historicalarms
Ultra Member
Ever since my mill-drill was new, there was always a little oily film that seemed as tho it came from the quill body. I just thought it had an oil bath for the bearings that caused the weeping a bit...didn't concern me much for the years that I have owned it but did always wonder how to replenish the leakage when the time came...as anyone knows that has bought one of these Taiwanese machines, the "operators/service manuals are very sparce in usable info (cant find mine anymore anyhow).
Anyhow, the other day I noticed that this oil film had pretty well dried up...oh-oh, time to investigate how to service the thing before bearing failure became an issue and yesterday was the day.
Never having one apart before it was a sort of "search & destroy" mission without trying to do so. It took me about an hour-hour-and a half to get the quill completely out of the head. first was to remove the depth indicator completely, then the coil-return spring. Just remove the holding knob from the spring housing and then pry the housing out a bit from the head...don't try to hold onto it (you don't want to create any leaky spots in your fingers), just let it go "spoing" when the cover comes unhooked. There is a screw that attaches the spring to the geared adjusting shaft so it wont go anywhere uncontrolled, now pry the coil over a bit so the screw is removable. Now you can remove the socket-head screws that hold the quill adjusting shaft crank & levers to the head, the shaft will now be easily removed from the machine. The quill is now loose to be removed through the bottom of the head, no need to remove the top pulley as the splined drive on the main shaft will just drop out of it. Don't just let it drop uncontrolled, I used a stack of blocks and removed one at a time until it was resting on the mill table.
Two things I discovered when I got it apart...there is no "oil bath" chamber for the bearings, they are just tapered bearings that were greased when new and no thought was given for adding a shot now and then along its lifetime. The second thing that surprised me was that the top bearing is wide open to whatever shop dust or scarf that might get launched into the head area (and there was a considerable amount of crud accumulated in the head casting). The bottom bearing has a rubber dust cover to keep scarf out of it so it is a bit protected.
One thing I will mention if anybody else tackles this job, the bearing pre-load nuts on the main tool-head shaft are left hand threads. After the pre-load nuts & tab locker are removed ,the shaft easily tapped out of the main quill body. The top bearing cone is out now and easily inspected ( mine still had a smidge of original grease in it, not much but it appears still usable & undamaged). I guess there were tree things that surprised me, the third being that the bearings are not Chinese made, they are Japanese built and they appear to be high quality. The bottom bearing is still in the body as the rubber guard didn't get pushed out when removing the shaft. That's as far as I got last night and am still pondering how to get the rubber guard out without damaging it beyond re-use. There is no outside visible methods of removal, appears to be a sort of "wheel-seal" type of thing that is pressed in.
Anyhow, the other day I noticed that this oil film had pretty well dried up...oh-oh, time to investigate how to service the thing before bearing failure became an issue and yesterday was the day.
Never having one apart before it was a sort of "search & destroy" mission without trying to do so. It took me about an hour-hour-and a half to get the quill completely out of the head. first was to remove the depth indicator completely, then the coil-return spring. Just remove the holding knob from the spring housing and then pry the housing out a bit from the head...don't try to hold onto it (you don't want to create any leaky spots in your fingers), just let it go "spoing" when the cover comes unhooked. There is a screw that attaches the spring to the geared adjusting shaft so it wont go anywhere uncontrolled, now pry the coil over a bit so the screw is removable. Now you can remove the socket-head screws that hold the quill adjusting shaft crank & levers to the head, the shaft will now be easily removed from the machine. The quill is now loose to be removed through the bottom of the head, no need to remove the top pulley as the splined drive on the main shaft will just drop out of it. Don't just let it drop uncontrolled, I used a stack of blocks and removed one at a time until it was resting on the mill table.
Two things I discovered when I got it apart...there is no "oil bath" chamber for the bearings, they are just tapered bearings that were greased when new and no thought was given for adding a shot now and then along its lifetime. The second thing that surprised me was that the top bearing is wide open to whatever shop dust or scarf that might get launched into the head area (and there was a considerable amount of crud accumulated in the head casting). The bottom bearing has a rubber dust cover to keep scarf out of it so it is a bit protected.
One thing I will mention if anybody else tackles this job, the bearing pre-load nuts on the main tool-head shaft are left hand threads. After the pre-load nuts & tab locker are removed ,the shaft easily tapped out of the main quill body. The top bearing cone is out now and easily inspected ( mine still had a smidge of original grease in it, not much but it appears still usable & undamaged). I guess there were tree things that surprised me, the third being that the bearings are not Chinese made, they are Japanese built and they appear to be high quality. The bottom bearing is still in the body as the rubber guard didn't get pushed out when removing the shaft. That's as far as I got last night and am still pondering how to get the rubber guard out without damaging it beyond re-use. There is no outside visible methods of removal, appears to be a sort of "wheel-seal" type of thing that is pressed in.
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