Good day,
I noticed the vertical head of my FP3 was running quite warm when exceeding 1500rpm for longer then 20minutes or so and making quite a bit of noise. Together with the play measured at the cone of about 0.025 radially and 0.07 axially it's a good excuse to take it apart.
I share the images to inform others and get some point of views of the more experienced members.
I've purchased the machine converted to CNC by the previous owner. It seems that at some point in time they decide it was time to stuff the spindle with plain bearing grease.
As far as I understand what is said on this forum this may be the main reason to cause the spindle to heat up.
After a quick clean up of the grease I couldn't find no mayor damage like pitting. When running your nail over the surface you can't feel any imperfections.
When looking at the surface by a x60 microscope I can only see color differences bteween surfaces on the spindle races and on the needles of the bearing. The marks on the lower race are from light rust. The lower race on the housing is a bit worse.
When running your nail over the surface you can feel the rust impressions. I guess at some point moisture came in to the spindle. At this point im blank about where it came from. Could it be condensation? The mill is sitting in a unheated garage.
Has anyone tried to brush off such superficial rust (scotch brite?) and was succesful?
Probably together with the amount of play on the bearings it would be wise to send it over to Singer for them to referbish it. Has anyone had experience with that lately; what am I probably looking at regarding cost (grinding races, new bearings, assembly)?
Regards
Jeroen
I noticed the vertical head of my FP3 was running quite warm when exceeding 1500rpm for longer then 20minutes or so and making quite a bit of noise. Together with the play measured at the cone of about 0.025 radially and 0.07 axially it's a good excuse to take it apart.
I share the images to inform others and get some point of views of the more experienced members.
I've purchased the machine converted to CNC by the previous owner. It seems that at some point in time they decide it was time to stuff the spindle with plain bearing grease.
As far as I understand what is said on this forum this may be the main reason to cause the spindle to heat up.
After a quick clean up of the grease I couldn't find no mayor damage like pitting. When running your nail over the surface you can't feel any imperfections.
When looking at the surface by a x60 microscope I can only see color differences bteween surfaces on the spindle races and on the needles of the bearing. The marks on the lower race are from light rust. The lower race on the housing is a bit worse.
When running your nail over the surface you can feel the rust impressions. I guess at some point moisture came in to the spindle. At this point im blank about where it came from. Could it be condensation? The mill is sitting in a unheated garage.
Has anyone tried to brush off such superficial rust (scotch brite?) and was succesful?
Probably together with the amount of play on the bearings it would be wise to send it over to Singer for them to referbish it. Has anyone had experience with that lately; what am I probably looking at regarding cost (grinding races, new bearings, assembly)?
Regards
Jeroen