Being in Manatee County, you probably worked the phosphate mines. I am retired from the phosphate mine in Hamilton County, originally Oxy Chem. I worked the machine shop for nearly two decades, and Mechanical Maintenance in the plants for some time too. A lot of the equipment was older and parts not readily available. Waiting backlog time on some Philadelphia Mixer parts was 3 to 5 years. Some pumps and blowers had similar parts backlog times. We saved every gear and shaft possible. The belt pulleys and chain drives were no problem. There was a third party supplier had all that, but the gears and internal parts were pulled. Even if they had a -.003 shrink fit, we froze it down, put a hydraulic puller on it, and put the heat to it with rose buds until it came off. Don't remember ever having one that did not come off. Some had to be tried several times before they came off, but they will come off, without damage to the shaft or gears. If the parts were not already damaged when the component was opened, we tried not to damage anything. If large gears or impellers were already damaged, they had to be repaired, and in some cases, calling in a machine shop that specialized in custom made gears to make a new one. The lag time on that could be 6 months or more.
