[dspicguy]

Hi guys, long time member, first post.

I bought a used Prolight 1000 CNC and have retrofitted all of the electronics to use a Gecko 540 and Mach3. Works great so far.

I need to do some work on the spindle but i am unsure how to take apart the draw bar and pulley any farther. If i put a wrench on the draw bar bolt and turn clock wise, it turns for several turns as the draw bar spring is tightened and the washers shown tighten together. If I turn it in the other direction, it turns for a couple of turns and seems to hit a very hard limit.

As you can see, i have loosened the nut holding the pulley and the set screw. The pulley will turn a fraction on the threaded shaft.

Basically, what i am asking is, how do i proceed to take this apart. Are there any difficulties once done to reassemble it?

Thanks!

Bob

[megclay]

Hi Dspicguy
Did you ever fix that spindle
How did you get it apart
I am looking to do the same to mine
The bearings are gone
I called intelitek for help they told me not to do it
Very rudely and they could do it for $800
I would not like to do busness with them
Only if I have to
Megclay

[wongstein]

Hi Megclay - funny, I'm just figuring this out today, myself. FYI, I found 2 NSK 6206V bearings in there. They also say "648" on them and I don't know if that's important. I'm checking other threads to see if there are better bearings to choose - I don't know if these are the stock bearings.

That lock-down collar with the two flats and one set-screw is a left-hand thread on mine. So, clockwise (looking down) to loosen (I put an allen key into the spindle lock hole). That sprocket has two set set screws requiring a 1/8" allen key (just remove them completely because they fit into pockets on the shaft), and can be gently twisted and pried up. Be careful to not pry the flanges off the sprocket as they are just pressed on. Under the sprocket there's a loose spacer. Next comes the tricky parts, which I haven't totally figured out.

1) remove the lower bearing and spindle
The spindle is tightly press fit into a bearing which is press-fit from below into the headstock. My spindle came out with the bearing attached to it - but maybe your spindle will leave the bearing in the headstock, I don't know. You could hit it with a mallot, but you'd be banging on your ballscrews if you haven't taken the headstock off, and that's bad. If you take the headstock off or brace it so that you can pound the spindle out, you still have to deal with the next steps which will require some pulling and pushing. For this step, you may be able to rig a bolt or threaded rod through the spindle to the top, and pull against a block with some ribs that push against the headstock, but allows the spindle to clear.

2) get the bearing off of the spindle without damaging the spindle - although if your bearing stayed in the headstock when you removed the spindle, your would need to pull out the lower bearing from the headstock, out the bottom.

3) pull the upper bearing from the headstock out the top.

4) Press two new bearings into the headstock, and press the spindle into them. In what order? I don't know. Needless to say, one should have experience pressing bearings without damaging them. The order and where we press may affect how much pressure we put on the balls in the new bearings, and whether the bearings may be damaged. We may need to make special tools that press onto the inner or outer rings as needed, but even with special tools it is a puzzle as to how to press the bearings together without loading the balls axially in some way or another. I'm guessing that the bearings are pressed into the aluminum headstock more lightly than they are onto the shaft, so maybe we press the lower bearing on the shaft first (carefully on the inner bearing ring), then press the lower bearing into the headstock, and the top bearing onto the shaft and into the headstock, all at once by pulling the shaft up through headstock against the inner ring of the upper bearing. This would put the pressure only of pressing the bearings into the aluminum onto the balls. Maybe it doesn't matter. I think these bearings are rated for 2000 or 4000lbs radially, which means they should be able to take 1000 or 2000lbs axially - but I could be wrong about that - I haven't looked that closely at the calculation tables.

Anyway, I don't have $800 to spare, so I'll be trying this tonight and tomorrow too

Dspicguy, hello, I'd also love to hear how your spindle disassembly went. Were you also trying to get the bearings out?

[megclay]

Thanks Wongstein
for the detailed description
any pictures of the spindle or parts
just trying to figure this out before I put this in the press
Megclay
(There is a lot of people out there that want to know how this spindle assy is put together)

[wongstein]

Wow, thanks so much for sharing that PDF, Megclay. I'm impressed that they made that available on the Internet - that shows really good customer support. it answers all of the unknowns above, and says that yes, we can pull the spindles together with bolts if we have to, as long as we can get them in nice and square. The 2000lbs max force reflects what the bearing surfaces can handle (I was going off of the more conservative static force rating when I suggested 1000lbs). Also, the pre-load starting point and test procedures are great to know - although I'm not sure exactly what bearing they've specified. I'm using standard C3 NTN bearings at about $25 each - dunnoh if their "10:30 position" nut tightening procedure applies. The main issue that I see is that when the spindle is hot, it will expand - and the spindle will be hotter than the headstock, so it would expand more and would cause looseness in the bearings, except for the opposing factor that the headstock is aluminum which expands more than steel per degree, which would cause tightening on the bearings. Maybe those two factors cancel each other out to some extent, but it's incalculable, so we're left with trial-and-error. Their 95 degree celcius max temp rule of thumb is a good guideline, however. Thankfully, the bearings are not expensive I'll try to get some photos uploaded soon.

[megclay]

wongstein
I would like to get better bearings (I run at high rpm)
If you find some please post
I will do the same
Megclay

[megclay]

just for info the top bearing on my prolight
is a NSK 6206-V and 01M

bearing name: NSK 6206V bearing
Brand model : 6206V
outer diameter D : 62 mm
diameter d : 30 mm
thickness B : 16 mm
category: Deep groove ball bearing specifications

[bhurts]

At vxb bearings they have a set of angular contact bearings that size for 36 dollars and rated for 8500 rpm. For 281 dollars you can get a high accuracy set rated at 14000 rpm.

Ben

[megclay]

thanks Ben
I will look them up
Megclay

[megclay]

Hi All Prolight users
I found some Intelitek Instructions on the web html
they are For
prolight 1000 mill
prolight 2000 mill
prolight 3000 lathe
and for other Intelitek products

http://www.anyfiles.org/KI
back up Intelitek CNC Resource Center.zip :: Free File Hosting - File Dropper: File Host for Mp3, Videos, Music, Documents.

hope this keeps the cnc going a little longer

[megclay]

Hi All
new link
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By...jhzbjNhVXBnT00