If you did something hasty trying to remove the Quill feed pinion
and damaged the external snapring holding the quill feed pinion in place
(under the coil spring housing), go to your local hardware store for a
5/8" external snapring. Dead on fit in place of a 16mm snapring. My X3
quill now goes up and down smoothly. The coil spring has been adgusted
for a more "neutral" effect on the quill. Let go of the quill feed
handle and the quill stays there. I hate it when using a mill and the
quill snaps back up to fully retracted....

On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:22:54 -0600, Louis Ohland
wrote:

If you did something hasty trying to remove the Quill feed pinion
and damaged the external snapring holding the quill feed pinion in place
(under the coil spring housing), go to your local hardware store for a
5/8" external snapring. Dead on fit in place of a 16mm snapring. My X3
quill now goes up and down smoothly. The coil spring has been adgusted
for a more "neutral" effect on the quill. Let go of the quill feed
handle and the quill stays there. I hate it when using a mill and the
quill snaps back up to fully retracted....

A few points:

A 5/8" snapring is 15.875mm - close but not dead on 16mm

You're not alone in mashing up the snapring, the original is made of
reconstituted butter, the rest of them on the machine are of slightly
higher quality - hardened reconstituted butter.

15mm ones don't fit - which is normal when there are a couple of
hundred in a box in the workshop




--

I need to replace the one for the X axis leadscrew. That's a damnably
hard one to get to.

After experiences with the other retaining rings, I'd be suprised if
they are exactly the called out dimensions. Perhaps the 5/8 fits the
actual shaft groove diameter better?

Mike wrote:
On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:22:54 -0600, Louis Ohland
wrote:

If you did something hasty trying to remove the Quill feed pinion
and damaged the external snapring holding the quill feed pinion in place
(under the coil spring housing), go to your local hardware store for a
5/8" external snapring. Dead on fit in place of a 16mm snapring. My X3
quill now goes up and down smoothly. The coil spring has been adgusted
for a more "neutral" effect on the quill. Let go of the quill feed
handle and the quill stays there. I hate it when using a mill and the
quill snaps back up to fully retracted....

A few points:

A 5/8" snapring is 15.875mm - close but not dead on 16mm

You're not alone in mashing up the snapring, the original is made of
reconstituted butter, the rest of them on the machine are of slightly
higher quality - hardened reconstituted butter.

15mm ones don't fit - which is normal when there are a couple of
hundred in a box in the workshop

On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:25:07 -0600, Louis Ohland
wrote:

I need to replace the one for the X axis leadscrew. That's a damnably
hard one to get to.

After experiences with the other retaining rings, I'd be suprised if
they are exactly the called out dimensions. Perhaps the 5/8 fits the
actual shaft groove diameter better?

The x axis doesn't have one, surely you mean the Y axis?

That is 12mm - no imperial size is really close.


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