[difalkner]

I thought it had needle bearings,, not bushings?

I believe the newer ones do have needle bearings.

David

[wmgeorge]

Well instead of sending the machine back you could perhaps assume the bushings somehow were not real Oilite and add some grease to the surfaces. Yes the USA sourced Oilite bushings were pretty good, but who knows about the Chinese junk. Brass bushings with oil or grease fittings have been used for many years. Back into the early 1800's or before.

I just went out and checked my assortment of Oilite bushings, I have a boxed set of various sizes I purchased, I think from Grangers. They are looking to be porous bronze instead of brass. But I also have round bars of brass I have used to make custom bushings on my metal lathe in the past.

[GME]

FWIW, I looked up the replacement part on Fineline's website. The replacements have ball and needle bearings and come with the shaft. The NEMA 23s are $40 and the NEMA 34s are $50 each. Kind of spendy, but not that bad when compared to CNCRP's replacement part. CNCRP's part uses an oilite bearing, and only costs $5.50 less than FLA's for the NEMA 23, and only $0.20 less for the NEMA 34. FLA's appear to be a much better value.

Gary

[wmgeorge]

FWIW, I looked up the replacement part on Fineline's website. The replacements have ball and needle bearings and come with the shaft. The NEMA 23s are $40 and the NEMA 34s are $50 each. Kind of spendy, but not that bad when compared to CNCRP's replacement part. CNCRP's part uses an oilite bearing, and only costs $5.50 less than FLA's for the NEMA 23, and only $0.20 less for the NEMA 34. FLA's appear to be a much better value.

Gary

Interesting find Gary, frankly I thought mine came from CNCRP but now I am not sure? So FLA are ball and needle.

Hey how is the build coming along??

[GME]

.

Hey how is the build coming along??

Hello, Bill,

Slow. My wife pulled me off to get back to my house remodel. I just put up 3 element crown around the ceiling and installed a 6" Victorian base molding in the master bedroom. I still have to texture walls and ceiling, and replace moldings in a sitting room off the bedroom. Ugh. I'm still working on getting the DROs mounted on my mill (in my spare time). The X axis is giving me fits. So little room. I'm going to trying mounting the sensor directly to the saddle, which is a tricky business, since perfect alignment of everything is so critical. As soon as I get the mill finished, I can move on to getting the 80/20 and interface plates and supports milled, and assembly can begin. I'll be lucky to get it all done by summer.

Gary

[wmgeorge]

Crown molding.... Ugh. We did our kitchen remodel last spring and summer and still have a couple doors to paint. Last summer we were called back home by our neighbor because of a 100 year record rain fall and power being out for an couple of hours we had 4 inches of water in our basement. First time in the 25 years we have lived there. We were on vacation in Michigan at the time. So I had my machine sitting on a pallet in our driveway while I redid the basement.... it was only ground water TTL. Our Farmers Ins agent who I may sue yet, failed to insure our basement in spite of being asked to do so. BTW we now have a top of the line battery back up sump pump.
Good luck. Keep your wife happy.

[GME]

Interesting find Gary, frankly I thought mine came from CNCRP but now I am not sure? So FLA are ball and needle.

I forgot to mention, but it looks like the main bodies of the drive units come from CNCRP, but FLA has them anodized and makes some parts changes. The earlier units (without the ball & needle bearings) probably retained the gears that came with the CNCRP model, including the oilite sleeves in the gear units. So, I believe your assumption was mostly correct.

Gary

[PLJack]

I thought it had needle bearings,, not bushings?

That is what I keep hearing as well. They look like bog standard ball bearings to me.
images below.

[PLJack]

Good evening, Jack. I'll give a shot at some possibilities.

Maybe it could be the amount of tension you have when tightening down the spring-loaded tensioning bolt. If it's too tight, it's going to do more than just pull the gear into the racks. Think about it in the "way out there" extreme - like it would be possible to tighten the tensioning bolt so tightly that you could break off the gear mounting bolt. Before it would break, it would try to bend. Before it would bend, it would bind. Get the idea? If the tension were too tight, it could be setting up a wear inducing bind. Keep in mind that the small gear sit pretty far away from the main body of the drive, relative to everything else. I suppose the gear could be acting like a sort of lever, which could accentuate an already existing bind.

On the Saturn I sent back, the frame tubes were not square. Out-of-square tubes means there is necessarily a disrelation between the mounting plates/drives and the gear racks. If your tubes are also out-of-square, it could account for the wear pattern. It would take what is in the paragraph above and make it worse.

The amount of belt tension may be another cause or an additive cause. If the belt is too tight, it's going to translate to the bushing, etc.

As an aside, I believe oil impregnated bronze bushings (e.g., Oilite) are what is generally used for an application like this, rather than brass. Oilite Plus is an iron-based counterpart. I've never seen brass used, but I don't pretend to have seen it all.

That's it for my input.

Gary

Yep. Bronze is a better guess.
Early on I think I may have had the tension too tight. Now a days I tighten by hand and give it about 1 1/2 turns.
This machine is definitely not perfectly aligned. I can hear a change in tone as it gets to the back side. If I remember correctly they rails splay out by about 2mm or so.


Thanks.
Jack.

[mactec54]

If I remember correctly they rails splay out by about 2mm or so. Thanks. Jack.

I feel for you guys that are struggling with these machines, having the rails out by 2mm is no joke, they need to be within .001 to work correct

[wmgeorge]

I feel for you guys that are struggling with these machines, having the rails out by 2mm is no joke, they need to be within .001 to work correct

Really? We did not know that, thanks for stopping by to share that information with us, as its never been discussed here at all. :tired:

[GME]

That is what I keep hearing as well. They look like bog standard ball bearings to me.
images below.

It's been awhile since I read about the evolution of the FLA drive units, and I haven't gone back through the old posts to check my memory, However, I seem to recall they started out as the CNCRP standard with just Oilite bushings. Then, a ball bearing was added. Finally, needle bearings replaced the bushing. Again, I may be wrong, but that's how I recall it. Since you have a ball bearing and bushing, it appears yours is the second iteration.

Some folks were unhappy with the FLA drives and ended up getting their money back and bought CNCRP drives. Unfortunately, I don't remember what iteration gave them heartburn.

Your right about the ball bearings. R8Z are pretty common. Needle bearing are fairly inexpensive, if it's possible to remove the bushings and replace with needle bearings. I'm guessing the gears were milled for the needle bearings to fit, but I don't know. I'm thinking that finding bearings with the same ID and OD of the bushing is unlikely.

Gary

[wmgeorge]

Thanks Gary I idid not know about those bearings. I think I have needle bearings but memory fails.

Now my wife asked me today, what about moving South? Huh. Anybody on here live in Arkansas or Alabama?

[difalkner]

Close, Louisiana.

David

[wmgeorge]

Close, Louisiana.

David

My wife has a cousin in NW Florida and I get along really well with him.

[he1957]

Guessing Australia is too far south?

:-)

[wmgeorge]

Guessing Australia is too far south?

:-)

Yes a little too far South. I found some property in NW Florida and If I was younger it would be a great way to make a nice place. Out in the country, two creeks and a couple of old single wide mobile homes that would take just a few minutes work with a bull dozer to improve. I could build a large shop and move in a nice manufactured home. Nice and warm year around. But a little to far away from town for my wife.

[wmgeorge]

Close, Louisiana.

David

Hey I just ordered some 45 ACP bullets from these guys Bayou Bullets, I have used what they sell in 44 Remington Magnum and they shoot nice out of my Marlin lever action rifle. I said a couple years ago i was done reloading, but here I go again. What part of Louisiana is the nicest and warmest?

[difalkner]

Hey I just ordered some 45 ACP bullets from these guys Bayou Bullets, I have used what they sell in 44 Remington Magnum and they shoot nice out of my Marlin lever action rifle. I said a couple years ago i was done reloading, but here I go again. What part of Louisiana is the nicest and warmest?

We're in Bossier City, just across the river from Shreveport. BC is a nice area and we see all four seasons. It gets cold enough in the winter - forecast is for 24° in the morning but 3 days ago it was 70°. Gets plenty hot and humid in the summer - we've seen 105° many times. Spring and Fall are all over the map, from mild to cold to hot. Our weather is about like East Texas. We can be in Texas in less than 30 minutes and Arkansas in about 45 minutes. We like it here. I wouldn't want to live in any other part of the state.

David

[wmgeorge]

The place I ordered from is in Louisiana so that is why I thought of you. We are headed down to the Branson MO area sometime this month to look it over. I would never live in that city and have to put up with the traffic but there are places outside of town. Its at least 10 degrees warmer there than where we are at in Iowa.