Reconditioning a Relmac lathe

[irving2008]

So we live and learn...

I now had 3/4 of a bearing, but obviously needed to do it again (but hey, I expected this)

Next problem was to get the spindle out to clean up again... now I had a full circle of bearing metal I encountered another problem... the centre section of the spindle is about 2thou bigger than the journals. The soot 'release agent' worked fine, I could turn the spindle OK although it was tight, but I couldnt extract it. It took some serious work with a rubber hammer to get it out. Whether this would damage the bearing surface is hard to say, the pics suggest not (see below).

Next time I might try the oiled paper suggestion instead of soot as this will give more clearance. Also this time I didn't put the foil shim right through to the journal as the first time it seemed to act as dam, but if I did it might allow the bearing to ease when the pinch bolt is undone. Trouble is all the examples I have found on the web are for fully split bearings not side split like these so I don't have any information on this.

Here is a pic of the bearing surface, sooty but smooth, before I chopped it all out again :(.



Here is the bit that goes into the keyway.. a nice impression and shiney too :)




I am wondering whether to put the lathe on end and try pouring into an open well rather than use the pouring hole (if indeed that what it is). It would certainly be less likely to fail. Or maybe I need multiple airholes in both dams that would 'plug' as the level rises so improving the 'venting'. Clearly this is going to take more than a couple of goes

Oh well... lets hope the weather is good next weekend!