Thanks to all that responded, but particularly to Owen. He made this
easy. Here are a few notes on Jet mini bearing changes.

First, they are different than the Delta only in appearance, so if you
have a Jet, find the old thread where Owen was kind enought to post
pics from his Delta manual. Follow those directions.

Plus or minus a couple of steps they work for not only bearing
replacement, but for belt replacement, too.

However, for me it was not the bearings that were the culprit. The
problem was the proper tightening of the handwheel, or in this case,
the overtightening of the handwheel. It seems that with all the years
of use the handwheel had worked itself loose and had begun to tighten
itself with every time I grabbed it to stop the lathe. I actually
compressed the "wavy washer" completely flat and created a lateral or
thrust force on the bearings.

But technically speaking as to the proper order of headstock
reassembly, with the spindle back in place and the
bearings/belt/pulleys reinstalled, all you have to do is reinstall the
handwheel and set the screws. But they skip the most important step.

Here is the kicker for proper installation: you only snug the handwheel
(compressing the washer) and back it off about 1/4 of a turn. Set the
two handwheel screws, and check for lateral movement by trying to move
(you might hear a small click or something similar) the spindle
laterally with your hand. If there is no sign of movement when you try
to move the spindle back and forth from the handwheel side to the
tailstock side you have a proper installation. (I take it for granted
here that you know that if you can move the spindle up and down you
know the bearings are shot...)

When the handwheel is over tightened, it pulls the center of the
spindle side bearing back towards the handwheel creating a lateral
thrust. The bearings in the headstock are carrier bearings and are not
made for lateral stress and they overheat dramatically when they are
under this kind of load.

So from an archived post at WoodCentral I was thinking how lucky it
would be if the handwheel had just slipped from the years of use. I
got to thinking that this has to be a fairly common occurance...

And that was it. I had disassembled the headstock to put in new
bearings, but when my curiosity got the best of me and I had to try it.
That was it, and now things are back to normal.

So the lesson learned here is to check the handwheel for proper
installation as I have verified through a local tool repair tech that
it is indeed common to have them work loose and eventually burn out he
bearings. It is also common for somebody like me to not understand the
function of the spring steel wavy washer which provides exactly the
correct amount of pressure to hold the spindle in place with no
movement. According to him it is not uncommon for the handwheel to be
overtightened on a new bearing installation and to have the same
results I had when the handwheel worked loose.

I thought I would post all this because as usual the folks that
populate this place sure came through for me so I thought I might try
to save any mini owners some grief later on. I strongly suggest that
you copy Owen's post in the previous thread and save it and the pics
to a safe place for later use.

Robert

Thanksw for posting this info - I recently installed the retrofit kit to
make my original Jet 1014 mini into a Jet 1014 variable speed (easy retrofit
kit), and I was unsure just how tight to make the handwheel after I
reinstalled it. This makes it plain. Thanks again.
Fred Bearman
Port Huron, Michigan


wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks to all that responded, but particularly to Owen. He made this
easy. Here are a few notes on Jet mini bearing changes.

First, they are different than the Delta only in appearance, so if you
have a Jet, find the old thread where Owen was kind enought to post
pics from his Delta manual. Follow those directions.

Plus or minus a couple of steps they work for not only bearing
replacement, but for belt replacement, too.

However, for me it was not the bearings that were the culprit. The
problem was the proper tightening of the handwheel, or in this case,
the overtightening of the handwheel. It seems that with all the years
of use the handwheel had worked itself loose and had begun to tighten
itself with every time I grabbed it to stop the lathe. I actually
compressed the "wavy washer" completely flat and created a lateral or
thrust force on the bearings.

But technically speaking as to the proper order of headstock
reassembly, with the spindle back in place and the
bearings/belt/pulleys reinstalled, all you have to do is reinstall the
handwheel and set the screws. But they skip the most important step.

Here is the kicker for proper installation: you only snug the handwheel
(compressing the washer) and back it off about 1/4 of a turn. Set the
two handwheel screws, and check for lateral movement by trying to move
(you might hear a small click or something similar) the spindle
laterally with your hand. If there is no sign of movement when you try
to move the spindle back and forth from the handwheel side to the
tailstock side you have a proper installation. (I take it for granted
here that you know that if you can move the spindle up and down you
know the bearings are shot...)

When the handwheel is over tightened, it pulls the center of the
spindle side bearing back towards the handwheel creating a lateral
thrust. The bearings in the headstock are carrier bearings and are not
made for lateral stress and they overheat dramatically when they are
under this kind of load.

So from an archived post at WoodCentral I was thinking how lucky it
would be if the handwheel had just slipped from the years of use. I
got to thinking that this has to be a fairly common occurance...

And that was it. I had disassembled the headstock to put in new
bearings, but when my curiosity got the best of me and I had to try it.
That was it, and now things are back to normal.

So the lesson learned here is to check the handwheel for proper
installation as I have verified through a local tool repair tech that
it is indeed common to have them work loose and eventually burn out he
bearings. It is also common for somebody like me to not understand the
function of the spring steel wavy washer which provides exactly the
correct amount of pressure to hold the spindle in place with no
movement. According to him it is not uncommon for the handwheel to be
overtightened on a new bearing installation and to have the same
results I had when the handwheel worked loose.

I thought I would post all this because as usual the folks that
populate this place sure came through for me so I thought I might try
to save any mini owners some grief later on. I strongly suggest that
you copy Owen's post in the previous thread and save it and the pics
to a safe place for later use.

Robert