Lynrob,
Glad to help. the pictures that I posted are of the gear BEFORE swapping them. you are correct -- push the spacer out from the flush side. that will remove a bearing as well. then if you flip the gears over, you will see the snap ring. remove that, and then push the other bearing out. flip the gears, reinstall the single bearing in the 120t gear, and the snap ring in the middle, then press the spacer and its bearing into the 127t gear. I put the whole thing into the press, and squeezed until it was flush.
as for the apron -- yes I had to remove the spiral covers. mine opened up a bit, but did not fully unwind. RayC mentioned that once the pin on the left was removed, you could close the half-nut and use the apron to pull the leadscrew out to the right. that worked perfectly. once it was loose, I released the half-nut and gently pulled the leadscrew out. nothing had to be loosened on the right side.
I did remove the apron in order to get at the half-nut, but I did not drain the oil -- didn't spill a drop (lucky?)
I do have a bit more backlash on my main feed knob than I did before -- I think I need to readjust it a bit. I also found that the gib on the compound slide went in very tight and its tighter than before I did the swap. no backlash at all though. Its not surprising that a bit of adjustment is going to be needed after taking everything apart. Next weekend I plan on re-measuring everything, etc. I did verify the dials with my DRO and its pretty accurate -- I dialed in 4 inches of travel back and forth and the dial was dead on -- maybe within 2 10thou. good enough for my purposes.
hope that helps.
Glad to help. the pictures that I posted are of the gear BEFORE swapping them. you are correct -- push the spacer out from the flush side. that will remove a bearing as well. then if you flip the gears over, you will see the snap ring. remove that, and then push the other bearing out. flip the gears, reinstall the single bearing in the 120t gear, and the snap ring in the middle, then press the spacer and its bearing into the 127t gear. I put the whole thing into the press, and squeezed until it was flush.
as for the apron -- yes I had to remove the spiral covers. mine opened up a bit, but did not fully unwind. RayC mentioned that once the pin on the left was removed, you could close the half-nut and use the apron to pull the leadscrew out to the right. that worked perfectly. once it was loose, I released the half-nut and gently pulled the leadscrew out. nothing had to be loosened on the right side.
I did remove the apron in order to get at the half-nut, but I did not drain the oil -- didn't spill a drop (lucky?)
I do have a bit more backlash on my main feed knob than I did before -- I think I need to readjust it a bit. I also found that the gib on the compound slide went in very tight and its tighter than before I did the swap. no backlash at all though. Its not surprising that a bit of adjustment is going to be needed after taking everything apart. Next weekend I plan on re-measuring everything, etc. I did verify the dials with my DRO and its pretty accurate -- I dialed in 4 inches of travel back and forth and the dial was dead on -- maybe within 2 10thou. good enough for my purposes.
hope that helps.
