Originally Posted by
QuinnSjoblom
another question on my bt30 headstock. For my current Chinese spindle i built a clamping style headstock which is obviously needed since there is no flange to bolt through, but the bt30 mount will be different. I'm assuming these flanged type spindle cartridges are not meant to be clamped, rather just slip fit into a bore and bolted through the flange. question is, what type of fit does that bore need to be? From a couple videos I've seen of cartridges being pulled, it seems it basically falls out once the flange bolts are removed. Is this usually just a clearance fit and a few thou of slop is fine? Or is more critical? I don't know if the flange is being relied on for all the rigidity of the spindle, or if the fit of the bore plays a role in that. I could design the headstock to both clamp on the od of the cartridge and bolt through the flange, but maybe that can potentially distort my spindle bearings and cause problems?
if I only need the flange surface for rigidity, I can 100% mill the headstock and just give a couple thou of clearance in the bore, but if the bore fit is more critical, I will need to get creative and mount the roughed out headstock on the turning spindle to finish the bore and face. my machine could handle that, it's just gonna be a lot more work to fixture the headstock on my turning spindle. Any advice on how I should approach this?