My Jet JTM-2 vertical mill head scary sounds...

[Madhattan]

My Jet JTM-2 vertical mill head sounds ok with no load but when using a fly cutter, the head makes "bad" sounds high up near the belt pully. I think I should look under the hood to see what I have going on but haven't found much in the way of a teardown manual for inspection. I'm a hobbyist and I don't want to mess up my mill. Any suggestions?

 

[benmychree]

Likely wear on the spline shaft and driving pulley splines; fly cutters are hard in machine parts, better to use cutters that have several teeth in engagement with the workpiece.

 

[Just for fun]

What does the bad sound, sound like? Maybe a bad bearing? Do you have the original manual? The manual for my PM mill has a parts brake down in it but no repair manual.

If not, there is one in the download section, but you may have to be a paying member, I'm not sure.

 

[markba633csi]

You should be able to wiggle the spindle by hand and replicate the sound and feel- probably it is worn splines like John pointed out

 

[MrWhoopee]

The high-range drive dogs can also rattle pretty badly if they're not dropping all the way down. A video with sound might help.