Cam grinder spindle bearings?

[Naiveambition]

Looking into grinder designs for an upcoming build. I've looked on the net for info , but not much is posted about the bearings.

Most of the grinder plans are straightforward, although I would like this to be more universal. Meaning a cam, crank, cylinder grinder with added toolpost grinding on the lathe abilities. A couple others builders have done this.
So in starting, I need info on the bearing setup or types used in these arrangements. And looking at the bearing pages, I have no idea what bearing do what or why etc.. Or maybe just buy a pre made one. Little machine shop looks like they have one without the bearings so that may be an option
I'm not grinding hypodermic needles so they will need to be budget friendly. I need the setup in the pic , Just the spindle housing and its components , but the end version will be something similar in construction.

 

[Wizard69]

It depends upon how fancy you want to get. Many a large grinder relied upon Babbitt bearings hand fitted and supplied with oil lube. You likely could do the same with oilite bearings.

Next up would be ball bearings. You can use radial contact bearings with either maximum or Conrad construction as the cheapest solution using anti friction bearings. The next step up would be angular contact bearings and here costs can be anything from a minor step up to sky's the limit.

If you are going to do a spindle for light grinding, a spindle that properly implements a set of angular contact bearings would be the best balance between cost and performance. The reason is you will have solid axial control of the spindle. You can preload radial contact bearings to some extent but you will get better results with angular contact bearings designed to be preloaded.

In any event design of the spindle is critical and needs a bit of thought before you start cutting metal. Fortunately you are not doing a high speed spindle here. There are still many decisions to make though, such as will the working end be a straight shank or will it support a taper for different shanks or collets. What the spindle supports impacts the bearing size thus cost$$$$$.

If you aren't up to designing a multipurpose spindle id suggest looking for plans. Somebody here might have a pointer to such. Off the top of my head i know of nothing.

 

[cwelkie]

FWIW - The Workshop Practice series of books has one titled "Spindles" that presents a number of practical (i.e., home shop buildable) designs and some pragmatic design background. Well worth a read and having on the shop shelf.