[suplex]

I guess routing out carbon composite is not the best thing for the equipment (even though I use a vacuum to minimise dust ingress). Though I can see what seems to be a circlip on the inside of the aluminium lower housing of the mini-drill, I can't figure out how to remove the lower bearing - help, please !

[LongRat]

Mine's done the same thing, it has had a lot of hours of use though. It has about 0.1mm of axial play now. Haven't got around to trying to fix mine yet but advice would also be appreciated.

[LUCKY13]

Are we talking about the Proxxon thats offered from so many places for a high speed spindle attachment ? Thats not a good thing if this is so, if it can have a bearing replacement thats not to costly and it fix it, then that might not be so bad. I thought these where suppost to be good pieces though. Keep us upto date on this if you would.


Sounds like you need help just to even begin to make repairs but I can't help with this, I was just fixing to order one and I do want to know whats going on here, and what the end result turns out to be.



Jess

[wavestorm]

I have swapped out the bearing on my proxxon ib/e before. The ball bearing assembly wiped out after many hours of fine milling of PCB`s due to copper filing ingress. This is my 2 cents worth so far...

When the head unit is off (I assume you know how to do that) you need to pry off the small black cooling fan from the shaft very carefully. It just pops off after a small bit of work. You will need a pair of long nose circlip pliers (the closing type) to remove the circlip holding the bearing assembly. because of the small working space in the neck, it takes some practice to mate the circlip pliers with the the circlip. Once it pops out, the whole shaft comes out with the bearing. You need to navigate it past the pin of the locking button. Below the bearing in the bearing well is a spacer and spring washer, you should pull them out and clean them with the whole assembly before putting it back together again.

The bearing is held on the shaft with two locking washers. You can remove the lower one using two flat nose screwdrivers, then slide the bearing off past the thread of the shaft. At first I washed mine in a bit of thin lubrication oil to get the copper filings out. This gave my bearing a small lease of life I needed to get a job done before it finally threw in the towel (another 10 hours of use while carefully monitoring the temperature of the bearing).

New bearings sell from suppliers for around $7. I have heard that some suppliers sell them complete with a new shaft. It is a simple affair to slip a new bearing onto your shaft, but be VERY careful when putting the locking washers back on. You do not want to dent the metal housing ring of the bearing as this will mess it up (I speak from experience). After putting back the spring washer and spacer into the bearing well, carefully place the shaft back in the reverse order you took it out.

You can check to see if everything is OK at this point by holding the head onto the body, making sure the shaft has mated with the motor properly, and turning the unit on. Put the speed up to 20k and back down to 5k to make sure the bearing assembly sounds alright.

Before putting the circlip back in I put two lengths of small tube onto the circlip pliers pins so that just enough of the pins sticks out to engage the circlip (insulation stripped off power cables works well). When you put the circlip back in, use a bright light and magnifying lenses if you have them, as this process is critical. Gently get the circlip as close to the bottom as possible, you will notice the circlip deforms slightly so it does not go into its seat so easily due to the shape of the neck. You will need to GENTLY nudge it in with a small flat nose screwdriver. Be extra careful as a small slip of the screwdriver or circlip pliers could mean you dent the bearing housing, in which case you need a new bearing. If you do it right, the clip should snap right into place. Pry it around the edge to ensure it is seated properly.

Check that the shaft spins freely and then pop the fan back on. Reassemble and enjoy.

I am messing about with ways to minimize ingress into the bearings by installing a brush like a pipe cleaner just below the bearing assembly, but yet to see if it works or not.

[LongRat]

Good info wavestorm, thanks for taking the time to write it all out.
I've been machining ceramics with mine, pretty sure that is the cause of my problems.

[wavestorm]

If you are interested, the bearing code is MR 148 ZZ SS. I just ordered four through a specialist bearing supplier and they were about $4.50 each. A bit cheaper than the agent but the exact same bearing.

[LongRat]

Thanks!

[c-c-cncboy]

If you are interested, the bearing code is MR 148 ZZ SS. I just ordered four through a specialist bearing supplier and they were about $4.50 each. A bit cheaper than the agent but the exact same bearing.

Proxxon World in Australia has hybrid ceramic replacement bearings for the Proxxon IB/E and LB/E. These last much longer, they airmailed to me in under a week.
http://www.proxxon-world.com
Terrence

[BradC]

I just had the same issue with mine. I wore it out in less than a year cutting cf and FR4. Rather than replacing with the standard bearings I wanted to try the ceramic ones mentioned in this post. If anyone is interested I found a source for the ceramic bearings here in the US. A Main Hobbies in California.

Products Found - A Main Hobbies

Amazon carries the standard ones too. Just search for MR148ZZ.

[billwrw]

Haha, 4 years later I found this extremely useful. Sincere thanks to wavestorm for the instructions.

Did you ever install the brush to keep it clean?

I've ordered my hybrid ceramic bearings from Boca Bearing company. They're doubly sealed, so I hope nothing will get into them.

Hopefully all will go well with the installation...

[n24re]

A decade later...this proved to be super helpful!