Bearing

[hotponyshoes]

Nylon is better here, as those bearings won't like the rain.

That one is stainless.
Even a steel one won't rust up as its constantly moving.

 

[Erie Fred]

That one is stainless.
Even a steel one won't rust up as its constantly moving.

Stainless on stainless will gall.
It's been proven on windsocks, the rusty part will rust.

 

[not done it yet]

I not going to comment - apart from seadog is about spot on and it needs a design rethink.

 

[Colin Barron]

I not going to comment - apart from seadog is about spot on and it needs a design rethink.

A picture of the problem would be a start.

 

[northwest]

Well, I am going to resurrect the thread as I am currently building a wind vane, or two. I was thinking that maybe Phos Bronze is the way forward as a bearing material? Really hard wearing stuff and impervious to water, it is the exact design I am a bit stuck on, possibly even a stainless steel ball bearing in a phos bronze "top hat" type arrangement?

 

[waddycall]

I think the best thing to aim for with weather vanes is to get it to balance on the ball bearing. Depends how sensitive you want it to be and how much sail area it has. I made some with a large steel sphere at the bottom of the tube to act as a weight. The spindle passed up through holes in the sphere, through a steel sleeve with a nylon bush with plenty of clearance and sat against a greased ball bearing captive in the top of the tube by the nylon sleeve.

 

[oldbikedavey]

Tufnol is worth consideration in that scheme of things, perhaps, or Delrin ?

 

[northwest]

I think the best thing to aim for with weather vanes is to get it to balance on the ball bearing.

This is a very good point, balance is going to be very important I would think otherwise you are building in an error factor. Thanks for that, it might seem obvious but it is all too easy to start to get tunnel vision with these things, especially if it is a pet project.