We swapped the spur gear winch out that was on the raising fixture for
the 3000# Dayton worm gear winch. The Dayton appears to be rugged, but
like most inexpensive winches, the gears appear to be crude, steel on
steel, but it is hefty.
I thoroughly greased the worm gear and worm gear wheel. I could find no
recommended lube and the hand cranked speed as with most winches, is way
too slow for the preferred method of lubrication.
At least with Dennis (N8ERF) on the crank it went fairly well, but with
the tower several feet from vertical, the worm began to chatter. I could
see it move laterally in the front bushing (The one closest to the
handle). I used LPS-2 which is a penetrant with grease suspension on
the bushings. That quieted it down. Had we used a power drive, it
would have destroyed the bearing.
I know these companies have to keep the winches affordable and a "good"
worm gear reducer would cost at least 2 or 3 times the cost of these
winches alone. I'm going to price out some commercial reducers and see
what would be involved with driving the winch drum through the
commercial reducer. I found lots of reducers, but no stock prices. I
can see it requiring some mill and lathe time as well as an adapter from
the input shaft to a half inch drill motor. I'd use a gear ratio that
would not overload a heavy duty 1/2" drill motor. So we are probably
looking at a 100:1, give or take.
With the 50:1 on the Dayton it took roughly 800 to 900 turns of the
crank handle and those first 50 to 100 turns took a lot of effort. On a
fairly warm day, in direct sunlight about 10 feet from the shop with no
wind, Dennis sure worked up a good sweat.
Once the tower is in operation, I plan on replacing the bad bearing with
an Oil-Lite bushing reamed to fit and drilling both bushing holder and
bushings to take a Zerk and use BR-2 Grease.
Normally bushings of the Oil-lite type are lifetime lubricated, but I
think the heavy load and slow rotation might be a bit much. Perhaps I
could bore out the supports and press in roller bearings. Thin roller
bearings with lots of rollers and Zerks to keep them properly greased
would probably work.
Input from a good mechanical engineer on this would be appreciated.
--
73
Roger (K8RI)
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