Mill spindle repair?

[kong]

Hiya guys, I have been noticing a bit of play in the mill spindle recently, so set about stripping it down to find the problem. The problem was, of course, the bearings - there aren't any!
The miller is probably 50 years old, and the spindle runs on bronze bushings in the fixed head.
Now then, I am gonna need some bearings in there, but at the same time I would like to bore the spindle for a morse taper or R8 taper - currently the spindle has an integrated collet chuck, probably ER20 variant. It would be a shame to scrap the machine, so any advice where to start would be great! I am sort of figuring on removing the bronze bushings, and making a new bearing housing, then re-fitting the spindle. Should be ok, might be better off making a new spindle rather than turn the old one

[Mcgyver]

a man sized project. Can you turn the spindle? its probably hardened. If you made a new one, not a small undertaking, at least you could revert to ithe orginal t if all else fails.

Maintaining concentricity between the bearing surfaces and the collet mounting will be a bit of challenge, ideally turned on the same set up. turn the od and and then the ID with a fixed steady?

Definitely go R8 over morse. The angle of the R8 is semi self releasing whereas you will have to take the drawbar out and wack away at your tooling to release a morse taper, plus tooling for the R8 is readily available. Think if you torqued down a centre in the lathe with a drawbar how miserable it would be to change extract it.

[kong]

I have been giving this one some thought, and I think it will be better to cut my losses and start again. The machine will go

[trubleshtr]

What if you "torched out " the bronze??? and replaced with modern bearings?Or have a local machine shop make up new bronze sleeves for you??
just a thought.

[kong]

Nah, i have thought about replacing the bearings, but it is not the greatest mill in the world, and really doesn't warrant a load of time/effort/money being spent on it.
I have it on ebay already!

[Bloy2004]

Kong,
Could you provide the ebay number for your machine? I'd like to see it fully in your ad.

Thanks

Bloy

[kong]

ebay.co.uk number is 7505503369

I have been very honest in the ad, and so will probably get next to nothing for it. At least I will be able to sleep at night though!