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The more I turned the worse I got

R

Ron Vasser

Joined
Jan 29, 2019
Messages
115
Likes
57
Location
Rome, GA
You guys know I've just been turning a few months and I had a few projects that turned out pretty nice and I was happy learning to sharpen and tool technique. I noticed after I was allowed to start again after eye surgery more vibration in the lathe. I added more weight and adjusted the legs. I noticed tool marks in my bowls after what seemed to be a good cut. I checked the run out on the spindle and it didn't seem that bad. My wet bowl blanks after turning to round vibrated when I tried to go above 500 RPM. I read on here that the makeup of wet wood would sometime never become balanced so I had that thought also. On my next bowl the closer I got to the headstock I started getting tool bounce so I thought my gouge skills were off and I wasn't properly addressing the bevel of the gouge. The cause was finally revealed on a 3" x 12" maple round stock that I tried to make a finished cut on with a skew. Every time I made a cut the closer I got to the headstock the more my skew bounced and then I heard a clicking noise. I opened the door on the headstock and there was more than 1/16" runout on the indexing plate at the rear bearing. I sent the pictures to Laguna and they sent out a new spindle assembly and bearings the next day. They should arrive next Tuesday. I posted this as it may help someone with similar problems. The runout with no weight was amplified when a blank was mounted.
P1015508.jpg
 
Patience is something I need when turning. When I make an "Oops!," I try to figure out what I did wrong or post here for answers. This is a great place for answers!
 
A pondering that is a bit off topic...but way back in the dark ages, one of the old Turning Gray Beards was talking to our turning session and he asked the class "as a novice, please tell me what the first 2 lathe tools you would buy if you could only afford 2 tools." Everybody threw out their opinions but 2 out of our 5 person class said that they would buy a gouge first then a skew. I'll never forgot his immediate response: "You guys are carrying around bad info that needs to be corrected right now. The right answer is that you buy 2 gouges...and never never never buy a skew for the rest of your turning life." He said it as a joke and we all got a good laugh out it. I use a skew now for something or other just about every time that I turn but having crawled up the skew learning curve over the years I certainly understand his joke way better now...and I wish I could have blamed some of my spectacular and beautiful catches on some bearing runout or some other lathe malady once in awhile.
 
The runout with no weight was amplified when a blank was mounted. With my engineering background, I'm skeptical about that statement. Are you saying there was no runout with the bare machine, and 1/16" runout with a blank mounted? Was the spindle stock held with a chuck, or between centers? Did you run the bare lathe at high speed? What kind of vibration then? Something doesn't sound right to me yet.
 
Richard Coers said:
The runout with no weight was amplified when a blank was mounted. With my engineering background, I'm skeptical about that statement. Are you saying there was no runout with the bare machine, and 1/16" runout with a blank mounted? Was the spindle stock held with a chuck, or between centers? Did you run the bare lathe at high speed? What kind of vibration then? Something doesn't sound right to me yet.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean to sound as if I was an expert with my tools and I'm certainly not an engineer but I was just trying to put all my thoughts together. When the bearing did get to a certain point of failure it sounded like a wrist pin in an old straight eight knocking, the bearing is a sealed bearing or at least started out to be, and when I took the last piece I tried to turn from between centers I could actually see the point on the spur drive wobbling. It's ok if you're skeptical or something doesn't sound right but when I got the bearing and shaft out and slid the bearing back on the shaft I could move the outer case up and down so I'm pretty sure that's part of my problem.
 
This is the first time you mentioned bearing failure. Before the only hardware issue was runout on an indexing plate. Runout is an issue with something machined off center, bearing failure is just that, failure. My confusion was how an indexing plate, machined off center, could effect cut quality on a blank. You don't have to sound like an expert Ron, but it sure helps others if you fully describe the machine failure. A major bearing failure, to the point of clearance between the inner and outer race, is very uncommon. Be sure you follow the companies tightening recommendations for the new installation.
 
I see I used the wrong terminology, what looked like runout on the indexing plate was a rear bearing failure. I guess I thought the picture of the leaking bearing and discolored shaft would help with my attempt to explain. Thanks for pointing out the tightening of the locking collar but I did check with their engineer about how much to tighten the rear bearing locking collar against the wave washer and he got that info back to me the next day.
 
Terminology is one those issues we all deal with every day working with trades people in the field, suppliers, manufacturers and engineers. There are many instances in various trades where the terminology varies from one region of the country to another. For decades every trade has used slang terms to refer to common materials and components used in the trades. It has only been in the last decade that some of the trades have gone through their code books and made corrections to poorly worded descriptions and terminology so that everyone is on the same page in the use of terminology.
 
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