I've got a Rutland RF-3x clone and today while I was using a fly cutter I heard some chatter up top, and I believe that it's sourced in some play that I have in my spindle pulley bearing mechanism. See attached figure. I removed the pulley nut to remove the pulley with a gear puller to investigate further, however it's being extremely stubborn at the moment and I'm afraid I'll break/damage it. It appears the play is in the bearing and/or sleeve, and the play appears to only be on the rotational axis when I adjust by hand, HOWEVER I notice that when it is powered, there is some up/down play as well (may well be a different issue that is causing the vibration instability). It is likely that this has always been the case since I've owned the machine, and when I replaced the spindle bearings earlier this year I kept this bearing as-is. If I had to quantify how bad the play is, I would say that the tangential displacement of the outermost edge of the pulley without engaging the spindle is on the order of 3-4mm.
I have two questions for y'all: 1) am I worrying too much about this (ie is play in this way expected), and 2) has anyone seen this before OR have any thoughts on the manner?
Thanks guys and gals!
UPDATE: I was able to pull the pulley off (finally), as well as the dual bearings on the sleeve. The play is DEFINITELY between the spindle external spline teeth and the sleeve internal teeth (see attached). I don't imagine there's much I can do here, as they are dynamically aligned parts that move with respect to one another :/ I assume that everyone has this play?
Play in Spindle Pulley in RF-30
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