Spindle removal? :)

Anyone has detailed instruction or picture taken for spindle removal on Super X3?
Don't want to mess it up and I am not sure how to do this part... :) Really would appreciate any help on this one. Basically, I need to clean it and regrease it from what I hear to make it go quieter. Could explain why it gets stuck on start sometimes at low RPM (around 200 rpm... not that I cut anything at that speed but any extra stress can't be good for the machine :P)
Hopefully, all the modification to the machine should be done in few weeks for full run of it :)

This sounds like the same problem that I had when I first got my SX3. Sounded like the bearings were rough and sometimes I had to start the spindle by rotating it a slight amount by hand.
I talked to Syil America about it and they sent another motor and main board. Unfortunately, I had removed the origional motor before I had received the new one so I'm not sure if it was the motor or the main board. I suspect it was the main board that had a problem. However I changed both out and it has run smoothly and starts every time since I changed them both out.

OM

Hmmm how the hell did you get the pulley off the motor? :)
I actually have replacement pulley and motor in here but never figured out how to take out pulley by force yet :P
In all honesty though I think the real problem is on spindle side but I will try anything at least once :)

I'm also interested in hearing more details about the the spindle and bearing removal process. The guys at Syil America highly recommeded that I repack the bearings with fresh grease before operation. Richard gave me an outline of the steps over the phone but the instructions quickly became to complex to scribble down. He emphasized that the bearings have to be pressed out and you have to be familiar with a press before attempting that. I'm not confident that I'd be able to do it with the few notes that I was able to take.

LittleMachineShop sells a kit to press the bearings in and out but the kit will only work for some of the mini-lathes and X1 and X2 mills. I called them and confirmed that it's not the proper size for the X3. Their suggestion was to look at the picture on their site and make something similar that fit the X3. Its just some spacers and pieces of pipe.

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...2287&category=

Old Megawatts? How did you remove the pulley from motor shaft? I just can't seem to do it even after putting enough force to see thick flat screw starting to bend. I just backed off after than and said to myself, it isn't worth messing up the pulley/crack screw in half/or hurt myself doing so.
It seems like to me there really isn't enough room to even use things like posi-locs... Thought about hub puller typically used in HVACR but the pulley is way too big for it...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Old Megawatts

This sounds like the same problem that I had when I first got my SX3. Sounded like the bearings were rough and sometimes I had to start the spindle by rotating it a slight amount by hand.
I talked to Syil America about it and they sent another motor and main board. Unfortunately, I had removed the origional motor before I had received the new one so I'm not sure if it was the motor or the main board. I suspect it was the main board that had a problem. However I changed both out and it has run smoothly and starts every time since I changed them both out.

OM

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My SX3 had the same problem before. I don't know what exactly you mean by "main board". My problem was solved actually by replacing the spindle motor driver board, which takes the speed and direction signals and drives the spindle motor. I also encountered some problem with different version of the PCBs. So when contacting your dealer for the replacement board, make sure you will also get these PCBs in right versions: syil control board connecting the PC interface board and the spindle motor driver board, the spindle motor driver board, front keypad board, and the LCD PCB.

I didn't change the motor. I hate to re-route the cable when mounting a new one. I suspect the rev display is not correct. I might be an un-matched motor (e.g. different number of poles) or some other electronics problem. However, as long as it runs smoothly, it's fine by me for now.

Sorry that it took so long to answer. I have been doing other things. To answer the question about which board that I changed, it was the driver board for the motor. Evidently it had some bad componets in it.

As I remember, I had removed the motor from the frame. Be sure to pull a string back from the control box when you remove the wires with the motor. This will aid in re-installing the wires.

To remove the pulley I first removed the hex head cap screw and washer. The pulley wasn't really that thight of a fit on the shaft so I just used two heel bars to remove it. It came right off and I replaced it with the high speed pulley. I made a new washer for holding the larger pulley on the shaft as I wasn't that happy with the washers that were provided with the new pulley. I re-torqued the hex head cap screw and installed the motor and it has been running just fine since. Since that time, I have removed the pulley from the motor while installed in the frame in the same manner. I would think that one could remove the motor pulley by removing the retaining washer and either re-installing the hex head cap screw in the shaft to push against with a bearing puller or using a ball bearing placed on the end of the shaft to protect the threads and push against it with a bearing puller. Either way should work.

OM

So basically you took out the motor mounting first than wedged it out? I am not quite certain which hex head cap screw and washer you are talking about .... if you can kindly spend the time to show us a picture, I would REALLY appreciate it :)

jinu117,

Here are a couple of pictures of the motor and drive belt. The small pulley to the left of the larger one is the original low speed pulley supplied with my SX3. Syil later shipped the larger one or "High speed" one. The screw that I was talking about is the socket head countersunk screw in the center of the larger pulley. It is threaded into the end of the motor shaft. This has to be removed along with the large washer under it. Then you could either thread the bolt back in the end of the shaft and push on it or place a ball bearing of the correct size on the end of the motor shaft and push on it with a puller. Like I said earlier, I used two heel bars to do the job but the pulley wasn't that tight on the shaft.

OM

Old Megawatts;

Thank you for your time to take picture of the system.
Actually I did get this machine sometime last year (probably october time frame? Maybe earlier? I was one of the first few who got it straight from China. There was numerous little hurdles that I had to go over with...
#1. Homing switch broken off...
#2. Ball screw popping off thanks to no mechanical protection while initial homing..
#3. Snapped Y axis coupler due to misalignment from factory.
#4. Z-axis falling down on middle of peck and drilling. I have nice 3/8" hole in my table thanks to that. Found out the set screw at back was of pretty low quality which I changed later... this actually got me scared thinking Z-axis snapped off just like y-axis has done.
#5. Problem from day 1. When I run spindle, it makes "chug...chug...chug" noise which can't be good thing on smooth running machine.
All that said, they were good enough to send me replacement parts for these problems. Only thing really left in this machine is the spindle/motor/pulley/board part of story to get it just right from what I can see. I was hospitalized in middle of this which got me stay away from any further progression on my projects till now...
So here is what I have basically, either I have problem with

#1. Pulley motor combo (somehow I doubt it as it doesn't do chug chug chug when belt is taken off and running). However, the quality of pulley was bad to begin with which makes me want to replace anyways since I have replacement part in hand.

#2. Spindle - I am so lost on this one as where to start off from. But I will somehow have to figure out how to get through it.... Richard has been very good to me so I don't mind spending some money on changing spindle out to maybe R-8 (yes I got one with MT-3 before SyilAmerica came in) to make my life a little easier when looking for things. This part actuall when rotated by hand without belt attached does have a little bit of slack which I am not liking at all. That probably is what is making the chug chug chug sounds.

Keep in mind I am totally new in CNC but jumped in due to requirement for prototyping for my components which requires many revisions and way too costly and time consuming to keep outsourcing. It has been long learning curve needless to say. (includes that not round flat round circle thing someone else had lol - as for that the fix was to lap the way nicely, tune the motor right and set the mach 3 correctly)

Anyways back to the topic, I did take some pictures. First picture is motor pulled out from mill to show you why I think I have some problem here... I've put enough force to the point where the long thick screw driver I use for taking brake caliper off started bending... Not a good thing obviously ;) If you look at the small hole, there is something wedged in there which probably is to make hard connection between motor shaft and pulley. 2nd picture shows the replacement part they have sent in my hand (which I would like to send back ASAP since it has been sitting here so long... which I don't have that small wedge or what not of...) Yes you are right on the fact spindle is pretty lose on the replacement from SyilAmerica... but the one on my machine... gahhh...).
Suggestions are welcome at this point. And if ANYONE has some detailed instruction on how to maintenance spindle, that would be excellent. There is only so much Richard can tell me on phone that I will understand. It would be extremely nice if SyilAmerica decides to put up some photo instruction of how to do some eseential maintenance such as this in the mean time.

I will probably call them in monday to place order for table (I am not really liking table I made for it for rigidity purpose) and ask for that small dowel pin or whatever it is at same time probably.

Oh, last 2 pictures are of my setup which is nearly completing it's shape... since I do work in computer industry side of things, I end up using bit overkill of machine for this mill with nice monitor and all (would have costed same if I went out and grabbed cheap components) but I do like it :) That's a little bit of vaccuming solution and cold air gun solution as I found out I have problem with coolant in general :) And the way table cover idea stolen from someone in forum here :) I just used 3M VHB table for aluminum stock to mount to the machine... I've been using that tape and it does wonders for things like this on easy of installation. As long as you don't have over 40-50 lbs of torsional force the tape stays put pretty much where you applied once it has been bonded. Guess pulley motor/spindle/table than machine out better holder for the vacuum line and I shall be set I think :)

I really do appreciate all the help I got from you Megawatts :) If you have any suggestion, please please, shoot it my way. Thank you.

juni117,

One of the things that I neglected to mention in my previous post was how I checked out my motor control board. Set the speed, in the manual mode, to a very slow speed, then grasp the spindle and stall it. Then slowly rotate it by hand. If the board is bad, you will find places in the rotation of the spindle that there will be no torque applied to the spindle from the board whatsoever. You can actually release the spindle when in one of these nulls and it won't move. I wouldn't leave it in this mode for too long a time but it is a way to check the board. If this is true in your case, it makes the motor sound rough when operating in normal operation.

I believe that this is the reason that the motor won't start sometimes when the control board is bad. If it should stop on one of the null points in the rotation, it won't start until the spindle is rotated a slight amount by hand.

I have plenty of electronic test equipment but sometimes trying the simple things first produces the same results.

OM

Some simple RULES when it comes to "pressing bearings into/off of" a shaft/housing:

Press ONLY on the raceway that has the interference fit. DO NOT EVER apply any force to move the raceway so that the force gets applied to/thru the balls.

When removing a bearing, it is often unavoidable to apply load to/thru the balls and this pretty much grenades the balls/raceways. Result: if you remove a bearing, you'd tend to better have a new replacement handy.

When reassembling the system, plan ahead. Freezing shafts and heating bearings (electric skillets work nice - picked up our "precisiont thermal fitting device" from the local re-use center for $3 - it has a neat rotary temp gage to set the temp which is real handy. Heat the bearings, freeze the shaft, they parts LITERALLY DROP together. Propane torches and temp chalk are used to heat housings. Again freeze the shaft and bearing assy - usually overnight in coldest setting of household freezer.

Again if you have to use press force, PRESS ONLY ON THE RACEWAY and NEVER ON/THRU the balls.

Heat, cleanliness and some patience and forethought goes a long way when replacing bearings.

Once the cartridge is out, it's often best to take it down to a reputable shop and have them do the pressing. We charge about $15 for something like this at our shop. That way you won't mess things up trying to do this with substandard equipment.

Thanks, Richard(?) I assume?
Would you happen to have maybe quick video, etc of removing spindle when you get shipment from China. You have mentioned how you do that on every machine to be dilivered and I wouldn't think it would be too much hassle on your end to take video of it so I can actually do it to remove this noisy bugger problem :)

We don't do this on every machine. No reason to. The bearings are perfectly fine for 99.9% of all operations.

Easiest way to remove is by looking at the parts diagram in the manual. It's pretty straight forward.

Well, I guess I am the 0.1 % that doesn't have good luck as the "smooth" rolling isn't happening. You have mentioned it probably is the packed grease problem and well, I am stuck with it for time being :)
As for looking at part diagram, let's say, I am mechanically challenged somewhat when it comes to this :)
I would really appreciate it if you can show me the light on this one :)
In fact, I would really appreciate any forum member who can help me out here :) I am in Riverside California so if there is anyone, please let me know :)