Quote Originally Posted by blackburn mark View Post
personaly (because im lazy) i would mask of the section where the A/C bearing is going and wet n dry the rest down on the lathe to a more convenient diameter (im assuming your collet shaft is your cheapest part)
if thats a double row A/C bearing you wont need any pre-load on it

i thought you were going to make your bearing housing 43mm ?
It did occur to me to do what you said with the wet and dry, the problem is that will surely increase runout since all the other bearings will locate on an uneven surface.
It is double row, but I think it needs to be fixed onto the shaft somehow to stop it creeping.

Yes I was going to make it 43mm, to fit with Kress spindle - however I'm now going to buy Chinese 80mm spindle instead so etc. I may make it less anyway as annoyingly the smallest aluminum bar I have in stock is 3".

I've been reading up on heating bearings to make them fit. I think it should work for the angular contact bearing but I'm not sure about the others since they're housed in aluminum with laminated steel around that which will all expand at different rates.