Can I swap spindles on a plain bearing lathe?

[D.sebens]

I don’t see why I shouldn’t drill out the passage on the bearings but I suppose I could raise up the brass cup thing. I would have to deal with clearance issues with the headstock lid though.

 

[tobnpr]

^^^
Possible that the paper was there to fill a gap as mentioned in #25 above. Else, it was a hack shim instead of brass...

 

[D.sebens]

^^^
Possible that the paper was there to fill a gap as mentioned in #25 above. Else, it was a hack shim instead of brass...

I wondered about it being a shim. It would work as a reverse shim.

 

[tobnpr]

I don’t see why I shouldn’t drill out the passage on the bearings but I suppose I could raise up the brass cup thing. I would have to deal with clearance issues with the headstock lid though.

I wouldn't mess with the bearing, personally. If the gits oiler stem is only a few thou too thick, maybe sand the stem with some emery cloth?

 

[D.sebens]

There’s no way the brass caps would seat to where they were with the other bearings. It’s about 1/16 or more off. If I don’t widen the bearing hole then the oiler cups will have to sit up about 1/4” higher which might cause interfering with the headstock cover. Just to clarify there gits oilers that press in to the brass cups that presses into the cap. The brass caps are 1/2” diameter.

 

[D.sebens]

Well its a little sad, I received the spindle and I guess I didn’t ask enough questions. It’s a small bore spindle and I’m not willing to give up my large bore and 5c collet capability. I don’t think I’ll try to send it back as this is on me. I don’t know what I’ll do with the spindle right now. I am going to try and fit the front bearing I got with the spindle with my existing spindle.

The front bearing looks nice but it’s not mated to my spindle so even that might be a waste of time but I’ll try and see. I’m having to use some shim between the bearings and bearing caps as I think the line bored cast iron head stock on mine was bored larger than the one the new spindle came from. I tried just shimming between the top bearing and cap and that worked but my dead centers show the headstock as low. I’m guessing I need to even out the shims. In case my use of shims is confusing to picture, I’m not talking about where you would adjust the shim stack. I’m talking about shimming BETWEEN the bearing and cap which has the opposite effect and tightens the bearings the more shims are added. I calculated .012” of play up and down with no shims any where. This is not a worn out bearing this is because these bearings weren’t meant for my specific headstock. I added .016” shims on the top and can tighten it up. I am going to try .008 top and bottom and see how it lines up.

The rear bearing that came with the new spindle would need shimmed a lot, like .025 to .030”. I think I will throw the old bearing back in there as I didn’t have an issue with that one.

Definitely wasted some money here but I suppose I got some experience. I guess worst case if I ever decided to have my spindle ground and make new bearings I could swap the other spindle in for making the bearings.

 

[D.sebens]

Well I decided to try and refit my bearings. I’ve never scraped before but I think it’s coming along. I don’t have a picture of the blue transfer as I forgot to take one but it was bad at first. I’m keeping an eye on the blue on the rear journal to make sure I’m not going out of alignment, the rear journal didn’t take much work to get it decent. I’ll try to get a picture with the blue transfer.

I’ll attach the before and in progress bearing pictures.

I might need to file down the cap mounting locations a little. We will see. Either that or shim behind the bearing.

 

[Harry Knutz]

I wondered about it being a shim. It would work as a reverse shim.

That paper was put in there as a shim, My old worn out Southbend 13 had very thin brass shims in the same location to try and compensate for wear. It was my first real lathe and it was completely worn out but I had no clue at the time, 20 years ago. The ways looked like a horses back. It's been sitting behind my container now for about 10 years. Yard Art!

 

[tobnpr]

Well I decided to try and refit my bearings. I’ve never scraped before but I think it’s coming along. I don’t have a picture of the blue transfer as I forgot to take one but it was bad at first. I’m keeping an eye on the blue on the rear journal to make sure I’m not going out of alignment, the rear journal didn’t take much work to get it decent. I’ll try to get a picture with the blue transfer.

I’ll attach the before and in progress bearing pictures.

I might need to file down the cap mounting locations a little. We will see. Either that or shim behind the bearing.

Edumacate me...trying to follow your process.
Scraping- removing material- increases the ID of the assembled bearings. Given the bearings are machined to match the OD of the spindle, and you're not increasing the diameter of that part- how can you get 100% contact between bearing surfaces and spindle?

 

[D.sebens]

Edumacate me...trying to follow your process.
Scraping- removing material- increases the ID of the assembled bearings. Given the bearings are machined to match the OD of the spindle, and you're not increasing the diameter of that part- how can you get 100% contact between bearing surfaces and spindle?

Well browsing through the Google groups page for sheldons I found out that they didn’t come with shims. They were fit from the factory with no shims. When I bolt down my spindle with no shims I can’t turn it. So my process says I have room to remove the high spots.