Atco Standard - Rear Roller Bushes

Anyone renovating one of these circa 100-year-old machines will almost certainly find the rear roller self-aligning bushes quite badly worn, largely no doubt through poor lubrication but also because they were not well protected against dirt. Replacement bushes or even bearings have not been available for very many years.

My solution to this problem has been to machine out the centre and insert bronze bushes.

I bought a pack of 5 bronze plain bushes each 7/8” inside diameter (the size of the rear roller shaft) by 1 1/8” outside diameter by 1 1/8” length, the thinnest and longest I could find. This pack was less than £12 including postage. One bush was not long enough so I fitted two and just cut off the excess length. This has successfully removed the wear in the bush although there remains some wear on the roller shaft itself however being steel this was relatively small.

I will confess that my small lathe was not the most suitable for the size and shape of the self-aligning bush but by working slowly I have a satisfactory result. A larger lathe and a suitable reamer would have made the job very much quicker and easier.

The attached pictures are:

1. The original worn bush
2. The bronze plain bushes
3. The final result with bronze bushes fitted.