# Problem: Need new Spindle bearings for my mid-70's SB 10L.



## mainspring (Nov 3, 2014)

Gents,

   Although I've been a machinist for a long time, i have never had to replace the 
    spindle bearings on a SB 10 L. I contacted SB/ Grizzly, but service has been poor.
    I can certainly take the head off, and disassemble it, but i have never pressed the
    gears off the spindle to to replace bearings. 
   Any suggestions?

    If there are no new bronze bearings available, I suppose i will have to make new ones.
    Before the bearing sleeve is split and dovetailed, how much clearance should it have
    in the ID compared to the spindle bearing diameter? I'm thinking around .001, when new.
    Any notions?

     Has anyone ever converted a SB to needle or roller bearings? There is room in the
     front bearing and head casting for low profile roller bearings, but it would have to be 
     line bored I think.

     I rebuilt a SB heavy 10 L, about 8 years ago, but the head was good, so i didn't need
     to do anything to it except adjust the shims.
     I had the bed creep feed ground in Los Angeles, and they did such a fine job,
     I had very little scraping to do. Just the alignments on the carriage, which got Turcite
     linings.New taper gibs, and some new nuts and screws finished the job.
     I replaced the tailstock spindle, and based the alignments on it, rather than on the old
     saggy spindle. 

      Enough rambling.

       Headstock spindle bearings?

Thanks!

         Phil


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## Jonesturf (Nov 3, 2014)

You could always keep an eye out for a headstock on eBay. The bearings come up often too. Pressing the gears off isn't hard. 

You can email Ted (latheman2@aol.com). He worked for South Bend and usually can get you what you need. 

Guys have made them too but that doesn't look like fun. 

If you end up with a camlock spindle you don't need shoot me a message haha 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2


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## Kernbigo (Nov 3, 2014)

scrape them in, it only takes time


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## mainspring (Nov 5, 2014)

Thanks, and I CAN scrape. When i started, lots of machines still had babbitt bearings!
 Phil


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## benmychree (Nov 5, 2014)

Needle bearings would tear up the spindle; it is necessary to run them against a hardened steel sleeve, and I doubt that they would be precise enough for a lathe spindle anyway.  Years ago, I made a new split bronze bearing for a South Bend that I had, but first it was necessary to have the spindle hard chromed and ground back to standard size, as they are quite soft and wear more than the bearings.  I roughed out the bearing, sawed it in half on the mill, then soft soldered it together and did the finish work.  When it was done I heated it to get the solder loose and lightly filed the joint to remove excess solder, installed the new bearings then scraped them to fit.  I'd say that .001 might be looser than you want; I'd keep them as tight as possible and still have a free running fit that does not heat excessively.  Another thing that I did was to  turn a recess in the center of the fit in the headstock that lined up with the oil hole, then milled a slot in the bottom half of the bearing and inserted a piece of hard felt into the slot to feed oil to the bearing, the turned recess acting as a reservoir, and the felt also acting to filter out any dirt or grit that might accompany the oil.  The bearings may be adjusted for wear by filing off the joining surfaces.


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