old redneck
Member
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2012
- Messages
- 22
- Reaction score
- 35
I tried to post this already, but I'm pretty technologically challenged so pardon me if this shows up twice. I picked up a 13" craftsman floor model drill press in very good shape this week. In the course of cleanup and setting the table square, etc., I was annoyed by the noise and vibration. Close inspection showed that the armature shaft of the motor moved up and down about .250" while in operation. Yesterday the motor was pulled and taken apart and I discovered that the thrust washers are held in place by a spring clip in grooves and one had slipped. The groove was very shallow and I could push the clip out with my thumb. A quick trip to the lathe and the groove was deepened .010-.012, reassembled and tested. The motor now has .020 endplay and runs much smoother and quite. From unplugging the motor to begin work until flipping the switch to test run was 25 minutes. If you have a simular vibration/ pully bouncing it is worth a check. I am still a little let down by the slack in the splines of the spindle which allows some vibration, but I'm not sure how to fix that without a level of machining I'm not equiped for.