Finally replaced spindle bearings. Why did I wait so long?

I bought my K.O.Lee 618 surface grinder in my typical fashion, cheap and sight unseen on Ebay. It was a bit worse for the wear as the oil wheels under the table were either broken or missing and the spindle rattled loud enough to block out the sound of the dust collector. I really like repairing machines and ended up making all of the parts I needed, but never addressed the spindle bearing issue. The finish wasn't pretty (unless you like the random skipping of the wheel) kind of like micro scraping but the metal was flat and that was good enough for the stuff I make at home.

In the meantime I picked up a carbide job sharpening some very tiny stylus' that had to be very sharp at the end. I tried all of the usual tricks to get around the vibrating diamond wheel but knew it was time to dive into the spindle. Disassembly was pretty straight forward though removing the spindle from the housing was a bit tough. Sure enough there were Barden bearings inside as RJ predicted. I searched the web and visited the Barden site and did not find the bearing number to match the ones I took out (105FF). I ended up calling Motion Industries and talked to a person who understood what I needed and rifled through some catalogs. I was half expecting to hear that they were going to cost >$200 each when I hear her say $120 +shipping. $120 each? I ask. Nope, $120 for all 4.

It took about 30 min. to reinstall after making a driver to press them onto the spindle. I flipped the switch on and had to look over at the VFD to make sure it was on. That machine is so quiet that I can even hear the dust collector now! I guess I was expecting it to cost more to replace the bearings than I paid for the grinder. (Oh yeah, the finish is good too now) -Mike

Glad to hear that Mike. I'm planning to do that to my grinder one of these days too. It's made the same bearing noise it did when I bought it, but still grinds good. I've had my fingers crossed for about 5 yrs with it.

You know my luck is never that good. For me I'd probably have been told that replacement parts are no longer made but here is a number to so and so who deals exclusively with this kind of stuff. Call them up and get Oh ya we got them and they're $340 a piece. Or it would be something like ya we got them but we are one short of the total number you need.

Glad it worked out for ya though

Guys- does anybody know if the K.O. Lee T&C grinder spindles use the same bearings?
My T&C grinder spindle is pretty loud and I suspect I have the same problem. Same as Holescreek, I bought it used and know what I was getting, but it would be nice to fix it.

Thanks,Dan

Dan from Oakland said:

Guys- does anybody know if the K.O. Lee T&C grinder spindles use the same bearings?
My T&C grinder spindle is pretty loud and I suspect I have the same problem. Same as Holescreek, I bought it used and know what I was getting, but it would be nice to fix it.

Thanks,Dan

Click to expand...

It really doesn't matter... If you're gonna replace them, just take out the old ones, and get new ones with the same configuration as the old.

I now what you mean.
I lived with 40-odd year old bearings in my Dronsfiled Eagle surface grinder for a while after I got it, and whilst it ground as flat as I could measure, the appearance was awful.

Finally replaced them and the difference was night and day. The picture below shows the same part wih lots of chatter from the original bearings, and the new finish after the bearings were replaced.




Peter

PS - came in dead handy when I made your ball turner for my Myford Mike.

Peter, great to hear from you. Funny that we'd have the same grinding problems too!

By looking at your before photo, I would have guessed that your grinder ran on a rack that was lifting at the high spots on the gear. Glad to see that it was just the bearings.

Having never had a spindle apart before I was surprized that it wasn't oil filled. -Mike

What's Involved in Replacing These bearings?

I looked at my 6X12 Sanford grinder in an attempt to figure out how to get the spindle apart and see how difficult it would be to replace the bearings. I couldn't did figure out if the spindle came out from the front or back. It looked like some special tools might be needed to get it apart. I wish I had an exploded view of the spindle shaft and bearings so I could see what to do. Am I missing something here?

Perk in Cincinnati

Perk,
My spindle most likely is different in some respects but here's how it went. After removing the wheel and hub in the front and the motor pulley and pulley spacer in the rear I was left with two spanner hubs on either end of the spindle.
I removed the two hubs and was left with seeing the spindle sticking out of bearings fron and back. The bad news was that the bearings were stuck pretty well. I used a brass hammer to tap the spindle from the back towards the front of the machine. The first bearing (closest to the wheel) was obviously bad and clicked when it spun. I had 4 bearings in total, two in each end of the spindle. Once the front bearings were removed I found a snap ring inside the front bore that would have kept the bearings from being tapped towards the back. I removed the ring and proceded to move the shaft towards the front. I probably could've/should've sent the shaft towards the back at that point, but it worked.

I took a piece of black pipe and turned it on the lathe to fit over the spindle and contact the inner race of the new bearings. After cleaning everything I put the front bearings on the spindle first, reinstalled the snap ring and inserted the spindle and finger tightened the spanner nut. I put the rear bearings onto the spindle while it was in the machine using the pipe and brass hammer to tap them into place. Then it was just a matter of replacing the rear spanner nut, tightening them to remove all end play and putting everything else I removed back.

The bearings I bought were pre-lubed and sealed. Good Luck! -Mike