Worth $500?

[kuraki]

I'd love an air draw bar. I made my draw bar a little too long and it's a pain in the ass to thread it all the way in. And I've been too lazy to tip the head to get it out and shorten it since I don't have enough ceiling height to pull it straight up.

 

[Don Hanson III]

I looked in the manual and thy list the bearings as 307 MRB made by MCR. A quick check and it looks like I can pick up those bearings for rather cheep, under $50 each and it takes 2. It has a long guide bronze bearing after the ball bearings which if damaged would have to be replaced or made on a lathe.

It wont be too bad. I was told the spindle bearing would be very expensive for my Delta Rockwell. The bronze tapered bushing on the wheel side was fine. The roller bearing on the other side was found on ebay for less then $30 shipped.

 

[Jonathans]

Good score

 

[JTknives]

It wont be too bad. I was told the spindle bearing would be very expensive for my Delta Rockwell. The bronze tapered bushing on the wheel side was fine. The roller bearing on the other side was found on ebay for less then $30 shipped.

Is your spindle a cartarge? Mine is a cartarge that comes out and it's 2 roller bearings in the rear and a tapered bronze bearing in the front. Looks like there is some kind of nut or something to pull the bushing into the taper.

 

[javand]

Honestly the trickiest part with many of these old SGs isn't even the bearings, it's the balanced and matched motors that were attached to the bearings.

Unless it's giving you finish problems, I'd clean it up, flush whatever lube the spindle bearing uses, re-lube it, give it a good warm up, and use it till it does.

The important part with using stones is learning how to properly dress them for your application, using good quality stones (I've seen bad stones shake a machine so bad I was sure the bearings were shot, but were fine), and taking proper DOC, which is usually much lower than what the "general guidelines" are, when you're cutting thin hard steel.

 

[Salem Straub]

That tapered spindle bronze bearing could be binding a bit, like old Hendey lathes tend to after a long time... a re-adjustment of bearing endplay might be in the cards, but hopefully just a flush with nice thin spindle oil and run it slow for a little while, then speed it up, will help.