Larry on Lake Superior

Hi Larry, I saw post and about the shapers in Minneapolis that are up for auction. You mentioned that the clapper might be missing. I was curious what the clapper is for/does? Thank you

Hi Larry, I had to split things up into two messages to fit it all in, the rear of the spindle has a cast iron housing with two ball thrust bearings with a threaded ring for adjustment and a large tapered roller bearing taking most of the thrust. this is only lubricated with a splash plate collecting oil from the headstock gears, and in my case had all three had failed due to low oil levels, probably due to the massive oil leaks in the headstock.


Edit: It has two 51112 thrust ball bearings and a straight cylindrical roller bearing at the rear, not a tapered roller.

Hi Larry, My SAG 180 has a four vane swept volume oil pump about 2" diameter and 1.5", so it's not very big at all. The pump is connected to the clutch shaft so when the lathe motor is running but the spindle is not engaged, the bush is pressurised with oil. The oil is from the headstock gearbox and is fed to the bushing through three holes 120 degrees apart which connect to each other via a machined oil groove 3/16" in size which is angled about 30 degrees to the axis of the spindle so it's elliptical in shape, not circular and takes the oil over most of the spindle and shaft bushing. The oil escapes from the ends into the headstock oil sump. I have no idea of the oil pressure required but I understand it's a simple matter to divide your load capacity required by the surface area to give a minimum oil pressure.

Here's a link to the bushing and the hardened spindle journal to give you some idea of what I'm talking about: http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/blog.php?b=85