8" x 14" mini-lathe spindle mods?

[darkzero]

I've never had any spindle issues & I never modded the spindle but here's some mods I did to my old HF 8x14, more like upgrades. I only had it for a short time but it was a great little lathe after tweaking it.

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/my-hf-8x14-mini-lathe-mods.11048/

 

[9t8z28]

I believe the headstock is the same as the Sieg SC4. If so I replaced my rear bearing with a tapered roller. It made a huge improvement to the spindle

 

[Metalmill]

I just bought the 8" x 14" bench top mini-lathe $150 at a warehouse flea market, after I brought it home I cut 3/4" 316 stainless (light cuts) to test, and it seems a work horse compared to its smaller counterparts, I've done some commissioned work off of it, and I'm pretty surprised at how good this basic lathe holds up, but I'm getting a squeak in the spindle, and had to adjust the thrust nuts, it seems the nuts were too tight, after which it ran like a champ making metal wool, beautifully, when the squeak returned, so now the question is can I replace the race bearings supplied to this lathe with tapered roller bearings (preferably Timken or equivalent quality) if so, would anyone have an idea what size tapered rollers, or like bearing numbers? Also, I'd like the same for adding thrust bearings. The info of this lathe is as pictured.

There have been several cool build threads on this model of lathe. Here is one where the entire spindle was replaced in order to have a larger throat :

https://www.cnczone.com/forums/mini-lathe/95419-cnc.html


Here is a link to a video I did showing how I cleaned and regreased my bearings on the Lathemaster version of this lathe:

Hope that helps you!