Rough shaft alignment

By Staff -- Plant Engineering, 9/1/1999

Problem: Two shafts must be aligned, but no alignment instruments are available.

Solution: Wrap a short piece of #12 AWG solid copper insulated wire tightly around each shaft. Strip about an 1 in. of insulation off the "pointer" ends, and bend the ends at 90-deg angles toward each other. Line up the ends with a 1/8-in. gap between them. Now you can align the shafts, rotating them by hand and keeping the pointers aligned while adjusting the equipment mounts.

Contributor: Don LeSage, Fred Usinger, Inc., Milwaukee, WI; 414-276-9100