Greetings all,
Recently acquired an early Taft Peirce No. 1 surface grinder, with fine feeds. Y and Z axes seem smooth, X axis was missing 2/3 of the balls. I transported the machine with wooden dowels in place of the balls, but that may have been unnecessary. Ordered new g25 bearings to install after cleaning up the hardened ways, but even with new bearings the table travel is rough and rumble. I would post a picture of the ways but with camera and lighting issues, all you’ll see is what looks like a perfectly good surface. In the right light I can see dents, bruises, etc on the well worn ball track.
Question is, can I remove the ways for grinding without any risk of alignment issues? A local rebuilding shop says they recently worked on the same machine, but I thought I would put it out here and see if any of you fellow Taft Peirce owners had any thoughts. I would assume the manufacturer would have ground the ways off the machine, and installed. I just want to be aware of any pitfalls before taking anything off.
Thanks in advance
JP
Recently acquired an early Taft Peirce No. 1 surface grinder, with fine feeds. Y and Z axes seem smooth, X axis was missing 2/3 of the balls. I transported the machine with wooden dowels in place of the balls, but that may have been unnecessary. Ordered new g25 bearings to install after cleaning up the hardened ways, but even with new bearings the table travel is rough and rumble. I would post a picture of the ways but with camera and lighting issues, all you’ll see is what looks like a perfectly good surface. In the right light I can see dents, bruises, etc on the well worn ball track.
Question is, can I remove the ways for grinding without any risk of alignment issues? A local rebuilding shop says they recently worked on the same machine, but I thought I would put it out here and see if any of you fellow Taft Peirce owners had any thoughts. I would assume the manufacturer would have ground the ways off the machine, and installed. I just want to be aware of any pitfalls before taking anything off.
Thanks in advance
JP