Reid 618 V-L that needs spindle rebuilt - any value?

Ive got one that needs a new spindle or rebuilt - it has the Excello (sp?) spindle/motor on it. Hard to just send it to the scrapper, but its in the way since I got a different one to replace it. Thought it might be worth a mention here in case someone saw a little value in it and it would not go to the scrapper.

Wade

Does yours have the electric motor for driving the table? I've got a Reid that I picked up at a surplus sale, where I used to go to school, went real cheap............other than the motor for the table being bad, I don't see much wrong. I would hate to scrap it, but that is just me...........they seem to be a decent machine.

It does have the table traverse motor and Y feed. Its 480V though, and I dont recall that motor being dual voltage and I know the spindle wasnt dual voltage.
I replaced the gear box on it back when I got it, but never messed with the motor side... but it stuck me at the time that it would be easy to replace the motor with something current/newer if I ever needed to.

It has a boost transformer on it, but I was thinking Id keep it in case I run into something else 480v that I just had to have and was cheap. So the table motor might not be of much value if it isnt dual voltage.

I guess if I get to the point of scrapping it (instead of selling whole), Ill get in touch after I check to see if it is a dual voltage motor (which could be a while - getting to that motor is a chore with where the transformer is mounted, and probably wont dig it out and pull the transformer until I have some place for it to go). And if you get to the point of scrapping yours, I might be interested in the spindle assy if its not trashed.

How hard can it be to rebuild a grinder spindle?
Yet you have a replacement and many of everyone's machines go to scrap metal so you have to let them go.

Yes, I wondered just how hard it would be to redo a spindle............hated to bring it up, due to the possibility that there being something quirky about them.
I would be inclined to have a go at rebuilding it...........can't imagine it being worse than the old plain bearing ones.

I looked into it a little... and got the feeling its more detailed than Im equipped to handle. Then again, I could never get the spindle out, nor find any good documentation on getting it out. I thought I had everything that hold the spindle in place loose - but it never even winked... Plus seeing rebuild costs usually being 2k+ - that gave me the impression either spindle rebuilders are thieves or theres much more to it than replacing a couple bearings and setting preload. (and no, I dont think spindle rebuilders are thieves - I think its more complicated than meets the eye).
As I recall, bearings seemed to be roughly in the 700 range typically, so the price of failure (should I do something wrong) does have a pretty good bite to it - at least for my size of budget.

Yeah, in the interest/need for space in the shop - if there isnt any value to it, itll likely best serve me gone, rather than collecting dust and taking floor space.

Thanks
Wade

Wade, in another lifetime I worked as a service engineer for Reid grinder as built by Fayscott. Your machine predates that. Relative to Mitsui, and Okamoto grinders Reid product is hideously crude. Frankly, I wouldn't take a pristine example if you gave it to me. Big part of why the product line failed is no one in mgmt. had ever run a grinder or any even worked in a manufacturing. Had no basis of quality requirements. Hell, even the column bolt holes weren't c'sunk, or surfaces scraped correctly. Did column alignment by tweaking bolt torques. Regarding spindle rebuild, go ahead and price out precision class bearings, labor to install CORRECTLY, then regrind spindle nose.

Interesting to know... I know nothing of other grinders, as Ive never had any other. So I have no basis of comparison.

10 fingers said:

Regarding spindle rebuild, go ahead and price out precision class bearings, labor to install CORRECTLY, then regrind spindle nose.

Click to expand...

Id have to be able to get it apart to get bearing numbers Id guess... and spent half a day trying to do that back before I got a different grinder... Never did come up with what was still holding, or what I was missing to get it to come out the back. And was nervous about getting rough with it.... Id be tempted to take it apart and look if I felt like was gonna scrap it anyway - just see what and how... but not sure on getting the spindle out to get started.

Thanks again for the opinions everyone!
Wade

From my experience it is easy to rebuild a spindle to run for 50 hours. It takes a ton of work and adjusting to get a spindle to last for 10,000 hours.