Carve Tight Lower Bearing problem

[quarrydesigns]

Had a problem with the lower bearing in the carvetight spindle today. In the middle of a carve there was a sudden increase in noise / vibration, stopped and finaly located what appears to be a corrugated bearing shim about halfway out of the lower end of the carvetight. Tried replacing the shim but on restart it almost immediately starts to come out again.

Anyone ever seen or heard of this, know of any ways to keep the shim in place?

Daniel Smith
Quarry Designs Wood Working

[earlyrider]

Yup, its a well known problem with the spindle shaft, up till now (to me at least) associated with the QC chuck lack of balance beating up the bearing damper (that part that slipped out). If the part is still under warranty , call about it. They may repair or replace it. If off warranty, you might try to disassemble the spindle, and use a little Locktite on the damper as you reinsert it and the lower bearing in the housing. Al has some good photos of this on some old posts. Try searching "spindle bearing" or "bearing damper" to get there.
Ron

[quarrydesigns]

This is a carvetight with less than 7 hrs of use. Tech supports exact words were "Thats not supposed to happen with a carvetight"
Sent them some pics for the engineers to look at waiting to hear back..
40393

Daniel Smith
Quarry Designs Wood Working

[Digitalwoodshop]

Good Luck !!!!

Nuff Said.....

AL

[quarrydesigns]

Still waiting to hear back from tech support about this spindle damper problem thats not supposed to happen with the Carvetight.. Having thoughts of getting an old style spindle and a rock chuck but not sure if that will fix the problem. Concern is that the problem may be with the casting and or bearing tolerance not being correct to hold the damper which means I may need to replace that instead of the chuck itself. Had an machinest buddy look at it he suggested drilling and tapping 2 holes in the bottom of the casting and fabricating 2 c clips to hold the damper in place.

7 hours use out of the "new and improved" carve tight before failure! Not very impressive..

Any opinions or thoughts?

Daniel Smith
Quarry Designs Wood Working.

[earlyrider]

Stick with the CT, and see if LHR will replace it, or just use the Locktite on the damper,just make sure it seats all the way in place.
Ron

[quarrydesigns]

Some good news. LHR is sending me a replacement z truck / CT setup. They are very interested to know what happened after only 7 hrs of use on one of the new chucks.

Daniel Smith
Quarry Designs Wood Working

[Digitalwoodshop]

That is GREAT NEWS !!!!!

AL

[quarrydesigns]

Finally got caught up enough to replace my Z assembly, was fairly straightforward following the instructions. Did a quick test carve and there is noticeably less noise / vibration than with the old assembly even before the damper came out. Suspect there was something out of alignment or balance with my first CT set up, its going back to LHR for some evaluation. So far no problems with carving so heres to hping the problem is solved and a Merry Christmas to all.

Daniel Smith
Quarry Designs Wood Working
Trenton KY

[Pratyeka]

Big pat on the back of LHR for being on top of this. I think it's the first failure of this kind for the CT. Obviously something went wrong, maybe a bad bearing... hope LHR will inform you about what the real problem was.

[Digitalwoodshop]

It is a known problem with refurbished spindles and now the CT.

The Damper is not seated all the way up into the bearing area letting it fall down. I have had 2 fall with the QC before the ROCK was Born.

Good to hear LHR did the right thing and replaced it.

I am guessing it is just one tech that is not getting it right.

Too bad they don't have a Serial Number System on the CarveTite to track it back to the Tech. I bet that would help Quality Control. Like the Unlock Code... A great idea that just needs to be implimented...

I bet it would even save LHR money in the long run with shipping.

AL