Problem- TL-2 SPINDLE BEARING NOISE

[WOLOG]

Has anyone changed the spindle bearings in a TL lathe? My TL-2 sounds terrible. We bought the machine in August 2005. Shortly after that, we had Haas run the Spindle Analyzer. It was reported to be fine. The bearings always sounded bad. Like they are dry. Today I tried to cut a 1.250" diameter part with 2.25" sticking out of a 10" 6 jaw set tru Bison chuck. It made the most horrible shrieking chatter that I have ever heard. I guess I will call in the morning to get a price to change the bearings. By the way, as the RPM's slow down, you can feel vibrations coming from the headstock. Any one ever had this problem? Maybe I should just sell it and use the money to buy live tooling blocks for my 2 new Mori's.

[Donkey Hotey]

Wow, how many 'in cut' hours are you showing on the machine? That just doesn't sound right.

[axis]

ya thats sounds about right. you wont replace just the bearings the hole spindle comes as an assemblie.

[WOLOG]

We swapped the hard jaws and bored a set of soft jaws. No chatter but the same noisy spindle bearings. I think that the hard jaws are sprung a little. I am going to replace the hard jaws in the morning and try it again.

[WOLOG]

Loose jaws!!!! Go figure.

[Wiseco]

No kidding? All the noise was from loose jaws???

[WOLOG]

The part was chattering so bad it hurt. After the jaws were tightened, the part didn't chatter, but the bearings still sound terrible.

[philserveng]

check the drive belts for condition, tension and if oily. the belts can make an awful din if in a bad way, flapping or slipping.

check the spindle encoder timing belt tension and support bearings, again these can make a very bad noise if worn out.

remove all these belts, spin the spindle by hand and listen to the bearings with a stethoscope (if you have one) or with a screw driver against your ear if you havent. they should make a smooth "whooshing" noise, not sound lumpy or growling.

Use a micron clock and check how much lift there is in the front and at the back of the spindle, there should be no more than about 0.0003". finally, are the chuck cylinder bearings ok?

[sixty8frbrd]

we have two tl-2 at work and they have a really loud roaring whine to it.... Sound horrible but parts come out fine..... Also the whine is alot louder in m04 than in m03? Go figure.... Anyways it almost sounds like your bearing are dry.... Try putting it in manual and run the spindle around 500 rpm for about 15 min and feel the outside diameter of the chuck for warmth.... Hot you might want to figgure a way to pack them bearings warm you should be fine..... We have been running it like this for four years not a problem yet shorten up the stock and adjust feeds and speeds....... Parts are cheap let it eat lol

[Geof]

Originally Posted by sixty8frbrd we have two tl-2 at work and they have a really loud roaring whine to it.... Sound horrible but parts come out fine..... Also the whine is alot louder in m04 than in m03? Go figure.....

Have you checked your motor alignment? It sounds like the drive belt is trying to run off the pulley and is rubbing the side.