Ohio Update

[oldfogey]

First I want to apologize if I became a squeaky wheel when it came to the apparent shortage of bit supplies the other day. I now have a growing pile of bits on my desk as one of my recent orders was delivered yesterday, 2 carving bits from precisebits.com. I am hoping my Amazon.com order comes through sooner than they advised.

Good news next. I just submitted my order for a new CW through Jason. I also ordered the Probe, hope I find it useful.

Bad news...or maybe sad news. My first unit, the Sears Rehab (which I don't believe ever went through LHR) is sitting in the shop awaiting further ideas about how to get the QC replaced in it. The QC will not turn off the spindle. I have the proper tools, tried both the special tool from below the QC and an S3 from above and cannot get the QC to turn loose. I have used as much heat as a 1500W heat gun supplies and that hasn't worked. If I knew how to take the entire Y truck assy out of the machine I would but cannot get bearing screws out of housing either. There has to be a way. I have scanned all the pdf's and have not found a simple way to disassemble the truck from the machine that does not require forcing screws that appear to be glued into place. Help anyone?

[fwharris]

Jerry,

I had to take my Y truck off to remove the old sensor board and like you said the screws were very tight. I could not remove them all the way but was able to loosen them enough so I could take the Y truck off.

Also had to take my QC off but I guess I was one of the lucky ones in that I did not have to use any heat. A cheater bar on the end of my ratchet and a lot of grunting though!!!

[DocWheeler]

Jerry,

There is a pdf about removing the Z truck, you use a wrench to turn the rollers on the right side (I think) a half turn. They are eccentric and will then allow you to remove the whole truck.

I had to get mine hot enough to melt the plastic before being able to get it off (but I did it without taking the truck off).

[oldfogey]

DocWheeler and fwharris, thanks for the input. You are giving me a little encouragment. Will go ahead and use more heat as I have the new QC in hand. I haven't come across the pdf on truck removal but will look again. I am thinking I can apply more heat and pressure to spindle if I get it out of the machine. Thanks for your help. Will keep you posted.

[mtylerfl]

Hello,

I recently had to replace a QC for the very first time in almost two years on one of my machines. In the instructional QC Removal PDF, it mentions to use "small, quick motions instead of constant pressure to break the thread cement loose" to unscrew the QC. Then it says to use heat if the QC will not loosen.

The QC cement indeed broke free on my second "small, quick motion" and the QC was free to unscrew immediately. Maybe I got lucky, but I was certainly pleased that I did not have to resort to applying any heat at all.

[jcorder]

when I changed mine out, I had to get it so hot it melted the plastic housing on the QC and as stated, it took several quick motions to get it to break loose.

Good luck
Jeff

[oldfogey]

Hey Jeff, glad you are in the CW business and handy. Now get out here and help me break the grip of this glue. Better yet stand by with your fire hose and make sure I don't burn the barn down when I get the torch heated up.

Thanks to all who are entering this thread. Been reading old threads and learning much that I would have been asking questions about soon.

[ChrisAlb]

I took a #6 square drive bit and ground it down so it goes about 3/4" into the spindle. With a ratchet on that and the flat wrench on the chuck it came right off with no heat.

This is probably a really stupid question and please take no offense but, are you sure you're turning it the right way? You need to pull the flat wrench on the chuck toward you as you stand on the keypad side.

Like I said, probably silly but just in case as it really shouldn't be that hard to get off.

[jcorder]

Hey Jeff, glad you are in the CW business and handy. Now get out here and help me break the grip of this glue. Better yet stand by with your fire hose and make sure I don't burn the barn down when I get the torch heated up.

Thanks to all who are entering this thread. Been reading old threads and learning much that I would have been asking questions about soon.

Let me know if ya need water, I will see what I can do to get some to ya!

[Digitalwoodshop]

I still have one that I can't get off... I removed the spindle and put another one on....

As for the bearing screws... The trick is to hold the screw and use a flat wrench to turn the bearing nut.

AL

[oldfogey]

ChrisAlb, very proper question. I kept asking myself the same thing so I tried both ways, used a mirror, stood on my head, and still decided my original direction (for a right hand thread) was the correct one. On deep inspection and using a mirror and flashlight I have discovered that the QC had been badly stressed for some time. Although I managed to carve for several hours with it as received, I now think it may have been extremely torqued and/or heated in the past. I will let the thread know when I finally get this thing apart and replaced. I may have to replace the entire z truck. (I had previously mistakenly called it the y truck but standing on my head cleared that misconception up.) Thanks.