Fixing a ball to a govenor arm

[Henry BrownParticipant @henrybrown95529]

I'm in the process of making an Economy hit and miss engine and have almost made the govenor assy, I now need to attach a 3/8" ball to an arm, there are two to do, they are the weights that centrifugially spin out.

I have ball bearings and tried to solder one to the arm but the solder won't take to the bearing even after I roughed the surface with a diamond burr so I'm wondering how others have done it. I have checked the other Economy engine builds that I know of and there is no mentioned there and I can't find a method by searching here or the web. As a last resort I see brass balls bearings are available but quite expensive, hence asking here first!

Thanks in anticipation, Henry.

[Henry BrownParticipant @henrybrown95529]

[Keith LongParticipant @keithlong89920]

Henry try this thread – **LINK**

[MichaelRParticipant @michaelr]

Henry, I used ball bearings for my traction engine governor, I softened the balls by heating them to red heat then drilled the balls for the governor arms and fixed the balls to the arms with Loctite.

MichaelR

Edited By MichaelR on 11/05/2020 12:00:00

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

These balls don't fit a round arm so drilling/threading/loctite is out.

What material are the balls you are trying to solder? If stainless then you want HT5 or Tenacity flux, bronze will solder a bit easier than steel.

[Anonymous]

Although I never completed the governor on my Economy I changed the design of the swinging arm so that I could use a cylinder attached to each side of the arm with an internal threaded rod. If nothing else the cylinder can provide more weight than a sphere.

Andrew

[JAParticipant @ja]

I worried about this on an engine I am making.

I bought some 5/16" diameter stainless steel balls last year at the Midland show, from Polly Engineering I think. I found that the balls could be touched by a file. After that it all became rather easy – I held a ball in a collet on the lathe and then drilled and tapped a 10BA hole. The arm obviously has a mating 10BA threaded end.

JA

[Henry BrownParticipant @henrybrown95529]

Thanks chaps! Jason has hit the nail on the head, because the ball sits in a cradle in the arm drilling/pinning/Loctite is pretty much out.

Jason, they were from an ebay seller – Hardened stainless steel grade AISI 420, hardened to Rockwell HrC52-55. I'm thinking it will cost more to get the suitable "solder" than its worth so may well go for the brass balls.

Andrew, it had crossed my mind to remake the arms and incorporate the weights in them or just make a steel rod and solder that on maybe. No rush, I'll ponder on it while I make some of the other parts.

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