Ol' Bessy got sick

Well Blue Bessy had a Bearingectomy over the past couple evenings. I am glad to report she is recovering nicely.

Mark and I decided to get on the stick and finish up our salmon rods for an upcoming fishing trip. Mark was turning his rod handle and the ol' girl started slowing down and heating up. I have suspected her bearings were going out for a while now. They finally gave out on Mark. Fortunately, my local Car Quest had the bearings and a puller to get the old ones out.

I had never used this type of puller before. I guess I should realize how lucky I was to grow up in Dad's shop and have REAL tools. The $20 puller worked but as you can see from the pic three hands and a couple monkeys are required to make it function properly.

Once we pulled the old bearings out we looked them over. Not really a lot of noticeable wear on the bearings but the cup races were visibly wore. I am sure the bearings were wore it was just hard to see. The old bearings had an installation date scribed on their backside 12/12/50. 58 years is a long time to ask out of any bearing. My dad said dating the installation was common on a lot of American Made machinery and in a lot of machine shops doing replacements. These obviously were the original bearings since that is about when the lathe would have been made.

The new bearings are in and the headstock is back together now. I am letting the silicone gasket sealer cure out overnight before refilling the oil reservoirs. Tomorrow evening I should get everything back up and running so we can get back on those rods.