Clausing lathe rebuild??

[kowohtee]

I am a new lathe owner!!A dream come true!:> )
I bought a clausing 12x36 variable speed. A friend told me that he had his clausing rebuilt with "super bearings" in the head for $500 and he now has got no runout at the head. Is this possible? How would I do this if my lathe needs it done to it?? Your help is greatly appreciated!! :> )
Thanks gang!!
TEC

[Thrud]

TEC:

Congrats on the new tool! Your freind is mistaken or has been fed a large pile of BS. All bearings have runout - at least with current technologies. If you check your spindle and it has less than .0005" runout you are doing quite well. New Hardinge HLV lathes have a runout of .000025". Extremely good.

So, unless the spindle runout is quite bad, this is not an issue. If you do need new bearings consult with a bearing specialist to get the right class/price range for your machine. Class 7 (around .0002" runout) and higher bearings are quite expensive.

Hope that helps

Dave

[kowohtee]

Dave,
Thanks for your help!!! :> )
TEC

[Ben Shank]

Which model Clausing do you have? I have a Series 100 and it has Timken Taper Rollers in it. If you have these then you wouldn't need to replace the bearings unless they were bad. The tapers adjust and you can take out most of the runout.

[Thrud]

Gents;

Adjusting the spindle bearings affects the bearing preload - runout (radial) is strictly a function of a precision machined spindle and the precision of the (properly adjusted) bearings used. I believe bearings are available to class 10 - don't quote me, I have not double checked this.

If you buy new bearings make sure you ask the bearing house guys how to properly install, adjust, and care for your new precision bearings. It is common to butcher new bearings when installed (80+%), improper/inadequate lubrication is responsible for another 15% of failures. Only .05% of failures are from a defective bearing.


Dave

[SGW]

Good point, Thrud. Unless one has proper facilities for pressing the new bearings onto the spindle, it would be pretty easy to ruin that nice new $300 set of bearings. And maybe the spindle. If I did something like that, I would be inclined to say some bad things.

[Thrud]

SGW:

In my work, I have seen $50,000 bearings munched all because of stupid human tricks - I would hate to be that nimrod...

Dave