using aircraft etching primer , the second try has yet to even chip the paint after I got them cleaned all the way to bare aluminum . That oxide layer is pretty deep - you'll see the layers of color change when you blast them .

 

Sarge

[pacer 3,168]

Sarge is right, getting all that corrosion off with glass is gonna be a lengthy process - and you'll have probably turned your glass to dust! Would be worth your time, and effort, to go ahead and get a bag of Black Diamond coal slag (TSC has it) -- My cabinet will only handle the fine grade....

[Lost Pup 172]

Just finishing off the thread....finally dug out the 42" deck and got it back together. That pulley looks nice in there. The deck wheels bushings  were egged out and the shaft worn oval.

Lathe made a bolt and two wheel bushings from some hex stock. The old grease was rock solid inside the wheel so I cleaned it and the zerk was able to flow grease.

Looking forward to see how the deck operate with that heavy solid pulley. I will clean it up and paint the deck over the winter.

 

 

[Lee1977 6,643]

I clean prime and paint the spindle housings when I do the same to the under side of the deck. Should be done ever couple of years I went 4 or 5 years last time, but the primer and paint sure does save the spindle housings. 

I bored out the deck wheels and installed oillite bushings 10 or so years ago they are still doing well, looks like the rubber tire is going to ware out before the oillite bushing.