Spindle Machined Part 3

The next parts  were machined from 303ss round bar, these parts are the front Bearing retaining Nut, with Labyrinth seal & front  spacer

Spindle Machined Part 1

The spindle we are about to build was machined mostly with a manual lathe

It started buy getting/buying ER16 straight shank collet chuck

(2) precision angluar contact bearings & (1) ABEC5 ball-bearing

Material
303ss Body 1.750″ x5.1″ long
303ss End caps 1.375″ round
303ss spacers 1″ round
6061 Aluminum 2″ round

A drawing was made around these parts & then machining started

The bore of the main body was rough machined, leaving .020 in the bearing bores for finish maching & a 30deg chamfer was put in each end, this is the most inportant part at this stage

The body was then placed in the lathe between centres to machine the outside, Just .008 was removed from the out side to get it true & parallel

The body needs to be parallel .0001 or better,you need to achieve this before you move on to the next step

Spindle Assembled Part-11

The last parts for this build, are the pulley,pulley retainer & spindle mounting base plate

This plate was made for the the machine that this spindle will be fitted to

Spindle Assembled Part-10

To assemble the Spindle & lock the End Caps in Place, A Pin Wrench was made, to torque the the front & rear End Caps

The front End Cap holds the outer race of the Bearings tight into the Bearing pocket,This is part of the preloading of the Bearings

The rear End Cap has a Smalley Wave Spring in front of it, for thermal expansion of the Spindle

Spindle Mounts also in place

Spindle Assembled Part-9

Before assembly all the spacers, end caps were checked to see if all surfaces were flat & parallel

There was also a lubrication port added to the body

It was then assembled

Spindle Machined Parts-8

The next part of this build, was to inspect the Bearings as the customer had used them, What I found was not good, one of the Bearings cage was cracked & the other had slight damage, So I disassembled the bearings, to take a better look, All the main Bearing surfaces were ok, so the only way to save them was to make some new cages for them

Some photos of the new Bearing Cages & reassembled Bearings

Spindle Machined Part-2

The Spindle Housing was then set up & a 1″ clearence hole was bored right through

The front Bearing bore was then rough machined some more

Next the Thread was then cut in the front end 32TPI or if you want Metric .8mm pitch which is almost the same

The Bearing Bore was then finished to size, turned around & the rear was done almost the same way, The rear/top of the Spindle Housing was bored out larger for a floating sleeve, The floating sleeve is spring loaded, to allow for expansion for when the spindle & front bearing warm up

Spindle machined Parts-4

The Top Spindle Rear Bearing Retainer/ Housing & End Cap, The Bearing Retainer/Housing was machined from Steel the End Cap was machined from 303 ss

Spindle Machined Parts-5

The Bearing Spacers were made next, The long Spacer has a relief in the bore, mostly for ease of assembly

The Bore of these Spacers has to be a Just sliding fit on the Spindle Shaft, This can not be a loose fit,as this will affect the balance of the Spindle

The trick to making the long Spacer with a small ID, is to do it in 2 parts, then it is easy to do the relief/undercut inside the Spacer

You Bore out one end of the Spacer for a Bush, Push the Bush in & finish machine

The first photo shows the Spacer machined with the end Bush, the next photo shows the (2) Spacers complete

Spindle Machined Part-6

Some changes have been made to the ER16 Collet Chuck, which are needed before assembly

The shoulder behind the head of the ER16 Chuck, needs to be machined true to the shaft & Head, most are not machined/ground when manufactured, They are rough machined & then heat treated, After heat treating most parts of the ER Collets are Ground but not many manufactures do that face

You put the ER Collet Chuck between Centres, see that it is running true, & a light cut on that face to clean it up is all that is needed

The next part to the mod is to put (2) more flats on the head, to match the (2) that are already there

Putting (2) more flats on the head will give it better balance