Replacing bronze headstock bearings

Maybe someone might reply if I'm less specific in my subject line :-)

I'm rebuilding a Myford ML4 (3.75" centre height) lathe at present. When I bought the lathe I found, too late, that the headstock spindle and bearings were badly scored. I bit the bullet and had the damaged spindle hard chromed and reground. I've fitted a set of good bearings, from a spare headstock but when I went to fit the spindle, it was very tight, and when fully home, was almost impossible to turn. I dismantled everything and measured to OD of the bearings; the original bearings were found to be .003 smaller (measured in the 'sprung open' form) than the ones I used as replacements; measuring the bore in the headstocks showed the same difference with the spare headstock having the larger bore. My question is, what would be the best way to adjust the bearings to size, do they need to be line-bored after fitting to the headstock? If you're not familiar with this lathe, the bearings are plain bronze split bearings mounted in a split headstock bearing housing (not removable bearing caps). Martin.

Reply to
Martin Whybrow
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Reply to
Grant Erwin

"Martin Whybrow" a_hole_in_the snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.co

wrt solid/split HS bearings

Keep hand turning, unless so tight that tht doesn't seem to make sense.

And

Hand scrape? A triangular (three-sided) scraper will work.

If you blue the bearings, and gently scrape off just the blue? Frank Morrison

Reply to
Fdmorrison

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Except that the flutes tend to catch on the split -- unless you can find an adjustable reamer with a steep spiral on the flutes.

I think that it would need to be fitted with a pilot which uses the other bearing as an alignment aid, too. Two pilots -- one turned to fit the un-reamed other bearing, and then one turned to use the just reamed one as a reference while reaming the other bearing. Something like the reamer setups for camshaft bearings in automotive engines.

An alternative way to do would be with a bearing scraper and spotting blue.

Good Luck, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

snipped-for-privacy@d-and-d.com (DoN. Nichols) wrote in news:bpjvrn$426$ snipped-for-privacy@fuego.d-and-d.com:

Why not just take the .003 off the spindle OD ? Seems it would be easier than trying to line bore the headstock.

Reply to
Anthony

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Because of some of the text which I snipped. He had the scored bearing surface built up with chrome and ground true and concentric. Taking off that last 0.003" may take you back to the original metal, except for chrome in the scores, which would be more likely to split off and *really* mess up the bearings. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

"Fdmorrison">

I recently fitted new bronze bearings to an ML7 lathe. They were too tight ( which is how Myford deliberately make ém ) and I hand scraped them using a

3 cornered scraper and bearing blue. It was a Saturday afternoon. My favourite coffee and the football on the radio made the hours pass sweetly. Totally worth the effort for the most impotant fit on your lathe and helps keep the old skills alive that got us were we are today.

Dean.

Reply to
Dean

Dean and Frank Nice to see the same suggestion twice, it kind of instils confidence. I've not scraped bearings before, looks like I'll get my chance now. Thanks to all for the suggestions.

Martin.

Reply to
Martin Whybrow

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