The Infinite Bushing

[Aaron]

I had an idea that might help those still in search of the perfect combination of truck bushings or the yet still unmade bushing with special properties.
What if each bushing had tunable properties....soft to soft or soft to hard or whatever.
I think one way of experimenting with this is to get various lengths of urethane tubing, in different wall thicknesses and IDs. The smallest tube being 3/8" ID. The bushings would be "buildable". The builder would coincentricaly stack the tubes in rings making bushing packs. It may help to add a powdered lube as the surfaces will generated massive friction heat. One could try grease or oil but it could break down the materials. Not all of the pieces need to be cut perpindicular either. The most expensive racing shocks use urethane travel limiters which are cut at angles. These angles produce a graduated sock resistance curve which has been found to be a huge development of very low tech. One could design a "stop" into the bushing. These bushing packs would not need to be 100% urethane. The odd "girdle" tube could be very short, like a ring, placed midway, affecting the movement of the others. A metal spring could be placed amongst the urethanes. The possibilities of this are endless and one does not need to be an engineer or plastic brewmiester to work with this idea.
All of this over a bowl of yogurt for breakfast, off to work I go.

[jetkin]

Man, I want to know where you buy your yogurt: "I'll have the some of the lowfat vanilla-peyote, please?"

[revelation2]

Wow, I never thought about that.

good thinking, really.

Right now I'm happy with my bushing kit, which gets re-arranged twice a week.

In any case, that'd be cool to try. Get a bunch of different bushings and cut them up, then place them together with a lubricant in between? Genious.

[y0 man]

thats a really good idea... i bet some company would be down for that.

[EBasil]

I think people have been doing a version of what's described for a while, albeit in low numbers. I mean, there are people that think of how to improve bushings like Bushman does with his bearings... The thing is, you need to make these cuts on the outside of the bushing, not the inside. If the ID of the bushing is much larger than the kingpin, it will move around a lot, perform inconsistently and cut or tear.

Great idea!

[Aaron]

The thing is, you need to make these cuts on the outside of the bushing, not the inside. If the ID of the bushing is much larger than the kingpin, it will move around a lot, perform inconsistently and cut or tear.

Great idea!

I think one version of this bushing (for simplicity sake one base side bushing here) start with a firm (maybe non urethane tube 3/8" ID, very hard, thin wall. This center "liner" could be long enough to cross though the hanger, acting as a stop/shock, lining the second bush. Harder than urethane, softer than the hanger's aluminum.
The second layer could be 1/8" wall soft cut a little long for preload.
Layer three could be firm having a taper cut, or triangular V's cut around the circumferance.
The last layer would be for containing the previous V'd layer. The V'd layer wouldn't perform (would hemorage out) unless it maintained a semi-cylindrical form. This last layer would be cut to proper height.
It is possible that this type of bushing would require old style cupped washers.
Also maybe some kind of metal net would contain this although it would cut the materials.

[Aaron]

Another non tube version would be to take an existing bushing. Using a drill press and vise for safety, drill a hole or two as needed parallel to the kingpin bore. Fill the new holes with other material like softer urethane, silicone, what ever.
This is what happens when a skater is down with a broken leg.

[Bushman]

I mean, there are people that think of how to improve bushings like Bushman does with his bearings...

Great idea!

LOL!!!!!

[EBasil]

I think one version of this bushing (for simplicity sake one base side bushing here) start with a firm (maybe non urethane tube 3/8" ID, very hard, thin wall. This center "liner" could be long enough to cross though the hanger, acting as a stop/shock, lining the second bush. Harder than urethane, softer than the hanger's aluminum.

George Powell and Khiro Bob agree with you... the Powell patent is on the internet if you'd like to read it. You will probably enjoy it, if you're thinking about bushings this much. It's a good read.