The spindle bearings on one of my lathes need replacing. We've done this on other lathes in-house before. I didn't want to mess with it this time, though, so I got a quote from a spindle rebuilder. I was surprised by the (high) price. It's an old Takisawa TC-1. The max bar size is only about 1", so it's a pretty small spindle. The rebuilder quoted me around $4k. I don't see how they charge this much. I would still have to pull the spindle and ship it to them. I figure bearings are only around $600. So, what's so magical about changing bearings in a lathe spindle? Like I said, we've done it before, and those machines are all still running fine. The rebuilders website says that they balance the spindle, but I don't really see the need. Am I missing something when it comes to spindle bearing replacement?