Ok, here it goes. I am an amateur machinist (not sure I even qualify on that title) and have had a PM-45M for several years now and love it (mostly). The following three (3) pictures are just a reference to the mill itself as there seem to be a few slightly different versions of the machine.
Front (head on) view.
Right side.
Left side.
I never changed the oil before and decided to go whole hog now that I have had an oil leak for several months. I contacted Matt and he said it had to be the spindle seals and sent me a package of two. Below is a picture of the two seals as well as the package they came in. That way you can have the specs as well as a brand.
I read the sticky thread (http://www.hobby-machinist.com/showthread.php/15361-How-to-change-the-seals-on-the-PM45-Spindle) thoroughly and got ready to do this.
Welcome to my saga and a few more questions. Below are a few obligatory shots showing what we are dealing with. Everyone on the same page?
Did anyone notice my first mistake from the pictures above? That's right....I have a chuck installed still. Doh! Step 1 - Make sure you do not have any tooling installed and go ahead and set the draw bar aside as well.
The motor shroud comes off next.
There are also two screws in the control box affixed to the left side of the mill. All six (6) screws are the same size.
For whatever reason I never got the tachometer to work (gave up long ago) even though Matt was amazingly patient and even sent me replacement parts. I may revisit this some day. Don't forget to remove the plate that is associated with the tachometer. It is the round disc affixed to the spindle with a simple slotted set screw.
There are four (4) socket head cap screws holding the motor in place. I removed those and left the mounting plate affixed to the motor. Be careful not to lose the key. Below is the motor removed and the key in place.
Here is where the motor shaft and key are inserted into the gear box head/cover.
Next come the six socket head cap screws that hold the cover on the gear box. Forgive the out of focus picture. What you can't make out are two locating pins. This makes it oh so fun when pulling the head/cover off of the gear box. Oh, and there are a few other things that you will come to understand that make pulling the cover off.
Next up is the cover on its top and the gear train displayed.
Does this look different than the other threads? YES IT DOES. This is where the fun began for me. More on this to come. The pictures you see in some other posts do not have all four (4) gear shafts in place. Three pieces were found after draining the oil from the head. Here they are:
Above are a gear from the shaft that is directly turned by the motor, the key for that gear, and the lever bracket. The lever bracket is what pushes the gears between low, middle, and high gear ranges. Here is a better picture of the lever bracket.
Here is a picture of where the lever bracket sits followed by the lever bracket in place on the lever rod. It s not affixed in any way. It just sits on the post.
This is what took some trial and error in figuring out how to put this beast back together. If some of the pictures look out of sequence, they probably are. I had this thing apart several times and wound up doing two (2) oil changes before successfully getting ti back together. I would recommend removing the two middle gear shafts at this point.
Here is the first shaft removed from the cover. Take note of the teflon tape around the gear that is rotated by the motor. I put two layers on the shaft and that got the gear to remain in place during assembly. Until I did that, that stupid gear fell off. It took about six (6) times of that nonsense before I gave up, dropped back, and punted. What the pictures do not show is that I trimmed the excess after the gear was in place.
These are just other shots at a slightly different angle. I did not bother to take pictures of the second shaft removed. I figured it is enough to say remove the middle two and let it go at that. Oh, and have fun removing them. They do not just slip out of the bearings. That was a pain in itself. I had to use a clamp to grip the shaft and then cantilever the shaft upwards. Yeah, it sounds simple. It took about half an hour and much cussing to get it done. And let's not even discuss how I came to the conclusion that these two shafts have to come off in order to reassemble the mill. That in itself will get my blood pressure rising and require me to drink heavily.
Next up in our little story is the gear shaft that controls the gear speed ranges. The lever bracket actually sits between the gear and the "non gear" on the shaft. There are positive detents for the gears to sit in place.
Now on to the gear box itself. Here we can peer into the abyss.
Next up is where the oil level sits in comparrison to the oil pointer (viewing window).
Here is where the oil is in relation to the spindle seals. You only see one as they are stacked on top of each other.
Next I undid the drain plug on the underside of the gear box and let the oil drain out.
Sludge, sludge, and more sludge!
Cleaned out!
Should I be concerned about this?
Now on to why we are here in the first place. Here I have the spindle seals removed. Have fun with that. I used a sharp 1/4" chisel to cut the seals and then I pried up a corner until I could grab it with a pair of long nosed needle nosed pliers.
If you go back to the beginning of the post and look at the seals I was sent by Matt, you will notice that there are two disticnct sides. The cup side goes down. I say this because that is how it was for the two that I removed. I put the first one in place and tapped it into place a little bit at a time until it was flush with the casting. Then I used a 6mm socket screwdriver to fit in the grooves of the spindle and tapped slighlty one groove at a time until it was fully seated. I then repeated that process with the second seal.
I forgot to take pictures of the two middle gear shafts being put in place but I did take a little video showing it in action with the gear range selector. First is a picture of the two gear shafts in place.
[video]http://vid1379.photobucket.com/albums/ah152/topsecretsecurity/Mill%20Spindle%20Seal%20Change/1015_video_zps2rcarwhs.mp4[/video]
Time for oil! This is one of those times that the pictures do not match the story. Do not fill with oil at this time. Finish the gear assembly and then replace the drian plug and fill from the top at the fill point.
Two (2) quarts in...
Three (3) quarts in....and enough.
Here is the view from the sight.
Notice the cleaned off box lip. I cleaned off the cover as well and used a liquid sealant.
Some final notes that you cannot show in pictures. The gear shafts are quite the press fit. I had to get everything lined up and then use a dead blow hammer to go around the outer edge of the cover and tap it down into place. I put all of the screws back in and then went through a modified break in cycle. I did low gear at the lowest speed for 15 minutes. I then did it for the fastest speed in the lowest gear for 10 minutes. I repeated that for the middle gear range. Finally, I did 5 minutes at the lowest speed in the high range.
I hope this helps. I also hope that I never have to do this again. I really think that if I have a slow leak again, I will be OK with that and just keep an eye on the oil level. If it gets a bit too low I will drain it and then refill.
One final note. I used teflon plumbers tape on the oil drain plug and the oil fill plug.
Elliott
Front (head on) view.
Right side.
Left side.
I never changed the oil before and decided to go whole hog now that I have had an oil leak for several months. I contacted Matt and he said it had to be the spindle seals and sent me a package of two. Below is a picture of the two seals as well as the package they came in. That way you can have the specs as well as a brand.
I read the sticky thread (http://www.hobby-machinist.com/showthread.php/15361-How-to-change-the-seals-on-the-PM45-Spindle) thoroughly and got ready to do this.
Welcome to my saga and a few more questions. Below are a few obligatory shots showing what we are dealing with. Everyone on the same page?
Did anyone notice my first mistake from the pictures above? That's right....I have a chuck installed still. Doh! Step 1 - Make sure you do not have any tooling installed and go ahead and set the draw bar aside as well.
The motor shroud comes off next.
There are also two screws in the control box affixed to the left side of the mill. All six (6) screws are the same size.
For whatever reason I never got the tachometer to work (gave up long ago) even though Matt was amazingly patient and even sent me replacement parts. I may revisit this some day. Don't forget to remove the plate that is associated with the tachometer. It is the round disc affixed to the spindle with a simple slotted set screw.
There are four (4) socket head cap screws holding the motor in place. I removed those and left the mounting plate affixed to the motor. Be careful not to lose the key. Below is the motor removed and the key in place.
Here is where the motor shaft and key are inserted into the gear box head/cover.
Next come the six socket head cap screws that hold the cover on the gear box. Forgive the out of focus picture. What you can't make out are two locating pins. This makes it oh so fun when pulling the head/cover off of the gear box. Oh, and there are a few other things that you will come to understand that make pulling the cover off.
Next up is the cover on its top and the gear train displayed.
Does this look different than the other threads? YES IT DOES. This is where the fun began for me. More on this to come. The pictures you see in some other posts do not have all four (4) gear shafts in place. Three pieces were found after draining the oil from the head. Here they are:
Above are a gear from the shaft that is directly turned by the motor, the key for that gear, and the lever bracket. The lever bracket is what pushes the gears between low, middle, and high gear ranges. Here is a better picture of the lever bracket.
Here is a picture of where the lever bracket sits followed by the lever bracket in place on the lever rod. It s not affixed in any way. It just sits on the post.
This is what took some trial and error in figuring out how to put this beast back together. If some of the pictures look out of sequence, they probably are. I had this thing apart several times and wound up doing two (2) oil changes before successfully getting ti back together. I would recommend removing the two middle gear shafts at this point.
Here is the first shaft removed from the cover. Take note of the teflon tape around the gear that is rotated by the motor. I put two layers on the shaft and that got the gear to remain in place during assembly. Until I did that, that stupid gear fell off. It took about six (6) times of that nonsense before I gave up, dropped back, and punted. What the pictures do not show is that I trimmed the excess after the gear was in place.
These are just other shots at a slightly different angle. I did not bother to take pictures of the second shaft removed. I figured it is enough to say remove the middle two and let it go at that. Oh, and have fun removing them. They do not just slip out of the bearings. That was a pain in itself. I had to use a clamp to grip the shaft and then cantilever the shaft upwards. Yeah, it sounds simple. It took about half an hour and much cussing to get it done. And let's not even discuss how I came to the conclusion that these two shafts have to come off in order to reassemble the mill. That in itself will get my blood pressure rising and require me to drink heavily.
Next up in our little story is the gear shaft that controls the gear speed ranges. The lever bracket actually sits between the gear and the "non gear" on the shaft. There are positive detents for the gears to sit in place.
Now on to the gear box itself. Here we can peer into the abyss.
Next up is where the oil level sits in comparrison to the oil pointer (viewing window).
Here is where the oil is in relation to the spindle seals. You only see one as they are stacked on top of each other.
Next I undid the drain plug on the underside of the gear box and let the oil drain out.
Sludge, sludge, and more sludge!
Cleaned out!
Should I be concerned about this?
Now on to why we are here in the first place. Here I have the spindle seals removed. Have fun with that. I used a sharp 1/4" chisel to cut the seals and then I pried up a corner until I could grab it with a pair of long nosed needle nosed pliers.
If you go back to the beginning of the post and look at the seals I was sent by Matt, you will notice that there are two disticnct sides. The cup side goes down. I say this because that is how it was for the two that I removed. I put the first one in place and tapped it into place a little bit at a time until it was flush with the casting. Then I used a 6mm socket screwdriver to fit in the grooves of the spindle and tapped slighlty one groove at a time until it was fully seated. I then repeated that process with the second seal.
I forgot to take pictures of the two middle gear shafts being put in place but I did take a little video showing it in action with the gear range selector. First is a picture of the two gear shafts in place.
[video]http://vid1379.photobucket.com/albums/ah152/topsecretsecurity/Mill%20Spindle%20Seal%20Change/1015_video_zps2rcarwhs.mp4[/video]
Time for oil! This is one of those times that the pictures do not match the story. Do not fill with oil at this time. Finish the gear assembly and then replace the drian plug and fill from the top at the fill point.
Two (2) quarts in...
Three (3) quarts in....and enough.
Here is the view from the sight.
Notice the cleaned off box lip. I cleaned off the cover as well and used a liquid sealant.
Some final notes that you cannot show in pictures. The gear shafts are quite the press fit. I had to get everything lined up and then use a dead blow hammer to go around the outer edge of the cover and tap it down into place. I put all of the screws back in and then went through a modified break in cycle. I did low gear at the lowest speed for 15 minutes. I then did it for the fastest speed in the lowest gear for 10 minutes. I repeated that for the middle gear range. Finally, I did 5 minutes at the lowest speed in the high range.
I hope this helps. I also hope that I never have to do this again. I really think that if I have a slow leak again, I will be OK with that and just keep an eye on the oil level. If it gets a bit too low I will drain it and then refill.
One final note. I used teflon plumbers tape on the oil drain plug and the oil fill plug.
Elliott
