Originally Posted by
MrMetric
I have been holding off on doing milling on my machine until I've fixed my "to do" list. One of these was a "check" item, namely the retention knob pull force. I was going to make a gauge but then one popped up on fleaBay for a reasonable price (Clamprite). I bought it and, well, I'm glad I did. I am only showing 100PSI which is insanely low. I was stunned and more than a little disheartened. But, I'm also glad to have found this before I do much work. The previous owner had only used the machine for one job that came in periodically over multiple years. A brother took over the business and didn't want to learn the Mitsubishi control, which is how I got the machine. When I first looked at it, a holder was in the spindle. I don't know how long it was there, but I'm guessing a long time. The job they were doing used a teeeeny little endmill, so I'm guessing there was very little load on it. The taper looks fine and I don't see any fretting. That low load probably saved the machine's bacon.
Anyhow, the point here is that it looks like I'm going to be resurrecting this thread and, hopefully, adding some photos. I know that the previous owner replaced Belleville washers at least once because I found some notes (the McMaster Carr P/N, for instance) in some notes he had. I also found the bottom half of the "special" tool rolling around in the back by the electrical stuff (always check before plugging in after a move!). The top tool doesn't seem to be anywhere, although I'm kind of wondering if it is necessary. It looks pretty easy to make if I need it, though. Oh, the bottom tool was made of aluminum, but the consensus here seems to be that this will be OK. The whole process of taking the drawbar out is a bit difficult for me to visualize, but I haven't spent much time yet on it. I should look before I ask questions there.