Plastic Bushings Replaced With Longer-Wearing Metal

Plastic Bushings Replaced With Longer-Wearing Metal DRILLS Drills (42C) 26-3-39 Washington, needed to replace the worn out plastic bushings that attach the drill openers on their Case IH 5300 grain drills, they went looking for something a little more durable than the original plastic, but couldn't find what they needed at any of the parts stores. So they went to Randy Douglas, owner of Paradise Ridge Machine, Inc., Moscow, Idaho. Douglas carefully measured the problem bushings and set up his CNC (computer numerical control) lathe to make metal replacement bushings for them. Douglas used an iron-lead alloy material called Leadloy. Gillespie had the completed bushings plated with zinc, similar to galvanizing, to keep them from rusting. It also gives them a brassy appearance. "I could have made them from brass or bronze just as easily, but they would have cost more," Douglas says. Even with the zinc plating, the custom-made bushings were just a few cents apiece more than the plastic ones the Gillespie brothers had been buying from their Case IH dealer. "I don't think we'll ever have to replace these," he says. "It's quite inconvenient to take the drill apart to replace the bushings during planting season." Douglas says the Leadloy bushings were the first he's made for farm equipment, but says he'd be willing to make more if farmers want them. "I can make just about any size bushing you'd want with this machine, in about any quantity," he says. He'd prefer to have the bushing he's duplicating as a pattern, but notes that if farmers can provide accurate measurements, he can use those to program the CNC machine. "Once the machine is set up, it takes very little time to make them," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Randy Douglas, Paradise Ridge Machine, Inc., 2536 Blaine Road, Moscow, Id. 83843 (ph 208 882-5130; fax: 208 882-5131); or Bob Gillespie, 602 Kamerrer Road, Pullman, Wash. 99163 (ph 509 334-3757; E-mail: rlg_99163@yahoo.com).

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