Removing the vertical head on an FP2NC

I have something strange going on in the gear train for the vertical/horizontal spindles, so I want to remove the vertical head to take a look. Does the head slide off to the front, after disconnecting hydraulics, coolant, light and the two-position stop on the operators side? I plan to install a hook eye in the hole where the light mounts, and I have an overhead hoist over the front of the mill. Are there any things to watch for that might not be expected (Rich mentioned that the flip head has a lever that actuates something when the head is slid to the rear, but this is a single speed head). I've removed the vertical heads from fp1 and fp2 mills, is it any different, other than the two-position stop?

The reason to remove the head is that today it would not slide forward fully (I had the head slid back to use the horizontal spindle). It slid past the rear stop position, but would hit something and come to a hard stop before it made it to the front stop position. So I slid it to the rear position, and noticed that the spindle was not rotating freely by hand at 0 rpm. So I slid the head back further and it would not go all the way back, again it hit something hard that stopped it dead. I was able to get it to slide forward to the front, so I think I can remove it, but it seems clear that there is something loose in there that should not be there.

Dave

I found out what was blocking the head from sliding: the dovetail locks. I slid the head all the way to the back and I could see that the way the locks work, if you only loosen them a little, they can block the dovetail. If you loosen them a lot, they fall out of the way. I’m glad it was that easy to solve. I think I still might have an issue somewhere in the drivetrain, because something was rubbing, but I’m relieved that I didn’t find any obvious problems, the gears look pristine and there was nothing unusual.