WO-65 oil and water bellows manufacturer

[thomasortega]

Hi Guys
Last week Ryan, from a Chinese company, emailed me offering oil bellows and I asked him if he could produce oil and water bellows for the Unimatic.

He claims his company has a different and revolutionary material that lasts much longer than rubber. (As I'm used to chinese suppliers, I didn't believe too much, but I think it might worth a try, specially if they can offer a trial order and the price is cheap.)

As I work for a trade company, we ship containers from China to Paraguay every 15 days and it would be very easy to include some bellows in our container.

Unfortunately, my WO-65 restoration isn't ready. I still waiting for the torque spring and the machine is 70% disassembled, so I won't be able to make a test.

1) what do you think about this idea?

2) Is there somebody who has any original and never used bellows, a caliper and the mood to measure and take detailed photos of them (also the contact areas in the machine) so I can provide the supplier with the technical specs? My bellows are in pieces BTW.

3) Is there someone available to try the samples to check if they really work before I place a big order?

If those bellows work ok and the price isn't outrageous, I'll be glad to place a big order and let them available to all members charging only the shipping costs.

 

[thomasortega]

opps, I forgot the pictures...

He sent me two pictures of random bellow models.

 

[thomasortega]

pic 2

 

[bobbyderegis]

Thomas:
Great idea. I bet there are lots of folks who would love to have some spare bellows. I don't see why it would be that expensive to make a mould of the bellows and crank them out. I bet whoever manufactures the rubber covers for automobile shock absorbers could do this easily. Isn't that what GM did for the Frigidaires? It's worth finding out.
Bobby in Boston

 

[brianl]

I got that e-mail too

I must admit I am a bit skeptical as I do not want my machine possibly destroyed to find out if they work or not. I gotta get back to restoring my again as I do have the rubber ones, just needs bearings and such.

 

[dnastrau]

I would at least try a set if I had a Unimatic...

...as eventually the NOS supply of these will dry up. It would be a shame to render these classics unusable for a set of bellows that are NLA.

 

[jetcone]

I'll

get my calipers out Thomas!!

 

[thomasortega]

Guys...

I still waiting for the measures...

How many Unimatics we have here in the club? Hom many others will be found and saved by the members?

I'm really optimistic about this bellows. If they work, we all could have an almost infinite and cheap stock of those bellows, even if they don't last as long as the original rubber ones.

 

[fltcoils]

I have an autocad inventor 3D model of the oil bellows

Elastomer material comes in many forms, Neoprene, Nitrile, EPDM, Silicone, Fluorocarbon are some of the more common compounds. Which are they using???

Do you have autocad inventor there? or a similar 3D CAD package?

I have an autocad inventor 3D model of the oil bellows. In the archives you can see my post showing the british made oil bellows I bought from a retailer in vancouver BC. I can output the model file as a ipt, stp or a sat file if that helps. I just haven't had time to cross check the model with a shadowgraph and putty to confirm everything. I'd tried to measure the ODs and IDs and convolutes to create the sketch and then revolve it. Since a bellows is axially symmetric one only needs a 2D sketch of one side to describe the whole thing.

I found www.minorrubber.com and their catalog revealing concerning the design parameters, they don't injection mold but rather dip mold bellows the way rubber gloves are done.

Circumstantial evidence and the web site pics suggest that http://www.columbiaerd.com are the original mfg. They are in dayton, the town where the washers were made. I posted a pic from their web site some months ago here showing what looked like an oil bellows.

see: http://www.columbiaerd.com/bellows_convolutedboots.html

 

[fltcoils]

links to info

see
http://www.automaticwasher.org/TD/ARCHIVE/VINTAGE/2008/16618x26.htm
This thread shows the oil bellows I got from BC, made in england (and my 1-18 project now stalled for 2 years)

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?16566
The end of this thread shows my 3D CAD model.

http://www.automaticwasher.org/TD/JPEG/VINTAGE/4-13-2008-15-48-53--fltcoils.jpg

 

[fltcoils]

models and dwgs sent

Thomas, I've emailed you the model and drawing I have in various formats.

given time I'd be able to check it more closely, but for now this is what I've got.

Anyone else interested let me know, I'll fwd the email to you -or I can upload them to a holding bin at Roberts if he likes.

 

[mickeyd]

Hope this works out

When we're all comfortable with our Frigi's working just fine, we can get forget that now matter how perfect the machine, one tear in the bellows renders it useless. I don't have a spare bellows, and don't know how many Mark Michaels has left, but sooner or later.....hate to think about it.

What I'd like to learn is, since the 1-18 has a perforated tub, what difference does a torn bellows make. For new members, once a tear or hole open is the bellows of a solid tub
Frigidaire, the water escapes to the outer tub and gets pumped out immediatedly.

We're lucky to have some members working in this. I hope you guys keep abreast of the situation.

 

[rollermatic]

from what i see

having torn apart a 1-18 recently and working on rollermatics
frequently if a water bellows tears on solid tub rollermatic the water escapes immediately. the inner oil bellows does not get immersed in water unless there is a complete failure of the water bellows. like you said the water runs out into the outer tub area and is pumped out. so as long as the inner oil belows is good no water gets into the mechanism or bearings.

on the 1-18 since it is perforated tub style machine all water in the tub stays in the tub until the drain/spin phase when the motor reverses and the pump drains it out. so if a water bellows leaks it would immerse the oil bellows in water. if there were a small tear in the oil bellows as well it would leak into the mechanism. at least i see that happening, correct me if i'm wrong here!

i have been told that some later model 1-18's didn't even use the inner oil bellows which surprises me as i would think it would be more imnportant to use an oil bellows on a 1-18 due to it's perfoarated tub style. the one i tore down last summer had an oil bellows on it. it was leaking around the tub seal, not the bellows. both bellows look great!

i did find a tub seal on "parts select" for the 1-18 and they told me they were getting more.

when i first started collecting my rollermatics i was worried about water bellows leakage. but i have taken apart 3 of the 6 machines i have and the water bellows are fine even after 45 years!

on the one machine that is operational i am very very careful to search pockets etc to make sure i don't load anything into the tub that could tear the bellows like a pin or nail etc.

i know bellows for the 1-18 were still available on "parts select" as of last fall. i bought one. and "dave's repair' had some as well as rollermatic bellows. and we can't forget good old mark michaels! as of a week ago he still had about 10 water and oil bellows for rollermatics.

 

[fltcoils]

make a plaster cast

Another option is to make a latex or plaster cast of the outside of the bellows, the ends, and part of the inside. That then can be measured on a NCC or shadowgraph. I didn't goto that much trouble but I still have the bellows. That's partly why I didn't reassmble my 1-18 yet, I wanted to get a source for oil bellows firmed up.