Cleaning the carraige bearings

[Milanth]

Do you have to take the Z truck off the Y rail to clean the carriage bearings?? I went to what carvewright link and read how they said to remove the Z truck.

[Digitalwoodshop]

It makes them easier to turn.... But you can easily snap the screws putting it back together.... Best to have screws and bearings in stock when you do this.

Good Luck,

AL

[Milanth]

So I should order new bearings? I know yesterday a guy said just clean the bearings that should and he sent a link. I replaced the Y motor thinking the Y motor was locked up. After replacing the Y motor I still have the same problem. The Z truck is very hard to move across the Y bar. When I try to carve the truck will not go all the way to engage the kick plate for bit setup. I have the top and the side off the machine now. Following the instructions on carvewright links.

[Milanth]

The screws in the top 2 bearings won't come out so it looks like we will be drilling the screws now. So first thing in the morning I will be ordering new bearings and screws. I guess that answered my own question lol

[bergerud]

I think you should first try to loosen the y bearings. They may just be too tight against the rails. You will need a thin 12 mm wrench to rotate the bearings with the eccentrics. Once you have loosened the bearings, you can turn them with your fingers to feel if they are the problem. If their rotation is lumpy from dust, then I would remove the seals and clean them out. It can be done without removing the carriage from the Y rails but I think it would be easier if you did. Be careful when rotating the bearing eccentrics not to, as Al says, snap the screws. Look closely to make sure you do not try and turn them the wrong way. One way pushes the bearings tighter and the other looser.

EDIT:
You do not have to loosen the screws. You only have to turn the whole bearing and screw with a 12 mm wrench. The screws are locktited into the eccentics and you should not try and loosen them. I would give it a try before ordering any parts.

[Milanth]

After taking everything apart the Z truck moves smoothly across the Y rail. When we took the snap covers off it really looked clean under them. Now if it was the bearings dirty wouldn't it still be difficult to move the truck across the rail? It glides so smoothly. What else could it be? I thought about putting it all back together and seeing if it would work. If we do remove the Z truck we will have to drill the screws. My husband tried to take break one of the tops one loose and the screw head is trying to strip out.

[Milanth]

We did loosen the top bearings. One on the right spins freely. We lifted the Z truck slightly and was able to spin the bearing. Now the left bearing is pretty hard to spin. So apparently the right bearing is the one that needs to be replace. We have to drill the screw out to get it. Should I replace both top bearings or just the one that is tough to move?

[bergerud]

Do not try and turn the screw with a screw driver. Only the wrench will work to turn the whole screw, bearing and eccentric together. If a bearing is lumpy, pop off the seal with a dental pick and clean it out. Oil with a little 3 in one oil and put the seal back on.

[Milanth]

Once again I have answered my own question. We checked the bottom bearings in the same way and both the bottom bearings will barely move. Tomorrow morning I will order all 4 bearings. At that point we will drill the screws out and remove the bearings and install the new ones.


Thanks for all your help!!

[Milanth]

We just figured it out where the seal. We are in the process of trying to remove the seal now and try to clean it. The bottom ones are going to be a different story. We can't even see those. We loosened the top a left a little more and was able to get the truck off the rail. My husband said that was too easy lol. We were looking at it in a different perspective. Now he is going to try to remove the seal now and clean them out.

THANK YOU! I will let you know how it turns out.

[bergerud]

You may want to take the carriage off. If you keep rotating the two side bearings with the wrench the carriage will come free of the rails.

[Milanth]

We have the carriage off the rail now. We figured out if we loosen enough it will come off the rail. My husband removed the seal off the lower bearings. He said he does not think it could be cleaned sufficiently. He is having problems getting the seal off the top bearings because of the nut. He said the seal is trying to tear. The bearings are really clogged up. He is going to try to clean them and if he can't I will order new ones in the morning. I will get them in one day. I am close to Houston.

[Milanth]

Do you know now much the bearings are?

[bergerud]

I do not know how much they cost. Installing them is a bit of a procedure which will probably require drilling. The bearings you have are not bad, just dirty. Compressed air or solvent and some oil and you are up and running. (You may want to think about a DC system so this type of thing does not keep happening.)

[Milanth]

My husband said it would be okay on the to 2 bearings but he can't get the seal off the lower 2 without destroying the seal. Okay can you tell me what a DC system is?Is that they dust recovery system? I was going to put one on it after it went out of warranty. I just haven't taken the time to do one yet. Which one do you recommend? My husband said he didn't think these would even clean. And you are correct about having to drill the screws out of the old ones.

[bergerud]

You may not have to get the seal all the way off to clean out the bearings. I cannot remember now how I did it, but I did it without damage. How are the Z bearings?

There are a lot of posts on dust collection (DC) systems. Dust collection has its own sub-category on the forum. There has not been, in my opinion (in agreement with your husband), an ideal solution which you can buy. You can make your own system or you can buy the vacuum head part of the system. I believe the must successful one to date that you can buy is the Ringneckblues. You will also have to buy a 4 inch hose sized vacuum system to go with it. There is a new one now being sold which is made of clear acrylic - the jury is still out on that one. I made my own system which is quite a bit different than the ones in common use, and so, I am not an expert on them. Search the forum or start a thread asking the members for their opinions.

[gwizpro]

The bearings are $10.00 each plus shipping. I ordered all 4 on my A machine last week. Did the clean out routiine and re lubed, but they were very damaged and caused the truck to chatter. When I put them back on after re lubing them they did allow the truck assembly to ride freely, but after a while of carving the chatter started back up and you could see brown oozing from the bearings. Apparently they got rusted due to our high humidly and (lack of maintenance). So from now on, we will be periodically taking off the truck and doing maintenance on the bearings. I have been seeing more posts about this lately. Maybe the older machines are old enough now to start presenting this problem...

[Milanth]

The Z bearings are fine. I fully intend on putting a dc on it now. I have a 4" vacuum system that I use all over my shop. I have it with a large metal trash can at it's side. Most of the debris goes in the trash can instead of the bag. They are on wheels so I just roll them around to each machine when I need it. I have a long enough hose on it that it reaches most of my machines without even moving it.

[Milanth]

Thanks I will be ordering them first thing in the morning. I have an order they guy was suppose to pick up this coming Sunday but I will be short 2 plaques. My deadline is before April 8 so I should be able to get everything way before then. Thanks to everyone for all the help!