New spindle going in the Fadal this week.

Three years ago I bought a rebuilt Fadal from a dealer on the East coast. Only after it was delivered did I find out it was from Koshy at the fadal parts store.

Well, the spindle that was in my rebuilt machine was not new, nor rebuilt and needed to be replaced 12 months later.
I installed it, it ran great. Until last monday.

That was when, during a 10,000 rpm engraving cut that it seized up, overloaded the motor and welded the bearings together.

I get my new spindle and see an air line fitting on the side of the spindle flange. So I call and ask about my 2 year old spindle and why it didn't have any air line to it and this new one has an air line. I end up finding out that my 2 year old spindle indeed did have 1 air line hole at the top. My new one has one on the flange and one on the top. Wow, who knew Fadals had air pressure on their spindles?

Ends up there is no tubing, no fitting, no solenoid and now air line at all on this machine.

So now after buying a spindle air curtain kit to hook this up and attach so it only blows when the spindle is on. Wow, that is nice, I bet that will keep the crap out of my spindle.

As well, the chiller hoses are so stiff they crack, so had to replace those too and route them all up thru the guides and such. Great fun.

Got the spindle in and all reassembled, plumbed and with an air curtain on the spindle.

Tomorrow is the fun day of tramming in the head and then reassembling all the covers and such.

Livin the dream in Boring Oregon!

Good luck!

Houndogforever said:

That was when, during a 10,000 rpm engraving cut that it seized up, overloaded the motor and welded the bearings together.

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A buddy of mine asked a Fadal service guy, "so how do I know when the spindle is bad?" he replied "oh you'll know when it goes bad!"

This is this a sealed bearing unit, correct? I presume so, as oil/air would have those fittings in place. Be sure to run a break-in program for the spindle, one involving varying periods of low to mid-range RPM to distribute the grease and ensure proper long-term operation. If the spindle builder didn't give you one, ask for it.

Also a good idea to monitor the lower housing temp during run-in, either with a IR thermometer or (better) a thermal imager. Want to keep things below ~100F during early operation. And be sure the air purge can't throw the grease from the bearings, if you see significant grease around where the spindle exits the housing stop and alert the seller.

Just my two cents, others may have better advice.

I killed a Fadal spindle with coolant through pull studs, the spindle was not coolant through. The horizontal disc of grease at spindle nose level on the enclosure told the story. Glad I was just an employee that moment. This is an issue with many spindles that are not coolant through, something to keep in mind.

DavidScott said:

I killed a Fadal spindle with coolant through pull studs, the spindle was not coolant through.

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Can you expand on this? I've seen folks wreck spindles by turning on their through spindle coolant and not having a coolant through pullstud fitted, but not the other way around.

Vancbiker said:

Can you expand on this? I've seen folks wreck spindles by turning on their through spindle coolant and not having a coolant through pullstud fitted, but not the other way around.

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I run my end mills with minimum projection out of the collet, mostly ER11 and ER16. When I set the coolant nozzles right on the mills the pressure pushes coolant, and chips, up through the pull stud. I had C& M tell me that many non-though coolant spindles will let the coolant get to the bearings if it gets past the pull stud. I swear I did this to my Enshu as well, and it had solid pull studs, so I seal the threads on solid pull studs now. I am very sure the coolant did not enter from the spindle nose because I have a plastic disk on the outside of the spindle to help, another C&M idea. I had the same horizontal grease stain on the enclosure, just much smaller.