Page History: Delta 6x48 Sander Shafts

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Page Revision: 2009/04/24 00:39

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Removing Upper Shaft¶

WARNING: Read this whole section before proceeding with removal of the upper shaft. It is not uncommon to break the idler arm casting as seen below{Reference:http://owwm.org/viewtopic.php?t=15145|Removing spindle from Delta 6x48 sander}{Reference:http://owwm.org/viewtopic.php?t=15318| Removing spindle from Delta 6x48 sander.. continued}.



A press is recommended, if not fully required. The clamshell drum halves are a slip fit and should just slide off but old ones rarely, if ever, do that. The steel shaft sometimes galvanic welds to the drums, requiring significant extra pressure to break the bond.{Reference:http://owwm.org/viewtopic.php?t=8411|Rockwell 6x48 sander}

The image below from Bob Vaughan shows how to set up the idler assembly in the press. Do not orient the assembly up the other way. The press should be pressing on the shaft and not the bearing. Find a length of steel smaller the shaft's 15mm diameter to press through the bearing. The shaft often requires considerable pressure to move it. In this case it will releases with a loud bang.



Even when the above technique is followed, it is still possible to break the casting. If the lower bearing is rusted in place, the lower end of the casting will be pushed down until it fails. Some ideas to possibly avoid this are:

• Once the shaft begins moving, look to see that the lower bearing is coming out of the casting. If instead, the casting is bending, stop. The danger here is that the casting may break before a problem is noticed.
• Add additional support for the casting so it does not bend down. The challenge with this technique is the casting can move down and end up taking all the load, in which case it will certainly break.
• A technique that has been used on a similar bearing setup on a different machine is to first remove the balls from the lower bearing: pop off the seal, drill and pry out the bearing cage, move all the balls to one side, then pop them out. Now the shaft will be free to come out without applying pressure to the bottom of the casting.
  

Examples of Shafts and Conditions¶

From Bob Vaughan. Details of upper shaft problems resulting from operator ignoring symptoms of bearings going bad. Also, note the problems one will have when pressing the shafts out of the drums.

Shaft Fabrication¶

Shaft fabrication is easy with a metal lathe. Take 15mm ground rod (see links below for source) and thread the ends to fit the fine nuts you have. Newer shafts have different threads to older ones (see pictures above).{Reference:http://owwm.org/viewtopic.php?t=8411|Rockwell 6x48 sander}{Reference:http://owwm.org/viewtopic.php?t=27705|Delta 6x48 upper (idler) shaft question?

Links¶

• MSC Search for "15mm drill rod"