heavy 10 spindle bearing replacement or make

Hello, I have a 1985 10l , di-4, 54 inch hard bed. I have a S.B. book and I have adjusted the bearings to get within specs. Problem is its tight on the up and down, and still play on side to side. About 3 thou. Can I buy new bearings and how much are they or should I just make a new set? What type brass should i use? Does anyone have dimensions of these. I could just measure my spindle and headstock, but how much to allow for clearance from bearing to spindle. Thanks , Alan

Alan

alan c said:

I have adjusted the bearings to get within specs.

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How exactly did you adjust the bearings ?

Did you do it this way?
http://www.wswells.com/data/howto/SBL_form_2002.pdf


Don

Bearings are bronze, not brass. Brass would make a horrible bearing. Use SAE 632 bearing bronze (Without looking it up, I think that's the right number).

Making the bearings is possible but will require considerable care. Sometimes, you're better off just buying a headstock with good bearings off Fleabay although that's always a bit of a crapshoot. You can also check with whoever bought out the SB parts from LeBlond (Grizzly?). Look elsewhere on this forum for a thread on that. Normally, new bearings from this source are quite expensive.

Once in a while, you can find new (or good used) bearings offered on Ebay.

There is also a thread somewhere on this forum where someone did a first-rate job of making new bearings for a 13, I think it was. Great job and well-docoumented with photos and narrative.

Ed in Florida

SBL 10L spindle bearings

I am rebuilding a 1982 D1-4 with 56 inch bed. I purchased a new set of headstock bearings from SBLatheman on this site, who is Ted Pflunger of
South Bend, Ind. (e-mail him at "[email protected]"). After installling the bearings and making adjustiments according to my South Bend maintenance manual, I am at a bit over 1/2 thou of inch all the way around. I also bought new capillary wicks, bearing expanders and shims from Ted. The new bearings Ted sent me were perfect.

Some yahoo before I owned the lathe installed the bearings incorrectly and pushed down the oil drain tube in the bottom of each bearing journal of the headstock. I needed to pull them up, so I tapped the inside of the brass oil drain tube with a 12mm bolt tap and pulled the oil drain tube up to their proper height, by screwing a 12mm bolt down through a short piece of 3/4 inch diameter pipe which pulled the tubes up. You need the right height to keep the bearings in place, but allow the oil to drain back into the oil reservoir under the bottom journal surface. I raised my drain tubes up about 75-80 thousand of an inch. I seem to recall that the SB specs for the height is 90 thou or so.

I also polished the bearing surface of my 10L spindle, using my SBL 9B lathe. I placed the small end of the spindle shaft in the 9B chuck (with the 10L spindle 3-Jaw chuck remaining on the spindle shadft, with 3 inch length of 3/4 inch diameter of leaded steel that was center drilled on one end to accept a 60 degree live center, firmly tighted in the 10L chuck jaws.) and placed the chuck end of the 10L spindle shaft into a live center (as listed above). I then polished the surfaces with 600 grit emery cloth as the spindle rotated at low speed. Cut the strip of emery cloth a foot or so in length so that you will keep your hands away from the rotating shaft, chucks and etc.

You will notice that I indicate my lathe bed is 56 inches in length. Please check your bed and see if it is actually 56 inches. I assume that mine (and likely yours) is that length due to the fact that the D1-4 headstock spindle is longer at the front, and therefore the bed is 2 inches longer in order to have the same center to center length as a 10L with a threaded chuck spindle.

Please let me know what your lathe bed actual measurment is?

Best Regards;

I needed to pull them up, so I tapped the inside of the brass oil drain tube with a 12mm bolt tap and pulled the oil drain tube up to their proper height, by screwing a 12mm bolt down through a short piece of 3/4 inch diameter pipe which pulled the tubes up....

Click to expand...

Clever Great Idea

Thanks for this, I am in the process of doing this and this was a great help.