Worn Spindle Shaft On 6" Model 101.07301

bspitz70

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Feb 19, 2014
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I found my spindle shaft has almost .0045 wear in areas and was wondering what the best option for repairing it would be or if I need to replace it? Any input from HM members would be appreciated.

Brian
 
Are you talking about the head stock spindle that the chuck mounts on?
 
Assuming that you mean the headstock spindle and not the countershaft spindle, there probably isn't any reasonable way to repair it. The only way that I know of would be spray metalization and then grinding back to spec. That process is a high-temperature one and pretty expensive. If the shaft warps you would be out considerable bucks and still be SOL. If the wear is pretty uniform, I would buy two new bushings from Clausing and see whether or not you can tighten down enough on the journal screws to meet the "slight drag" spec. If not, try to find a shop near you that can do the spray process and the grinding and see what they think and what they would charge. I know that the process is used to recondition really large crankshaft journals but the crankshafts cost megabucks so the repair cost is trivial by comparison.
 
if you bearings are 2 piece just machine the ends down and re scrape in the plain bearings
 
where are you measuring the wear? The only bits that matter for the main bearings are the bit closest to the chuck end and the bit on the smallest diameter that's shiny. The bit in the middle is where the pulley rotates when the back gears are in use. Did you measure because you're having problems with the lathe, like chatter or excessive part deflection? If not, I would clean it, oil it, stick it back together and not worry about it.

I know of several worn areas on my lathe - there's not much point trying to fix them, so I just work around them.
 
I've been having problems with chatter and runout. Measured the shaft at the both ends, and bearing diameters, there's over .006" clearance on the large end and .005 on the small end. New bearings may tighten it up .001. I spoke with a friend of mine here in Indianpolis that works at a large machine shop that has its own machine repair department, the guys there told me where I can get it chromed, so I'm in the process now of having it ground down a few thousands to get enough undercut for the correct chrome depth, them they'll regrind to size. I saw some examples of some pieces they had done for equipment that they were rebuilding and the finish is incredible.
 
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