Quote Originally Posted by Ali Kat View Post
Very good idea Jazz. The spindles seem to be fairly well built and certainly they are mechanically robust.
I wouldn't be so sure. They're well built for high rpm use...

I don't think it would make that good a spindle for a lathe, unless the lathe is very small, since it uses angular contact bearings. Most lathes use tapered roller bearings since their load ratings are much much higher. Angular contact bearings are the only bearings suitable for high speed and axial loads, but you don't need that high a speed on a lathe (unless it's something special) so why compromise the rigidity so much by using the wrong bearing type. Same is probably true for a spindle for cutting steel since again that's low rpm and you need higher rigidity for cutting steel.