A post Norman made in another thread about buying bearings got me to thinking.
There used to be a store over on Logan Street (I still call it that even though it was renamed Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard 20 years ago and yes the signs are 6' long) called Detroit Ball Bearing. That place was awesome, you walk in there with just the inner and outer race from a burned up, totally thrashed bearing, the counter guy wouldn't even ask what it was from he'd just grab his micrometer, take a few measurements, thumb through a parts book and in under 20 minutes you'd walk out with a brand new bearing for a quarter of the price that the "factory" bearing would cost. The open race bearing with ball bearings the size of tennis balls they had on the counter as an ashtray was pretty cool too.
Was too young to take advantage of the machine shop my dad used on occasion but places like this aren't around any more either.
My oldest brother and his buddy bought a pair of Cushman scooters back in the early 60's at a garage sale for $10 and these things were basket cases in the truest sense. They were able to get one up and running but the 2nd engine had a crank bearing failure and the end of the crank was badly chewed up. My dad was able to get a replacement bearing (from DBB) and he took the crank over to the machine shop across the street from the Chevy dealership where he worked as a mechanic. From the story it was just two older gents and they spent most of their day sitting in chairs out on the sidewalk drinking coffee and smoking cigars. Dad dropped off the crank on his lunch hour and they had it welded and machined down to fit the bearing by mid afternoon. One of the guys actually walked the part across the street and delivered it to my dad, the charge? A whole $2 and a handshake!
There used to be a store over on Logan Street (I still call it that even though it was renamed Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard 20 years ago and yes the signs are 6' long) called Detroit Ball Bearing. That place was awesome, you walk in there with just the inner and outer race from a burned up, totally thrashed bearing, the counter guy wouldn't even ask what it was from he'd just grab his micrometer, take a few measurements, thumb through a parts book and in under 20 minutes you'd walk out with a brand new bearing for a quarter of the price that the "factory" bearing would cost. The open race bearing with ball bearings the size of tennis balls they had on the counter as an ashtray was pretty cool too.
Was too young to take advantage of the machine shop my dad used on occasion but places like this aren't around any more either.
My oldest brother and his buddy bought a pair of Cushman scooters back in the early 60's at a garage sale for $10 and these things were basket cases in the truest sense. They were able to get one up and running but the 2nd engine had a crank bearing failure and the end of the crank was badly chewed up. My dad was able to get a replacement bearing (from DBB) and he took the crank over to the machine shop across the street from the Chevy dealership where he worked as a mechanic. From the story it was just two older gents and they spent most of their day sitting in chairs out on the sidewalk drinking coffee and smoking cigars. Dad dropped off the crank on his lunch hour and they had it welded and machined down to fit the bearing by mid afternoon. One of the guys actually walked the part across the street and delivered it to my dad, the charge? A whole $2 and a handshake!
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