Stephen Howard! ;-)
Hi All,
I've just taken our very old Zanussi TD-534 tumble dryer to bits to find out what the very annoying screeching was and it turns out it was as per one of Stephen's machines.
The front of the drum has a fairly wide (20mm) 'brim' and that runs on (in this case) a felt band on a flange, set inside the front panel (like holding a round sweet tin vertically then offering the lid up to it but with some felt in the loose gap. The tin is the case of the dryer and the lid is the drum).
At the back *was* a self centering bush / bearing of some sort, held in place by a riveted on, phosphor bronze spring flange. That is in turn screwed onto spoked section of the rear panel (sort of a sandwich affair).
As Stephen also mentioned the shaft for the rear bearing was a small parallel stub, about 25mm long by 10 mm diameter with I guess a circlip groove at the end (found the circlip but the groove has long since gone). This stub is now a very weird shape and unlikely to take anything bearing wise again (or if it did, not for long). Unfortunately, this whole assembly is in the direct path of the incoming heated air .. (and hence probably why it wasn't a ball / roller bearing of any sort)?
Anyway, I see no reason why I couldn't dill out the rivets that hold the stub and its mount from the SS drum, bore out the remains of the stub in the lathe and turn a suitable flanged replacement that can be MIG welded back on to it's mount, that riveted (or socket headed screws) back into the drum, effectively re-building that whole component as new.
The worn parts on the back of the dryer could easily replaced if they were available as spares (they are only 4" round, punched / pressed steel plates) or if I rotated the plate so the ovalised part was in the opposite direction I could turn up a new bronze (or PTFE?) bush to put back in there, should last for a few more years?
Either that or where am I going to get a replacement now ..? :-(
Hmmm, 'repairing the important tumble dryer' might be a good way to get out of Xmas lunch with some of the outlaws tomorrow (and by far the preferred option) ... ;-)
D-I-Y isn't *just* for Xmas!
All the best .. and thanks again Stephen (and others) ... maybe I can turn up two sets of parts up tomorrow!
T i m