# PSI bearing replacement



## fredito (Mar 12, 2016)

I have a turncrafter lathe that started making almost a whistling sound when I would put a tool to the blank. I called PSI and they said to replace the bearings and sent some new ones out. Anyone have any experience or tips for this?
Thanks


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## Schroedc (Mar 12, 2016)

If it is the one I think it is, remove the hand wheel, loosen the belt, loosen the set screw in the pulley inside and then tap the shaft out with a rubber mallet.


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## gman2431 (Mar 12, 2016)

@fredito I did a tutorial in the classroom of changing the ones in my rikon. Might help ya


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## fredito (Mar 12, 2016)

Thanks. I probably just need to dive into it!


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## Ben Holt (Mar 13, 2016)

I just did this when I replaced my belt. Not bad. It explained perfectly above.


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## Hap Hazzard (Mar 20, 2016)

I just wanted to post a quick reply before I head off to bed; I can go into more detail later if need be.

The most important thing about ball bearing installation is to press or drive only the race that's being fitted. In other words, you press a bearing onto a shaft by the inner race, and into a housing by the outer race. Do not apply a force that drives or presses the balls into either race. This will cause brinnelling, which leads to premature failure.

That said, most wood lathes use deep-groove bearings which have a large contact area and are intended for thrust as well as radial load bearing, so some amount of cross-bearing force is tolerable if necessary. I can show you how to press the bearings in and onto the shafts, but you'll have to build some fixtures to support both races properly. This probably a little more involved than you want to get, but whatever you do, do not drive your new bearings in with a hammer--you'll brinnell the races for sure. Fortunately, the headstock shafts on wood lathes are bored through the center, so you can pass a threaded rod through and use a combination of appropriately-sized sockets, nuts and washers to press the bearings into place gently.

Reactions: Like 2


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## fredito (Mar 20, 2016)

Hap Hazzard said:


> I just wanted to post a quick reply before I head off to bed; I can go into more detail later if need be.
> 
> The most important thing about ball bearing installation is to press or drive only the race that's being fitted. In other words, you press a bearing onto a shaft by the inner race, and into a housing by the outer race. Do not apply a force that drives or presses the balls into either race. This will cause brinnelling, which leads to premature failure.
> 
> That said, most wood lathes use deep-groove bearings which have a large contact area and are intended for thrust as well as radial load bearing, so some amount of cross-bearing force is tolerable if necessary. I can show you how to press the bearings in and onto the shafts, but you'll have to build some fixtures to support both races properly. This probably a little more involved than you want to get, but whatever you do, do not drive your new bearings in with a hammer--you'll brinnell the races for sure. Fortunately, the headstock shafts on wood lathes are bored through the center, so you can pass a threaded rod through and use a combination of appropriately-sized sockets, nuts and washers to press the bearings into place gently.


Thanks, that's actually a really good idea to use a threaded rod, washers and nuts to pull it into place from the other side. I would assume get a big washer and just stack washers smaller and smaller until you can bump up against the nut?


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## Hap Hazzard (Mar 21, 2016)

I'm not sure what stage you're at, but you might need a socket or a length of 1" pipe (schedule 40) to go over the end of the shaft. Don't be afraid to grease up the shaft with some heavy wheel bearing grease to help things along. It's not like that bearing is going to slide back off.


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## fredito (Mar 21, 2016)

Hap Hazzard said:


> I'm not sure what stage you're at, but you might need a socket or a length of 1" pipe (schedule 40) to go over the end of the shaft. Don't be afraid to grease up the shaft with some heavy wheel bearing grease to help things along. It's not like that bearing is going to slide back off.


I haven't even touched it yet. I was thinking I could pull the shaft/headstock, pop out the bearings, use threaded rod/washers/nuts to set the new ones in, replace the shaft and be good to go, correct? Hope I'm seeing this right in my head!
Thanks


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## gman2431 (Mar 21, 2016)

When you pull that shaft one bearing is gonna stay on it.


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## Hap Hazzard (Mar 21, 2016)

gman2431 said:


> When you pull that shaft one bearing is gonna stay on it.



gman's right, fredito. There's an internal circlip behind each bearing, so if you push the shaft through the housing, the bearing will stay on the shaft. I used a harmonic balancer puller to push the shaft out, but I had to extend it with a piece of angle iron in order to span the housing. I also had to make a yoke for the opposite side to anchor the bolts to. If you don't have to tools or patience for that approach, you can drive it through with a hammer. I'd put a small ball-peen hammer in the center of the shaft and drive it with a dead-blow or a bigger ball-peen.

If you don't have a user's manual, or you don't want to get it greasy, you can download it here: https://www.pennstateind.com/library/TCLCs_man.pdf You can print just the pages you need and keep the original in the plastic bag.

Shroedc gave you a good piece of advice above when he pointed out taking the set-screw out of the step pulley. If you forget that you're going to feel really foolish. Also, stuff a couple of rags in the pulley housing so the pulley has something soft to land on when you pull the shaft out, because you'll probably forget it's in there, like I did.

Once you get the shaft out, tap a small cold chisel into the gap between the inner race and the flange until you can get a pair of pry bars in there and pry it away until you can get a punch on the race and drive it off the rest of the way. Drive the other bearing out of the housing with a long-nose punch between the handles of the circlip. You can rotate the circlip to access the whole circumference of the race. Be careful not to tip the race by driving too much in one spot.

Presumably these bearings are toast, and I'm guessing PSI isn't asking for them back to do a failure analysis, but think of removing the bad bearings as an opportunity to practice good habits before you install the new ones.

Reactions: Like 1


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## gman2431 (Mar 21, 2016)

http://woodbarter.com/threads/rikon-bearing-replacement.24276/

This is how I did mine with very basic tools.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Hap Hazzard (Mar 21, 2016)

gman2431 said:


> http://woodbarter.com/threads/rikon-bearing-replacement.24276/
> 
> This is how I did mine with very basic tools.



I'm glad you posted that, Cody. After looking at your tutorial and taking a closer look at the manual, I can see that his lathe is more similar to yours than mine. In mine the step-pulley is between the two bearings, so that makes a difference in how things come apart.

Reactions: Like 1


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