as I posted before I bought a bridgeport. here is what I found and have done.
I got a V.F.D. to run the original 3 PH motor. this was way cheaper and less work than swapping to another motor. when I hooked it up and started the machine it was prety loud. I did a little bit of cutting but I did not want to junk out the spindle so I stopped. I found parts fairly hard to get, so I need to be carefull with them all. with this in mind I decided to replace ALL the bearings. I did the ones in the motor first and it sounds WAY better. I spent a bit of time on a machine web page and talking to the guys at a local bearing house. I chose to replace ALL the bearings in the entire head. keep in mind matched sets are just over $300:smilie_sc . I did not want to risk any old bearings wipeing out the new ones so I went for it. yesterday I got everything all togeather and started it up again. WOW it sounds much better!
when I got the machine it had clearly sit a long time I think that is why all the bearings were not turning properly, and the lube on the ways had turned to varnish like stuff. I cleaned the ways and traveled everything back and forth to its limits. now here is ware I made my first mistake. I pumped in bearing grease. CRAP. oh well what did I know. after reading a LOT I now know that the grease fittings do NOT take grease but way lube instead. so I had to clean out the grease before it dried up in their. yesterday I removed the fittings and dug out then sprayed out as much grease as I could. finealy I pumped a BUNCH of way oil throuigh till the grease stopped comming out.
I have special ordered the bearings for the table drive but they are very hard to get and I do not have them yet but i can still use the machine by hand feeding. hopefully they will be in hand in a few more weeks....
at this point I have a couple more small things to do, like install and true jaws on the vise, zero out the head in relationship to the table, "everything exactly at 90 degrees in all directions". I got a bunch of tooling allready and I should be ready to have some fun, playing with some first trial work very soon! I have some large tool holders for my lathe to be cut down to fit my small machine, I think this will be a good first project.
the machine has cost a bit more than I first expected but I guess everything is like that. rite?? all in all with tooling it has cost about the same as a good bench top mill without tooling, "not mini mill". not bad consitering I ended up with a full size floor modle, with all new bearings, lots of tooling, and it is a heavy duty USA made machine!! I wish it was less $$ but I guess I can't complaine.
anyway thanks for reading hotbarrel
I got a V.F.D. to run the original 3 PH motor. this was way cheaper and less work than swapping to another motor. when I hooked it up and started the machine it was prety loud. I did a little bit of cutting but I did not want to junk out the spindle so I stopped. I found parts fairly hard to get, so I need to be carefull with them all. with this in mind I decided to replace ALL the bearings. I did the ones in the motor first and it sounds WAY better. I spent a bit of time on a machine web page and talking to the guys at a local bearing house. I chose to replace ALL the bearings in the entire head. keep in mind matched sets are just over $300:smilie_sc . I did not want to risk any old bearings wipeing out the new ones so I went for it. yesterday I got everything all togeather and started it up again. WOW it sounds much better!
when I got the machine it had clearly sit a long time I think that is why all the bearings were not turning properly, and the lube on the ways had turned to varnish like stuff. I cleaned the ways and traveled everything back and forth to its limits. now here is ware I made my first mistake. I pumped in bearing grease. CRAP. oh well what did I know. after reading a LOT I now know that the grease fittings do NOT take grease but way lube instead. so I had to clean out the grease before it dried up in their. yesterday I removed the fittings and dug out then sprayed out as much grease as I could. finealy I pumped a BUNCH of way oil throuigh till the grease stopped comming out.
I have special ordered the bearings for the table drive but they are very hard to get and I do not have them yet but i can still use the machine by hand feeding. hopefully they will be in hand in a few more weeks....
at this point I have a couple more small things to do, like install and true jaws on the vise, zero out the head in relationship to the table, "everything exactly at 90 degrees in all directions". I got a bunch of tooling allready and I should be ready to have some fun, playing with some first trial work very soon! I have some large tool holders for my lathe to be cut down to fit my small machine, I think this will be a good first project.
the machine has cost a bit more than I first expected but I guess everything is like that. rite?? all in all with tooling it has cost about the same as a good bench top mill without tooling, "not mini mill". not bad consitering I ended up with a full size floor modle, with all new bearings, lots of tooling, and it is a heavy duty USA made machine!! I wish it was less $$ but I guess I can't complaine.
anyway thanks for reading hotbarrel