Help! Over-heating?

[jdwykrent]

I noticed during my last carve (1 hour in pine) that the alum. just above the quick change chuck (right where you press your thumb to change the bit) got hot. It was almost hot enough to where it was uncomfortable to touch for more than 5 seconds.

I have lubed my flex shaft....there is no excess lube b/c I wipes it off before reinstalling it.

Is this normal? or is it a sign that my bearings are starting to or have gone bad?

Thanks,

Jeff

[Jeff_Birt]

It's a sign that you over lubed your flex shaft, been there done that myself. If you take the little top-hat off you will be able see that the excess lube worked it's way down into the bearing. I changed the bearing my self but would not recommend doing so if you are not experienced with pressing bearing on/off on delicate things.

[jstone]

How hard is it to change the spindle bearing? I am in Canada and it would be alot more inconvenient for me to go to the states and ship it dowm to LHR than it would be for me to change it here. I have already remedied the L3 Spiral problem I had on the ciruit board. That was easy. I am hoping the spindle bearing is not that complicated to change. I, like most other users do not want to be down long if at all possible.

[jstone]

How hard is it to change the spindle bearing? I am in Canada and it would be alot more inconvenient for me to go to the states and ship it down to LHR than it would be for me to change it here. I have already remedied the L3 Spiral problem I had on the ciruit board. That was easy. I am hoping the spindle bearing is not that complicated to change. I, like most other users do not want to be down long if at all possible. I called LHR and this is the info they gave me about the bearing: 1.023" O.D., 0.315" I.D., NSK 6000 DU

[Kenxxx]

Since Christmas, I have replaced the Z Drive motor, then the QC failed and locked up the bit, replaced that, then had a period of great runs. Three days ago, the screw holding the Y truck lower guide roller backed out and the threads next to the csk head were damaged, so I bought a 23 cent metric screw and got that working. I ran a small project with perfect results, then started a $25 piece of walnut for a sign. Things went perfectly for 2/3's of the run, then it started a noisy run that made a total mess. I stopped the machine and checked the bit, which had a small deflection play. I felt the Z truck housing and it was so hot I could not stand to touch it. After cooling, I removed the flex shaft and pivot assy from the top of the Z truck and found some caked grease, which I cleaned. There seems to be an unacceptable amount of play in the bearings. The carving tip will move several hundreds of an inch. I had relubricated the flex shaft with the moly lube per LHR's PDF instructions, being very careful to remove all the excess lube I could. I noticed on the illustrated parts breakdown that the Z truck bearings are not illustrated, so I'm assuming that the Z truck only comes with bearings already installed. Does anyone know what bearings are required and are they available at auto parts stores? Are they hard to press out? I have a total of 25 hours run time, so I am not too happy with all the failures. I love the machine, but I'm thinking I need two machines just to be up and running when I want to, which is not to good for the budget.

[Jeff_Birt]

Again, the top bearing going bad is a result of over-lubing the flex shaft. See my post here:http://www.carvewright.com/forum/showpost.php?p=36004&postcount=21, about me doing the same thing. I would bet dollar to donuts that your bearing going bad caused excessive vibration that led to your other problems.

Look here:http://www.carvewright.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5175&highlight=z-truck+anatomy

and here: http://www.carvewright.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4284&highlight=z-truck+anatomy

for a bit more information on the z-truck. The spindle bearings are installed (the larger one is a bit larger in ID and OD) and then the spindle shaft is pressed in from the bottom. It could be done with the truck still in the machine if you modified a 6" C-clamp to do the job.