How bad of an idea is it to cut structure out of my lathe base?

[Redneck_Sophistication]

Well one benefit of the weather is you can leave the spindle in the driveway while the main bearing is on the wood stove wrapped in ceramic wool. Dropped right on beauty!

Races pressed in, Main went in with a soft blow and temperature differential

Rear took a bit more. Ground down the shoulder on the old race, and welded it to the steel plate I used to pull it out. 3/8” threaded rod to pull it in.
Future note: would have been good to have a dimension from back of bearing the the edge of bore. I had none and am guessing by feel that I am fully seated.



Just built up that slinger ring I totally forgot about. Been pouring over all the pics I took. What I learned? TAKE MORE PICTURES! Oily hands or not. Almost forgot a spacer that goes behind the bearing because I only had a single pic of it. I remembered because you could actually read the bearing numbers off it. They had transferred from pressure.

One odd thing I found when checking what bolts I need for the face plate (all were missing)
There are several 5/16th holes and 4- 3/8” holes, there are matching holes for the 3/8ths in the back of the face plate but they are not through holes. They would be behind the chuck. Think it was a design over site? Or would they have used some sort of thread in locator pins??

 

[RobinHood]

Hard to say sometimes why they would have used different fasteners. Could have been to seat the outer race with the bigger bolts (and a special plate at the factory) and then the smaller ones (together with the larger ones) to provide the pressure required to seal the front plate.

Or someone was in there before and stripped them out and just went oversize?

One never knows…

 

[Redneck_Sophistication]

Different sizes ok, large around the shaft ok. But blind holes in the face plate? Odd.

To me anyways, but what do I know?

So close to back together! It’s a real pain to get the main gears AND the feed gears on there journals at the exact same time is hard. I’m wondering if factory the did the main, and removed the back gear housing to do the smaller ones.it’s pretty ass backwoods doing it like this.

I feel like Rube Goldberg machining building with these contraptions lol.

Threaded rod through the spindle, and plate and more rod to clamp in the rear bearing and gear. Hopefully tomorrow get it together. Saturdays I go to the GF’s go had to pack her in. (Better to take a break then rush and F something up)

 

[Susquatch]

Different sizes ok, large around the shaft ok. But blind holes in the face plate? Odd.

To me anyways, but what do I know?

So close to back together! It’s a real pain to get the main gears AND the feed gears on there journals at the exact same time is hard. I’m wondering if factory the did the main, and removed the back gear housing to do the smaller ones.it’s pretty ass backwoods doing it like this.

I feel like Rube Goldberg machining building with these contraptions lol.

Threaded rod through the spindle, and plate and more rod to clamp in the rear bearing and gear. Hopefully tomorrow get it together. Saturdays I go to the GF’s go had to pack her in. (Better to take a break then rush and F something up)

View attachment 21426View attachment 21427

Holy Moses!

My guess is smaller hands and more of em.......

 

[RobinHood]

Different sizes ok, large around the shaft ok. But blind holes in the face plate? Odd.

Probably locating pins go in there - as you have suggested earlier. If you have them, I would put them in as they add rigidity to the bearing front cover. Just make sure they are not too long so they don’t bottom out in the blind holes and stop the cover from tightening all the way down.

Yes, it is amazing how all the parts need to be lined up at the same time to get a spindle back into the HS. I’m sure the factory had special fixtures to make that job easier during assembly.

 

[Redneck_Sophistication]

Well it took some doing! But it’s back together! Oil lines need some sorting but it’s ok for the moment.

I had to make some chips! Turned a piece of tube just to make it real lol

Now just need to fix up the belt tensioning. And the threading feed handle that won’t move.

 

[RobinHood]

There you go. Nice that you have it working!