Diy Brushless Spindle

[Jonathan]

Unless I'm missing something obvious the collet chuck shaft isn't actually fixed axially to the angular contact bearings?
The outer rings of the angular contact bearings are fully constrained by the housing and axial force from the Belleville washers, however neither of the inner rings are attached to the shaft, so the two angular contact bearings are effectively acting as just a standard radial bearing with zero clearance. Currently when the shaft is subjected to an axial force it would move, except for the grubscrew and bearings in the motor - so it is those standard bearings in the motor that are actually resisting the axial force which defeats the object of using angular contact bearings.

You need to somehow fix the inner ring of the angular contact bearings to the shaft - best way is probably to machine a fine thread on the shaft and use a locknut (rather like on ballscrew mounts). You then have both bearings facing the other way round and place the Belleville washers between the nut and bearings and use the nut to apply a known preload by measuring the compression distance of the springs. This is how I've done it on a ballscrew... same principle applies. The problem is the shaft will be hard to machine so someone will suggest you simply locktight the lower bearing to the shaft, but that's rather crude.

The preload required must be greater than the maximum axial cutting force and greater than the minimum load specified by the following formula:
http://www.skf.com/portal/skf/home/p...newlink=1_3_10
This avoids sliding friction within the bearing which will lead to excessive power dissipation and thus heat build-up. However equally you don't want to use more preload than necessary as clearly that will also cause the bearing to heat more. You could machine slots into the housing with a parting tool to make fins so the greater surface area increases heat dissipation. Even better, make a channel in the housing (or mount) and pump water through it.