[Cabbagestack]

I inherited an IH mill that hasn't ever even been turned on. I plan to install a belt drive conversion on it. The bottom bearing (it seems) feels kinda rough when I turn the spindle by hand, like it has grit in it or something. It doesn't spin real cleanly like much larger mills I've worked with. So I must get to the bearings to investigate. I'm not going to use like that.

I'm finding that upon removing everything: mill top w/ gears, quill feed spring, quill downfeed shaft, quill stop, spindle lock etc. etc. the spindle only drops down about 9 inches. Should slide all the way out I should think, no?. Something seem to be holding it back and won't go any further; gave it a couple of light whacks with a dead blow but nothing doing. One problem is I can't find any exploded parts diagram for the IH mills anywhere on the Net and I've looked plenty!

There's a steel plate with three screws at the top of the spindle bore which you can see in the attached photo. It appears to me to only retain an oil seal (cannot get it off BTW---yet don't know whether it is a disk pressed into the casting or what -- if anyone knows about this plate please advise); anyway that doesn't seem out be causing the problem, as far as I can see.

Something seem to be holding up the spindle inside and won't go any further. Any idea what it could be?

Sorry the photo is sideways, that's what my camera kept coming out with for some odd reason, couldn't get it to behave!

[arizonavideo]

Two set screws on the left side head.

If you have a early belt drive from me the oil seal will needs to be removed. You no longer need it anyhow. Its to keep the gear lube in not keep grease in the top bearing.

As a side note the bottom spindle bearing you can grease from the two slots they cut in the quill but not the top bearing. If you add some kind of fill tube that can dab a little grease on the top bearing without pulling the quill lit it will save you some time in the future.