Spindle Repair
Spindle Repair - Horizontal and Vertical
Erickson's outstanding Service Department can bring your machine spindle back to true. Any older machine, used with a tool changer for several years, may have damage to the interior taper. This will cause you to have problems with bore repeatability, poor finishes, and excessive tool wear. Of course, a serious job crash can harm the interior taper surface causing gouges and scratches. But just plain wear from use can also cause out-of roundness, “stretches” in the taper, and other conditions that prevent you from making constantly good parts. Sometimes, shop mechanics suspect the spindle’s bearings, but even new bearings won’t compensate for spindle damage.
For many years, your only fix for spindle taper damage was to buy and install a new spindle. If you wanted to try to replace your damaged spindle you had to send it hundreds of miles and wait weeks for an expensive repair. NO MORE! Erickson Machine can carefully inspect your spindles and give you good advice on repair. If taper grinding is indicated, EMT can do that job – usually in place in your machine! This is preferred since grinding with your machine’s head, spindles and bearings still in place produces true concentricity by avoiding the problems that might come with disassembly and reassembly.
However, EMT can take it your spindle to their fully equipped shop in Story City, grind and replace bearings there, and bring it back with like-new specs. Cost and lost time will be much less than sending it to Ohio or Georgia or Cleveland. Here's a photo of a spindle regrind at our shop:
You can see the dark spots and bands in the spindle taper - the remnants of a stain compound added before grinding. When complete, those spots will be gone!
If you suspect a spindle taper problem in one or more of your CNC machines, inspect it for concentricity. Or, let an EMT Service Tech inspect your spindles and give you a full report.
EMT can help you! Call Dave Lockhart today at 1-800-247-3905.