I am building me a sissy bar, a taaaall black one. 40 inches when done.

Hope to get it welded up later this week, but before i do that I would like some suggestions on how to mount the eight ball between the uprights so it spins.

Was thinking a couple of small bearings on an axel, but welding it in would probably ruin the bearings....I dont profess to be a welding guru...

suggestions anyone??

 

Wow, 49 views and not a single suggestion for the spinning 8 ball....

Think I'll go and eat worms.....

 

Run a shaft thru the 8 ball and thread the shaft ends so you can just screw it between the uprights.

 

Therein lies the conundrum for me. How to thread a shaft through one upright, then the eight ball, then the next upright, unless the entire shaft is threaded? Can't mount bearings on a threaded shaft, and the exposed bits of the shaft between the ball and upright won't look so pretty.

Was thinking maybe a half axel on each side threaded into the upright, but with my luck and lack of finese, I won't get the two half axels to centre on each other...

The other option is to reverse tap the holes in each upright and have reverse threads on each end of the axel so screwing it in one direction will screw in both sides.... There you go, answered my own question! ...thanks forum!


Still open to simpler solutions...

 

Bore a 3/8" hole through the center of the ball.
Install one of these bushings at each end of the hole.
Cut a 1/4" rod to fit between the uprights.
Slide the rod through the 8 ball.
Weld the rod to the upright at each end.

Some molybdenum lube (MolyKote) on he rod will let the ball roll almost as good as a bearing and you don't have to worry about changing bearings to keep it rotating.

If you would rather do the half-shaft, you can ensure alignment by welding a complete shaft, the cutting out the middle section. You can also drill just deep enough for the bushing on each side so the ball doesn't slide back and forth.

Lowes has flangeless bushings, but they are not on their website.

 

That sounds like a very cunning plan.

My only concern, would the heat from the welding make the bushings melt, or are they some kinda high temp resistant Teflon or some such?

 

They're nylon. You could use metal bushings instead. I'm just not sure what's available. Probably several options at the big DIY stores.

You can also use a heat sink when welding to keep some heat away from the bushing.

 

What if you didnt need welding at all? How about you bore out the 8ball just large enough so you can fit a sleeve inside that you can run a threaded rod through? Then you can just bolt that rod up on either side. Now you dont need bearings/bushings either.