Kingsbury Michell Aerodynamic Bearing Collaboration 

Great video! Can't wait for the build video.

Incidentally, this is how hard drive heads 'fly' over the disk surface.

Oh SHIT this is a collab with Steve Mould, talk about worlds colliding, so cool man

The engineers and scientists of the world would be hopeless and helpless without people like you who can create the precision tools they need to do their work. Don't sell yourself short.

After working 43 years as a physicist, I still find this stuff fascinating.... I am now a amateur machinist .. great to see your skills combined with Steve’s

Talk about a surprise collab. Love to see it

Thanks. The one thing I wished Steve would have done, was, spend more time on the unit. This you did for him. I love custom fabrication, and people with talented hands.

You know what, it is my first time here. Thank you for that introduction.

Linked here from Steve Mould's video, didn't realize I was already subscribed to this channel.

This would be an awesome science fair project for a kid!

That is an absolutely fantastic piece of very old engineering. As a point of reference, there has been a 2.25 ton K/M bearing in constant use... since 1912, with virtually no maintenance. It has an estimated life of 1300 YEARS. Amazing stuff.

Great stuff. I work in the Hydro Power industry, and we have similar bearings (oil not air, and 100x bigger) that support more that 600 tons while rotating 300+ rpm. Great to see this demo and teach others the power of hydrodynamic bearings. The machine shop guys get mad when you ask to get a 20 inch bearing pad to 100 micron flatness tolerance, but we get 150 (0.5 mil).

Thanks for continuing to educate people, this kind of work is required to keep a smart, engaged, and enthusiastic next generation.

My world of science channels meets my world of machining channels.

This is a cool demonstration of a hydrodynamic bearing. Same principle that prevents metal to metal contact in the rotating parts in an engine. It's NOT oil pressure that does it, it's the hydrodynamic bearing effect that keeps the metal from touching even with hundreds or thousands of pounds of force.

Well, talking about that intro.. I really do apreciate you sharing all of your knowledge! I have learnt a lot from purely observing what you do and how you do it, I don't do metal working, rather woodworking, but still I learn a lot about layout, measuring, cutting tools etc (a lot more as well!) Cheers :)

Steve Mould says I can learn to make stuff in this channel, so here i am.

Thanks Steve Mould, I like this guy already!!!!!

Thanks! Over from Steve's channel

Really cool. I’m a machinist for Kingsbury. We use a very similar model to demonstrate the principles behind our thrust bearings to customers. It was nice to have this video to show my wife what these bearings do on a fundamental level.

I honestly have no clue what that would be used for but it is probably the coolest thing i have seen in awhile.

Here from Steve Mould's channel. I think I am really gonna enjoy your videos, I enjoy machining videos and science so this should be a great combination. Also sounds like you have an amazing job, building things for scientific test seems like it would be challenging and exiting.

I have used some air lift rotary tables on the big HBM's before and you can move parts weighing 20tons or more with just your fingers. Pretty cool!

Absolutely love your videos. So much skill, and so much intelligence, and yet you remain down to earth and humble. Really awesome stuff.

amazing how the physics are so capable of impressioning us more than anything else.

That is really super cool for sure.

I love your commitment to your ideals! Thank you for an awesome video!

Very nice video and I am impressed by the beautiful bearing and your craftsmanship. I look forward to seeing the rest of the series!

Fascinating! Thanks Tom.

I've been watching both of you for quite some time. It's great to see the collab!

Beautiful! Love all the details that went into the rod with the flags, knurled tightener and everything. Looks like an interesting cross between modern tech and vintage science.

Absolutely mesmerising. What fantastic workmanship. I unfortunately have the hands of a bling elephant so construction of such an obviously versatile device will for ever be beyond me. But I will watch this again and again. As soon as I saw it working a million different ideas flashed in my head. I am in awe of your skill. My father used to be just like you. If he were here I’d give him the plans and he’d make it for me. Even just from the point of view if a classroom demonstration tool, I can tell it’s one of those things that would kindle the imagination of a teenager, or anyone really, to the point of choosing a career in hand machining tools. It’s a craft that is under appreciated and in danger of vanishing. Everyone just thinks that some autonomous robot in Japan is the only what’s such precision can be achieved. I’ll be sharing this video with my students. Just brilliant. Thank you.

Outstanding! Thanks for posting!

This is a perfect bearing to build a pulse motor.

That's pretty cool!

Tom, you and Robin never cease to amaze me.

wow 10lbs of force and still spinning ..amazing

Great collaboration

That's so awesome. Love the collab!

5:30 That so cool . Well done!

I was so confused when I saw your and Steve's video about the same thing in my notifications. Great collab

Thanks Tom!!! Wow that works way slower thin I thought it would. Thanks for sharing.

Tom, thanks for posting all of your videos! I have been able to learn so much from you and other RU-vid creators who are passionate about metal working :-)

I can't wait for the build series.

This may be the way to make the perfect record player.

Thanks Tom👍

That’s how they hang hydroelectric generator/turbine units. Most often submerged in oil with jacking ports in the pads to get the film started. Cool stuff.

Supervideo. Fascinating doesn't even start to describe it... :)

I had to subscribe to see the build video. Thank you Steve Mould for showing me this channel.

thats a pretty cool demo!

I came from Steve ! This is cool

gathering from your brief introduction, You are an exemplary awesome human specimen, sir!

My career has revolved around tilting pad and fluid film bearings from design, to manufacturing and installation. The first one of these air bearing models I saw was one made by Kingsbury and given to Westinghouse when Westinghouse was still an empire, my boss had it in his office at that time. The other one I saw was a few years ago in a display case at Kingsbury in Philadelphia. They were used as demonstrations and educational pieces almost 100yrs ago. I’ve been fascinated by these bearings for decades, do some reading on the history of Albert Kingsbury.

Very nicely done Tom! I love rabbit holes please keep them coming! The engraved OxTools logo is awesome ATB, Robin

now that is cool, thanks for the video and lesson..

Came here from Steve Mould. intro was a great idea, because this sounds *fascinating*!!! so excited to learn from you! +sub!

This is super cool.

Hi, Steve sent me over great work on the bearing!

I always knew about engine bearings working on this principle and is amazing in itself. But I'd never, ever, thought this was possible with just natural air. Wow... Thanks for sharing!

Got to love an air bearing!

amazing thank you!

Cool stuff

Fascinating!

Mind blowing!

You guy's videos are separated by one other video in my feed. Good timing

So cool!

Tom, One of the best example I could compare that, would be the heads of an Hard Drive, they float above the surface of the platters where the data is saved. Thes platters turns at 5400, 7000 or 10000 rpm to make the heard floats above each of the surfaces. And if the platters slow down or stop with the lost of power and the heads are not in the park position, the head will land on the surfaces and create a lock, in some cases, that could prevent the platter to turn in some cases. In the past with those big computers the hard drive platters were between 18 to 24 inche in diameter and when the heads would land on them they crash and leave gauge on the surfaces. That's why parking the heads was important then with those monster computer drives and in the early days of the PC hard dirves.

that was great work.. very nice demonstration kit.. mr Mould also does a great job in educating us :} stay safe everyone, have fun when possible

Fascinating

Hi Tom, An interesting video... thanks for sharing, I am off to checkout Steve's channel now. Take care Paul,,

Interesting - thanks.

My issue is to watch the build vids next or Steve's vid next. EDIT: I watched Steve's video and I should have watched the build video. Perhaps some learned something from the other but for me it was pretty elementary. I do however think I will enjoy Steve's presentation style, seems like a great host with a fair bit of knowledge

8:45 beautiful tool Tom. Hey those stones have a wonderfully soothing sound when you rub em together don't they

that was amazing. I have to watch that again until I understand what is going on.

The company i work for make the pads out of Carbon Fiber reinforced PEEK for use in large vertical pumps. The pads don't need to be lapped as the "woven" surface of the carbon fiber creates 100s of air pockets. Plus the ductile nature of the PEEK means that once the rotary motion stops the shock loading of the disc/shaft/pump impeller etc is absorbed.

i think it would be super cool to graph the total amount of time that the light has been on over time. might have a cool result!

You say that if it is my first visit to your channel, you are Tom, the host. That leads to the obvious question, for those of us who have been here many times, who are you?

Very cool stuf

Coming from Steve’s channels

i work at a waste water treatment facility. as part of our treatment process we have large industrial blowers. they consist of basically a giant centrifugal supercharger that spins at roughly 15k rpms. they supposedly spin on an air bearing. one example of a real world application. cool video.

Machine Tech also has a video about hydrodynamic bearing. Defininetly worth checking out.

I work at kinsbury bearing, making these every day. Quite interesting to see other peoples experiences.

Very cool! You probably could have a surplus silicon wafer polishing machine near you with a very similar air bearing.

From da uk! Freakin exciting!

Not a physicist but have stayed in a Holiday Inn, this whole enchilada has a very Tesla Turbine feel to it. What would happen if you lapped the pivot/contact areas to the same precision.. Enlarging the center pivot diameter might allow that surface to function as a bearing surface as well, reducing drag and extending the spin time.

Sweet.

Wow, that's an amazingly non-obnoxious continuity checker! The air bearing is pretty cool too :) (Ok, the air bearing is way cooler, but I can put the idea of a non-obnoxious continuity checker to immediate use)

oh why didn't me think of that, a gyroscope for demonstrating the gliding effect of scraped metal surfaces 😁👍

I love your channel and watch everything with joy. You have got me started on precision lapping in ways I didn't know existed before. For that I am grateful. But do you really need to do the full resume at the beginning of each episode.

Reminds me on the internal disks in a hard drive. If you have an old one maybe you can convert the disks into air bearings avoiding polishing to the nano meters.

great

wish there was a build video

Would it be possible to have a rip cord wound around that brass shaft so you could really get it spinning? Does a higher RPM affect the load the bearing can take? Thanks for all the cool vids and knowledge sharing Tom.

Very very cool. This reminds me of the lathe on Dan Gelbarts channel built with air bearings. Fascinating stuff. They never wear out because they dont touch. How people on YT get 27million views rubbing sticks together to make fire compared to people like Tom demonstrating these sort of scientific oddities is beyond me.

steve mould brought me here

When it comes to precision, no one can match your tolerance.

lovely gizmo What's it do? I mean besides spin on air ; what applications can it be put to?

Couldn't stop that song going off in my head, duh duhh de duh duh.

_Drill a tiny hole through the spindle to fit a pull string_

Thank you very much for that video and sharing with us thank(rabbit hole) experience! Can you please tell me what the stone grit number ? Thank you!