South Bend Drill Press - New Bearing NOISE

bradjacob · Feb 26, 2013

Calling on the experts here. I ordered the "new departure" replacement bearings for the pulley and spindle.

I removed the pulley and dropped the spindle. The bearings came out without issue. Same for the spindle. Reassembly was the same. Everything went together nice and tight without any slop or play. The whole swap out took about 30 minutes.

When I reassembled it and began to test things, there was a loud noise at higher speeds. Especially when I brought the quill up and down.

I took a video to show the noise and am REALLY hoping someone can suggest something to fix this.

South Bend Drill Press Bearing Noise - YouTube

kpotter · Feb 26, 2013

Did it make noise before you swapped the bearings? I have the same drill and the quill splines on mine are pretty worn and it makes a lot of noise. Put the thing under some load and see if the noise stops.

bradjacob · Feb 26, 2013

kpotter said:
Did it make noise before you swapped the bearings? I have the same drill and the quill splines on mine are pretty worn and it makes a lot of noise. Put the thing under some load and see if the noise stops.

It did make noise. And the old bearings are definitely shot. One turns with the feeling of grit inside (as if sand is inside). The other bearing spins freely as if the balls are worn down, so it was making a loud "hssssshhhh"

There IS a little play (slop) with the spline and pulley, but maybe about 1/32...

The replacement bearings feel really solid and smooth, so my next step is to remove the spindle and see if the pulley is quiet at all speeds. I hope to narrow it down.

paulsomlo · Feb 27, 2013

Yikes! I doubt that has anything to do with the new bearings. Sounds like the splined end of the spindle may be whipping around inside the splined sleeve that the pulley rides on. If you take a magnetic base and put a dial indicator on the end of the spindle as it exits the pulley, I wonder how much runout there is. On my Delta, that splined sleeve is packed with grease, which I'm sure helps with the noise. You've probably already isolated the center pulley, yes?

bradjacob · Feb 27, 2013

I've performed a series of tests to isolate the noise. The pulley was quite. The spindle also, was quiet. The splines are not hauled and mesh pretty well. The issue was (and I feel a little silly here) - grease on the spline. Once I added some grease, the noise was gone completely.

I'm creating a new topic to show the bearing upgrade.

Thanks to all who chimed in, I appreciate it.

SteveM · Feb 27, 2013

bradjacob said:
I'm creating a new topic to show the bearing upgrade.

Thanks in advance for doing that!

Please use lots of pictures for those of us that are verbally challenged.

Steve

Search

Largest Manufacturing Technology Community on the Web

Search

South Bend Drill Press - New Bearing NOISE

bradjacob

Titanium

kpotter

Diamond

bradjacob

Titanium

paulsomlo

Stainless

bradjacob

Titanium

SteveM

Diamond

Similar threads