My poor little girl, the Jet Midi lathe VS1014 was in need of some bearing replacements. It should be a very straightforward process, you know the whole 'knock out a bearing and just replace it' kind of thing. I just thought I would share the repair in the event someone might be concerned about damaging the soft aluminum pulleys as I was initially. I had initially thought, "How in the world can I get the shaft knocked out of the pulley without damaging the pulley itself?" It was apparent that it is composed of aluminum.
I removed my entire headstock but you do not necessarily have to. Its only four machine bolts to remove and I can work over at the counter in the upright position as opposed to bending over, if left on the lathe. Plus, this lathe is bolted down on a bench top without a lot of working clearance behind it. I couldn't get my big head around the backside of the lathe. It's kind of nestled in an area so I just removed my headstock altogether.
Loosen and remove completely the 2 pulley set screws. This practice just prevents accidentally gouging your shaft later on when reassembling everything.
Arrange the headstock up on some blocks of wood with outboard side of headstock facing upwards.
Leave room for the shaft to be knocked out.
My main concern was that the softer aluminum pulley could be potentially damaged if I attempted to knock shaft out.
It would be sitting against the interior face of the headstock and I thought the taps would bend the face of the
second pulley runner. I just took the risk and allowed the pulley to sit down into the shaft hole.
Tap the shaft on through. One good thing about removing the headstock and working on a
counter as opposed to leaving it attached to the lathe is you don't have to worry about the
spindle shaft being knocked out onto the lathe bed then striking the floor or 'you got it', your big toe.
Be on the lookout for the key
Yippee!! This process did not damage the aluminum pulley in anyway.
Check your belt at this point because the last thing you wanna
do is have to dismantle the lathe again in a week to replace the belt. So replace bearings and belt all at once.
My belt looked good, so will just keep on using.
You see, the pulley faces were not damaged at all.
Shaft will more than likely come out with inner bearing still attached. Its a snug fit, engineering intent.
Once you create enough gap between spindle shaft and bearing, remove the bearing
by tapping it down the shaft with a piece of wood and rubber mallet.
Both bearings are out of the headstock. Just use wood to knock your outer bearing out, you wouldn't
want a screwdriver or metallic object to gouge the bearing seat. So use WOOD. You are a woodworker.
Wipe seats clean.
Order bearings, a four digit number on the side of your bearings are relative to sizing. So you can just use that
number to order the correct size. The alphabetical signifiers that follow the numbers depict bearing
composition and rubber seal composure inside and so forth. You would really need a bearing book to
learn what all those letters signify. If you order good quality bearings that bear (no pun intended)
your appropriate number, you should be fine.
Tap new bearings into place.
Don't leave your belt out of the equation and don't forget the shaft key.
After installing shaft, use a piece of cardboard or 1/16" wood material to use as a
'no-go' guage in setting the pulley in the appropriate location along the shaft. This is to
ensure we have the proper spacing between pulley and wall of housing, on the outer bearing end.
Snug pulley up against cardboard and tighten set screws.
Set headstock onto lathe and place belt onto pulley to ensure proper alignment of belt path has
been achieved by where you fastened the pulley onto the shaft. Mine was running parallel to interior wall.
Looked good.
Install washers on outboard side of shaft and reinstall handwheel.
Mount headstock and you are good to go.
-chris
I removed my entire headstock but you do not necessarily have to. Its only four machine bolts to remove and I can work over at the counter in the upright position as opposed to bending over, if left on the lathe. Plus, this lathe is bolted down on a bench top without a lot of working clearance behind it. I couldn't get my big head around the backside of the lathe. It's kind of nestled in an area so I just removed my headstock altogether.
Loosen and remove completely the 2 pulley set screws. This practice just prevents accidentally gouging your shaft later on when reassembling everything.
Arrange the headstock up on some blocks of wood with outboard side of headstock facing upwards.
Leave room for the shaft to be knocked out.
My main concern was that the softer aluminum pulley could be potentially damaged if I attempted to knock shaft out.
It would be sitting against the interior face of the headstock and I thought the taps would bend the face of the
second pulley runner. I just took the risk and allowed the pulley to sit down into the shaft hole.
Tap the shaft on through. One good thing about removing the headstock and working on a
counter as opposed to leaving it attached to the lathe is you don't have to worry about the
spindle shaft being knocked out onto the lathe bed then striking the floor or 'you got it', your big toe.
Be on the lookout for the key
Yippee!! This process did not damage the aluminum pulley in anyway.
Check your belt at this point because the last thing you wanna
do is have to dismantle the lathe again in a week to replace the belt. So replace bearings and belt all at once.
My belt looked good, so will just keep on using.
You see, the pulley faces were not damaged at all.
Shaft will more than likely come out with inner bearing still attached. Its a snug fit, engineering intent.
Once you create enough gap between spindle shaft and bearing, remove the bearing
by tapping it down the shaft with a piece of wood and rubber mallet.
Both bearings are out of the headstock. Just use wood to knock your outer bearing out, you wouldn't
want a screwdriver or metallic object to gouge the bearing seat. So use WOOD. You are a woodworker.
Wipe seats clean.
Order bearings, a four digit number on the side of your bearings are relative to sizing. So you can just use that
number to order the correct size. The alphabetical signifiers that follow the numbers depict bearing
composition and rubber seal composure inside and so forth. You would really need a bearing book to
learn what all those letters signify. If you order good quality bearings that bear (no pun intended)
your appropriate number, you should be fine.
Tap new bearings into place.
Don't leave your belt out of the equation and don't forget the shaft key.
After installing shaft, use a piece of cardboard or 1/16" wood material to use as a
'no-go' guage in setting the pulley in the appropriate location along the shaft. This is to
ensure we have the proper spacing between pulley and wall of housing, on the outer bearing end.
Snug pulley up against cardboard and tighten set screws.
Set headstock onto lathe and place belt onto pulley to ensure proper alignment of belt path has
been achieved by where you fastened the pulley onto the shaft. Mine was running parallel to interior wall.
Looked good.
Install washers on outboard side of shaft and reinstall handwheel.
Mount headstock and you are good to go.
-chris
