G-ManBart
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2016
Hi all,
I did a few searches and couldn't come up with anything, so I'm starting a new topic...hopefully in the correct location. If I missed something, please point me in the right direction.
For background, I'm just a hobbyist plugging away in the shop learning how to turn good stock into scrap while burning up all my play money, so this isn't a critical matter.
I just bought an Enco branded 6x18 surface grinder that seems to be in pretty good condition. I've done some reading and some folks suggest maybe they were made by Harig, but others have said they were a copy made in Taiwan....the manual is clearly an imported product. Regardless of all of that, I got it cheap...like really cheap. The motor powers up, the spindle is quiet, everything moves smoothly, the lube system seems to work and it cleaned up really nicely with just some Simple Green and shop towels.
The one thing I noted was that when I went to float the table for transport I saw the ball retainers had some damage and one missing section of 5 balls from both front and back ways. Other than being in sections, rather than one long ball retainer, this looks like the same setup as a Harig. The table seems to move smoothly and I might be able to run it this way just fine, but thought I'd explore a fix and want a sanity check on my idea.
I'm sure the original ball retainers aren't available since Enco got swallowed up by the parent company and even then, it's a 34 year old import machine...not likely finding parts. A check on Harig ball retainers that might not be properly sized showed them at nearly $200 each.
There is a local place where I can get acetal plastic sized correctly which should be a reasonable replacement for the original material. If I simply drilled holes carefully, sized for new 5/8" ball bearings like the originals, I can't see why they wouldn't work, or am I missing something? There shouldn't really be any weight on, or significant contact with the ball retainer so they should just keep the balls from moving around unless I'm totally confused. It would seem even a slightly loose fit between the ball and ball retainer shouldn't really hurt anything other than being a place to trap debris and cause wear but the only contact should be the balls and the ways, right?
If there's a better way, or I'm totally clueless let me know...won't hurt my feelings.
Here's a pic after I did a few minutes of cleaning, and the ball retainers as I found them:
I did a few searches and couldn't come up with anything, so I'm starting a new topic...hopefully in the correct location. If I missed something, please point me in the right direction.
For background, I'm just a hobbyist plugging away in the shop learning how to turn good stock into scrap while burning up all my play money, so this isn't a critical matter.
I just bought an Enco branded 6x18 surface grinder that seems to be in pretty good condition. I've done some reading and some folks suggest maybe they were made by Harig, but others have said they were a copy made in Taiwan....the manual is clearly an imported product. Regardless of all of that, I got it cheap...like really cheap. The motor powers up, the spindle is quiet, everything moves smoothly, the lube system seems to work and it cleaned up really nicely with just some Simple Green and shop towels.
The one thing I noted was that when I went to float the table for transport I saw the ball retainers had some damage and one missing section of 5 balls from both front and back ways. Other than being in sections, rather than one long ball retainer, this looks like the same setup as a Harig. The table seems to move smoothly and I might be able to run it this way just fine, but thought I'd explore a fix and want a sanity check on my idea.
I'm sure the original ball retainers aren't available since Enco got swallowed up by the parent company and even then, it's a 34 year old import machine...not likely finding parts. A check on Harig ball retainers that might not be properly sized showed them at nearly $200 each.
There is a local place where I can get acetal plastic sized correctly which should be a reasonable replacement for the original material. If I simply drilled holes carefully, sized for new 5/8" ball bearings like the originals, I can't see why they wouldn't work, or am I missing something? There shouldn't really be any weight on, or significant contact with the ball retainer so they should just keep the balls from moving around unless I'm totally confused. It would seem even a slightly loose fit between the ball and ball retainer shouldn't really hurt anything other than being a place to trap debris and cause wear but the only contact should be the balls and the ways, right?
If there's a better way, or I'm totally clueless let me know...won't hurt my feelings.
Here's a pic after I did a few minutes of cleaning, and the ball retainers as I found them:
