oberdorfer pumps ?????

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I am building my tig cooler now.  I happen to have a very old but in good shapebronze oberdorfer gear pump. The gears look to be about an inch wide and havechevron shaped teeth.  It has four lubrication ports to feed the bearing oil or grease.It currently has 2 old style screw-in grease cups on it.  I am thinking about screwing in some old "oilers" which you fill up to feed the bearings over a long period of time.It has a gland type shaft seal which might have had O-rings or leather ( or graphited string???  yes it may be that old ..... )     I am guessing that it might be happy runningat a relatively low RPM  ( maybe 300-600 rpm??)Here is my question.  Grainger has procon's for about 130$  - which seems likeway too high.   I am going to look around elsewhere for a cheaper one.Nobody here seems to like the oberdorfer pumps but I do not know why ?What do I need to know about them that I do not know ????????What is bad about them or their suitibility for a cooler ????????Your thoughts ?????TimLast edited by jethro; 02-01-2011 at 03:02 AM.
Reply:Don't know about oberdorfer but I've got a used procon pump, motor and cord in the for sale section for $70 shipped.  I figure thats a pretty cheap way to go as used coolers seem to fetch $2-300+ on ebay
Reply:Originally Posted by jethroI am building my tig cooler now.  I happen to have a very old but in good shapebronze oberdorfer gear pump. The gears look to be about an inch wide and havechevron shaped teeth.  It has four lubrication ports to feed the bearing oil or grease.It currently has 2 old style screw-in grease cups on it.  I am thinking about screwing in some old "oilers" which you fill up to feed the bearings over a long period of time.It has a gland type shaft seal which might have had O-rings or leather ( or graphited string???  yes it may be that old ..... )     I am guessing that it might be happy runningat a relatively low RPM  ( maybe 300-600 rpm??)Here is my question.  Grainger has procon's for about 130$  - which seems likeway too high.   I am going to look around elsewhere for a cheaper one.Nobody here seems to like the oberdorfer pumps but I do not know why ?What do I need to know about them that I do not know ????????What is bad about them or their suitibility for a cooler ????????Your thoughts ?????Tim
Reply:I have an Oberdorfer pump in my Miller Radiator-1 cooler. It has composite bushings and doesn't require external lubrication.When I first got the machine It had a leak coming from from the shaft seal. It is a brass jacket encasing the rubber seal.It was a pain to track down and eventuallly sourced it from a marine pump supplier (Depco I think) down in Florida for around $25. Other than the worn seal, there was no groove in the shaft and all of the internals looked to be in great shape. They are stout pumps, but I don't think I would have invested in more than a seal to repair it as replacement hard parts were way too expensive.
Reply:i have a miller radiator one and its LOUD but works.   It sat around for a about 10 years before i got around to hooking it up and the seals had gummed up inside of it.  I had to take it apart and clean it up and free the gears up.     I had one hell of a time getting it to seal back up.  Must have had it in and out 20 times. finally works, but its loud.   Looking back i wish i would have just ran it over with a forklift and got a different pump.Vantage 500's LN-25's, VI-400's, cobramatics, Miller migs, synch 350 LX, Powcon inverters, XMT's, 250 Ton Acurrpress 12' brake, 1/4" 10' Atlantic shear,Koikie plasma table W/ esab plasmas. marvel & hyd-mech saws, pirrana & metal muncher punches.
Reply:It certainly does look like a relic from an earlier age (pre- ww2 )It looks like it would work well to pump grease through a network of tubes on something like a turn of the century brass printing press. ( going about 2 rpm! )I will check the oberdorfer info link !I think I prefer the procon type - I think it would be quiet and long lived. (reliable)Do the procon users generaly run it at 1725 RPM or do you reduce it a little,say 100 or 750 RPM ??????Will check e-bay !Thanks, timWill post a pic of the cooler if I can figure out how !
Reply:Carbonator duty motors,  never really paid attention to what RPM they spin.   they just do the job.Vantage 500's LN-25's, VI-400's, cobramatics, Miller migs, synch 350 LX, Powcon inverters, XMT's, 250 Ton Acurrpress 12' brake, 1/4" 10' Atlantic shear,Koikie plasma table W/ esab plasmas. marvel & hyd-mech saws, pirrana & metal muncher punches.