Got my hook spanner made today -- had to go to Home Despot for a hole
saw & I forgot to check at the car store if they had one! Oh well, its
functional in a cro-magnon sort of way.

The spindle bearings are tapered roller bearings, similar to front wheel
bearings on a car. I had visualized a process where the bearings are a
light press fit, and the nut (for which I made the hook wrench) is used
to adjust the tension.

If I want to use than nut to adjust those bearings I'm gonna have to
REEF on it -- something is wrong here! No way is that going to provide
an adjustment, and I have trouble believing that anything so high torque
would be designed with such a nut.

So, am I wrong? Is this normal-sounding? If things _are_ too tight, do
y'all have any suggestions?

Thanks.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Tim Wescott wrote:
Got my hook spanner made today -- had to go to Home Despot for a hole
saw & I forgot to check at the car store if they had one! Oh well, its
functional in a cro-magnon sort of way.

The spindle bearings are tapered roller bearings, similar to front wheel
bearings on a car. I had visualized a process where the bearings are a
light press fit, and the nut (for which I made the hook wrench) is used
to adjust the tension.

If I want to use than nut to adjust those bearings I'm gonna have to
REEF on it -- something is wrong here! No way is that going to provide
an adjustment, and I have trouble believing that anything so high torque
would be designed with such a nut.

So, am I wrong? Is this normal-sounding? If things _are_ too tight, do
y'all have any suggestions?

Thanks.

Update:

It occurs to me that I didn't check the bearing or the spindle for
dings. If I see anything obvious I can stone it off (well, if it's on
the inside of the bearing I may order another bearing instead of a round
stone). I'm going to check for this.

I suspect that the real problem is that the spindle was just made a bit
too big for the bearing. I can see those happy guys in their Worker's
Paradise making a tradeoff between just bashed it together, making their
quota and keeping their jobs, versus trying to make it right, not making
their quota, going back too their village and starving.

I really don't like the idea of turning the spindle down, mostly because
I don't know if I can maintain decent accuracy, but also because I don't
have a toolpost grinder and it would be most inconvenient to make one
without the mill that I'm trying to fix. None the less if it comes to
that I may see if I can dummy something up with blocks of wood and a
Dremel tool (ick).

Alternately I could call Smithy and see what they say -- I suspect that
since they've allowed this to happen in the first place they're not
going to be good for much, but it may be worth a try. Anyone know how
responsive they are?

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com