Over the years,I've read and heard repeated warnings by various experts
that driving a blank onto a morse tapered spur center while it's on the
lathe will damage the bearings. It would of course, damage an obsolete
outboard cup (---point thrust bearing, but I wonder about the ball
bearings used on woodturning lathes of the sizes and types that most of
us use.

The warnings must be true, but for me it seems I have a mild case of
Charlie's bumble bee syndrome. Maybe I've been lucky not to be stung
yet, but I've driven many blocks onto MT spur centers while inserted
into the spindle and haven't heard that ominous rumble yet.

I can see that if a spindle is axially free except for being locked onto
the bearings, banging it axially would damage the
bearings. Are the spindles of most of our lathes attached to the
bearings tightly enough to cause damage by axial pressure? Not
according to the instructions for removing the spindle from some popular
machines. I'm _not talking about cartridge, roller, angular, etc. types.

If the spindle is restrained by collars or pulleys and floats fairly
easily thru the bearings why is the bearing damaged?. What part of the
_bearing (forgetting spindle, pulleys, bearing seats and castings) is
damaged by seating a wood blank onto a spur center that's already in the
spindle taper? I'm often wrong. What am I missing this time?

Have any of you damaged bearings by illegally banging an innocent blank
onto a spur center while it's in the spindle taper?


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter


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