Maintenance Tips & Tricks – 1999 – #17

Rough shaft alignment

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

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