I think you mean angular play. It has to have axial play for the quill
to go
up and down (unless the motor and pulleys ride up/down with the chuck.)
Drilling won't cause chatter, because the cutting action is pretty
continuous.
But, milling will definitely cause chatter when a cutting tooth is not
buried in the work all the time. The worst is when the spindle is springy
in the torsion mode and winds up during the cut, then jumps ahead when the
tooth pops free of the work. I had a Bridgeport M head mill that had
that problem.
I put brass shims on the sides of the pulley splines, in balanced pairs,
on what
would normally be the "coasting" faces, as opposed to the "driving" faces,
to take up the slack. It was amazing how much quieter it ran!
Jon
- posted
19 years ago