cloumbo spindles

[mark_detroy]

do most of the high end spindles use cermaic bearings?

i under stand these units require a warm up and cool down period

during start up of spindle... are the bearsing a bit scratch sounding till they warm up i herd one once.... bearing noise was little louder and dry( scratchy sound.....

please post comments
ger?

[ger21]

I used HSD spindles with ceramic bearings for about 10 years, and they never made any audible bearing noise. We also never warmed them up, as they never told us we needed to when we bought the machine 12 years ago. Not sure if warming up would have made much difference, because the powerful electric cooling fans would cool it down in minutes if it wasn't running.

That's all I can really tell you, as I have no experience with Columbo spindles.

[mark_detroy]

this what i herd .... regarding warmin up spindles regardingthe ball bearing which are seal, the fan is not directly cool them...



WARM UP: Do not apply loads to a cold electric spindle.

Before commencing work, run the spindle at 9,000 rpm for

10 minutes or until the spindle bearing supports reach 98º

F (human body temperature). This allows bearings,

supports and shaft to reach their designed dimensions

through thermal expansion. Applying loads to a cold

spindle will cause premature bearing failure.

COOL DOWN: Allow cooling system (fan, compressed air

or liquid) and bearing pressurization (if fitted) to run for 10

minutes after stopping work. This minimizes condensation

and prevents contaminants from being drawn into the bearing

cavities.

[wcarrothers1]

I have an ekstrom carlson spindle. It has been great and had it for several years now (admited light use in my home shop) but will admit some of what I could call bearing noise on speed up and slow down (probably between 50 and 200rpm ish) but no noise other wise. Typically I"ve let it run free for a min or 2 before cutting but again I would not say I really push it hard anyway. Some days I give it more "warm up" time and other times not.. I suspect the unit will last for my lifetime +...

I'd say most standard shops don't have 10 min to give a machine time to warm up..

not sure if my particular ekstrom C73 unit has ceramic or not.

b.

[LazyMan]

Not all quality brand names use ceramic bearings on there lower RPM spindles. From what I have seen though, with RPMS above 18000 they tend to use ceramic bearings.

I always let my cheap Chinese spindle warm up for 10 minutes. I think it would be insane to not do it (if you know that you are supposed to) especially when running spindles that cost $3500+. With proper planning, the warm up can be done while you are getting the shop prepared for a days work, or perhaps having a cup of coffee. If your machine is idle for a few hours you can do another warm up cycle.