Old wives tales??

[GNW1974]

True Story, farmer in the Mallee in WA used pig skin for his main bearings to repair a car in the depression. Don't know how long it would have lasted though.

[commodorenut]

True Story, farmer in the Mallee in WA used pig skin for his main bearings to repair a car in the depression. Don't know how long it would have lasted though.

Haven't heard of this, but it is plausible - you're effectively using a tough leather as a bearing surface, so it could work, and the old cars from that era only had soft (hand poured) white metal bearings anyway.

100+ years ago, rawhide leather was used as a sealing material - it was the early predecessor to the rubber oil seals like the crank/timing cover seal that we know & use today.

[wbute]

Widmills have mostly only been converted to synthetic buckets from leather in the last 20 years. The buckets are the piston in the pump that lift the water. If the water is good they can last for 20 plus years.