Re: Spindle failed after only 229 cutting hrs?
Originally Posted by
maxine
The symptoms are a really high pitched squeal at about 1000 rpm and then as speed is increased from there it starts making a low pitched rumbling that sounds to me like a real rough bearing. When the low pitched rumbling starts you can feel vibration in the spindle and casting and even in the floor when it is up around 4000 rpm. Using a piece of rubber tube to listen at specific locations it sounds pretty clearly like both sounds are coming from the top of the spindle. Without the belt it runs completely smooth and quiet so it is not the motor. It does the same thing in forward and reverse. Flipping the belt made no difference. He put a tool in the spindle and put an indicator on the end mill that was in the tool holder. He could rock the tool back and forth and left to right several thou without very much effort. Once he saw that he said he spindle was bad. I thought they would have some fancy electronic vibration analysis tools for diagnosis but he didn't have any tools or do anything that I hadn't already done. We used to use vibration analyzers extensively at an industrial job to diagnose high speed equipment with a lot of success but he didn't have any of that.
Given the symptoms, it really does seem like bearings. But spindle bearings should not fail in 229 hours unless you were just beating the hell out of the machine. And per your first post it sounds like the machine has had an easy life.
Even though it's out of warranty, I think a call to Haas would be in order. Sounds like a manufacturing issue to me. If you can't get any help from Haas, then we have a good spindle rebuilder here in Oregon. I have been happy with them.
Jim Dawson
Sandy, Oregon, USA