Spindle Mounting Flange on a Cat40 Spindle Cartidge

P

Praxis

Plastic

Joined

Sep 11, 2018

• May 8, 2020

• #1

Hello All,

I was cleaning my machine the other night and I noticed that my spindle mounting flange has 6 bolts that are used for mounting, and 6 set screws. Does anyone's machine also have this that would be able to tell me what the set screws are for?

Big Plus spindle, CAT40, Milltronics VM20IL (Essentially a 4020)

Sincerely,
Praxis

 

Last edited: May 8, 2020

G

Garwood

Diamond

Joined

Oct 10, 2009

Location

Oregon

• May 8, 2020

• #2

Set screws to draw the cartridge out.

 

V

Vancbiker

Diamond

Joined

Jan 5, 2014

Location

Vancouver, WA. USA

• May 9, 2020

• #3

Garwood said:

Set screws to draw the cartridge out.

Click to expand...

I've seen spindles with two jack screw holes, maybe one with 3, but never one with 6. Seems like way overkill if that's the purpose.

 

P

Praxis

Plastic

Joined

Sep 11, 2018

• May 9, 2020

• #4

Vancbiker said:

I've seen spindles with two jack screw holes, maybe one with 3, but never one with 6. Seems like way overkill if that's the purpose.

Click to expand...

I would agree that 6 holes would seem like overkill. 2 or 4 make the most sense.

 

V

Vancbiker

Diamond

Joined

Jan 5, 2014

Location

Vancouver, WA. USA

• May 9, 2020

• #5

Any chance the builder is intending the screws to be used to "tram" in the spindle?

 

M

Milland

Diamond

Joined

Jul 6, 2006

Location

Hillsboro, New Hampshire

• May 9, 2020

• #6

Vancbiker said:

Any chance the builder is intending the screws to be used to "tram" in the spindle?

Click to expand...

If so, it's a pretty crap way of doing it due to the high load contact forces. With a typical six bolt clamping I'd want at least four surrounding screws per bolt, of minimum 70% the bolt size and flat bottoms.

 

V

Vancbiker

Diamond

Joined

Jan 5, 2014

Location

Vancouver, WA. USA

• May 9, 2020

• #7

Milland said:

If so, it's a pretty crap way of doing it due to the high load contact forces........

Click to expand...

Yep. Shimming like done by Fadal would be preferable. Of course machining/scraping the head geometry accurately would be best of all.

 

ChipSplitter

Titanium

Joined

May 23, 2019

Location

Maybe

• May 9, 2020

• #8

I've seen it on an old Santec machine.
The set screw is to keep the nut from
coming loose. IIRC the nut was lefthand, too.

 

P

Praxis

Plastic

Joined

Sep 11, 2018

• May 24, 2020

• #9

Just thought I'd update everyone.

After calling the manufacturer and investigating on my own, they can be used for one of two purposes. They are either plugs that keep the spindle chiller system closed, or coolant ports. In my current configuration my spindle chiller has inlet and outlet ports in the head. I suppose if you hooked up a coolant pump to it, you'd have the style where the coolant keeps the spindle cool instead of the chiller.

Luckily it only meant me spilling 2 cups of hydraulic oil to verify....

Thanks for everyone's reply!

Praxis.

 

M

Milland

Diamond

Joined

Jul 6, 2006

Location

Hillsboro, New Hampshire

• May 24, 2020

• #10

And thanks for the update!