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Merry Christmas everyone. I'm a new guy here on the forum. There was a thread recently started regarding the accuracy of the Busy Bee Craftex B227L lathe. In the thread there were multiple comments surrounding the noise of the gearbox. I have a B2227L lathe and love it, I also accept its limitations and I don't expect it to perform beyond those limitations.
After using it for a couple of months the gearbox started to get really loud. It was hard to notice at first because the noise came on slowly and after a couple of more weeks it was terrible. I opened up the gearbox and couldn't see any obvious issues. I began disassembling it and found that the input shaft bearings were shot. They appear to be super cheap bearings.
Once I traced the lubrication circuit it was fairly obvious why the bearings died. The bearing near the v belt pulley end has a small channel that allows the splash lubricated oil to run into and lube the bearing. In my opinion it is a poor design.
I went back to Busy Bee, the unit was still under warranty, and they said they would order me in a set of OEM bearings. I figured there was no point in putting it back together with the same parts since the root of the problem was still there.
I drove down the street to a bearing supply place I use and had them measure up the bearings and supply me 3 new high quality sealed bearings to replace all the OEM bearings on the input shaft.
I pressed off the old and pressed on the new. Reassembled the gearbox using Megaflow Hydraulic Oil 32. Turned on the power and experience a smooth, silent running gearbox. The mechanical noise of the gearbox was bliss.
I have been running the repair for about 10 months now and there have been no issues. The sealed bearings do not rely on splash lubrication and therefore have lasted. The repair cost me $30 and 2 days of down time. I suspect my B2227L is not the only one that suffers from this.
The picture of the beraings, below, are the old OEM bearings. The boxes are from the new sealed bearings already installed.
Hope this helps all you Craftex lathe owners. Happy machining!
Gord
After using it for a couple of months the gearbox started to get really loud. It was hard to notice at first because the noise came on slowly and after a couple of more weeks it was terrible. I opened up the gearbox and couldn't see any obvious issues. I began disassembling it and found that the input shaft bearings were shot. They appear to be super cheap bearings.
Once I traced the lubrication circuit it was fairly obvious why the bearings died. The bearing near the v belt pulley end has a small channel that allows the splash lubricated oil to run into and lube the bearing. In my opinion it is a poor design.
I went back to Busy Bee, the unit was still under warranty, and they said they would order me in a set of OEM bearings. I figured there was no point in putting it back together with the same parts since the root of the problem was still there.
I drove down the street to a bearing supply place I use and had them measure up the bearings and supply me 3 new high quality sealed bearings to replace all the OEM bearings on the input shaft.
I pressed off the old and pressed on the new. Reassembled the gearbox using Megaflow Hydraulic Oil 32. Turned on the power and experience a smooth, silent running gearbox. The mechanical noise of the gearbox was bliss.
I have been running the repair for about 10 months now and there have been no issues. The sealed bearings do not rely on splash lubrication and therefore have lasted. The repair cost me $30 and 2 days of down time. I suspect my B2227L is not the only one that suffers from this.
The picture of the beraings, below, are the old OEM bearings. The boxes are from the new sealed bearings already installed.
Hope this helps all you Craftex lathe owners. Happy machining!
Gord
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