Help needed with arrow 500 bearings

hi all, i have just brought a used arrow 500 and now its set up i have done a bit of machining with it.

it seams ok and very nice to set up and use but i am struggling to get a good surface finish, only machined 7075 T651 so far and the machine seams to be lacking in rigidity. even with light finishing cuts i am getting a ruff surface with a face mill and when profiling i just get a dull irregular judder almost. the machine indexes very well but there seams to be a fair bit of play between the bed and the spindle (side to side not up and down)

i am more used to brand new machines with hardened box ways at work but this is for my own stuff at home so a brand new machine is not an option, am i expecting to much from an old machine with linear bearings? would it be worth putting new linear bearings in the Z? or all round for that matter?

if anyone with experience of these machines could give there ideas that would be great!

thanks in advance,
Richard

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It depends on how much you have spent on the machine. If you got a great price on it, then puting more cash into it to make it right is not a bad option. It would be best to have the over all condition evaluated before jumping into more spending. If the spindle and othe expensive items are OK, then linears are cost effective.

How are you measuring the play in the head?? How much play are you getting?? Most of the problems we see in the field is bad ball screw thrust bearings in each axis and spindle taper that needs to be re-ground to get better contact area with the tool. This will cause a bad finish every time. We don't see the axis way bearings going bad unless it has been crashed very hard and caused a problem in the Z-axis. Have you checked the bolts that hold the bearing packs to the head?? Does the Z-axis or any axis sound bad in rapid?? All you should hear is the way guards hitting together.

Mike cncmachineservices (dot) com