Bearing preload without threads?

Hello

I do have an some sort of Idea how I could do this, but not sure it's the right way, or someone come up with or knows of a better way

I have got a lathe head stock casting, but will be fitting my own h/t steel shaft, 1'' Dia , the Bearings I am fitting are Taper roller bearings, the shaft does not have threads to fit locking rings/nuts ,

Without me having to cut threads, How can I go about Preloading the taper roller bearings

lee

I'm intruiged

Got any pictures please?

If you don't need a hole thru' the middle of shaft you could just tap the end and use washer and screw or stud and nut, with locking device. For a thru' hole type (highly recommended) a short sleeve on the outside of shaft, with grub screw clamping, and maybe 3 or 4 tapped holes to load the bearings.

Depending on size a spring or Belleville washer. You would need a well fitting collar to press against and several grub screws.

If this is a conventional arrangement with outer race of the bearings in the headstock casting and the inner races on the shaft then presumably the shaft and the bearing housings collars, shoulders of some sort for the races.

If you are making the shaft why not cut thread on it?

Shims are an excellent alternative if you have to use circlips but it would be pretty tricky to assemble.

How are the shaft and bearings assembled into the headstock anyway?

Ian P

From very informative discussions I have had recently (thank you Ketan!) regarding a similar set up, very little pre-load is necessary. Just enough to prevent end float.

HTH

Rod

I had exactly the same situation with the milling machine that I built. What I did was to buy a taperlock pulley and drill and tap four holes through the bush, I then used grub screws to bear onto the rim of the bearing. It works perfectly. The attached photo shows how it appears, I machined the groove on the pulley away.

The unimat sl uses a shaped washer for preloading but they still have a thread at the back to make adjustment simple

Brilliant!

Thanks for all the advice,

Like I did say, I had a good idea how to do it, my thoughts were going the same way as Gordon w' mentions , it's good to run it past other people with the same interest and experience, makes me feel better

Rod, thanks for posting,

Ketan' mention how little preload is needed, I can understand that, but you still got to get preload on those bearings

Norman, I like the milling machine, good bit of ally in there

Kind Regards

lee

Edited By lee hawkins 1 on 16/10/2015 07:10:30