Confused re. Thrust Bearing Placement in Old Drill Press

[JG2]

Long time lurker and 1st Time Poster here...if I am posting in the wrong forum section place please let me know.

My Dad gave me his 30 year-old Taiwanese drill press and I am replacing the bearings and hope to be able to salvage the unit for light use (non-precision).

I may have to provide pictures, but can someone please explain the correct placement of the thrust bearing on the spindle.

Above the chuck (in the quill) there are 2 "normal" sealed bearings about 8" apart, but when I knocked the shaft and the bearings out there is a thrust bearing above the bottom sealed bearing. I didn't realize what I was looking at and removed the thrust bearing and now I am unsure which way the new thrust bearing should go in; from what I have read there is one OD on the thrust bearing that is a different size and that it is critical it go in correctly.

I spent some time Googling thrust bearings with no real luck; the old guy at the bearing place was kind of being an *** and we were shouting across the shop due to COVID precautions...I couldn't really understand what he was telling me.

Is there someone who can explain the correct orientation of this bearing and how it should be greased?

Thanks in advance.

 

[nadogail]

Sorry, but I need pictures.

If you are close, I could come look and maybe we can figure it out together.

 

[karoc]

If you check out McMaster-Carr website the usually explain and give good information on such things.

 

[metlmunchr]

One race should have a bore that's a tight fit on the shaft. The other race should have a slightly larger bore and it would go into the housing. The housing race OD is normally a somewhat loose fit in the housing. They are made this way to make sure the ball grooves in the shaft race are concentric with the shaft and to allow the housing race to shift a bit if necessary to allow its ball groove to align with the ball groove in the shaft race.

 

[pancho400cid]

Maybe if you put the bearing numbers up it might help.

I doubt you going to get anywhere without pictures. I think you have to have some minimum number of posts before you can post pictures.

 

[lilredex]

Welcome to the forum. I believe you need five posts to be able to post pictures.

If no other way, send me the pictures, and I'll post them for you.

 

[matt_i]

I've worked with 2 kinds of thrust bearings, one a needle thrust bearing which looks about like a sunburst with 2 uber-hard washers for the other races. So 3 separate pieces.

Then, a single-piece assembly on something like a crane hook, a thrust bearing with 2 stamped cups that didn't come apart. One cup has to be bigger than the other, so there are different radii and the parts have to have enough "shoulder" to account for the corner radii, if you examine the shoulder on the shaft plus the shoulder or bottom of the pocket in the quill, then I think you'll see the difference and how it fits with the thrust bearing, if you have this style.

 

[JG2]

Wow, thank you for all the responses fellows.

I assembled it last night after careful examination of the *** documentation on the bearing and I'm pretty sure I got it right.

(I sure hope I did as that bearing was $55...)

Pulleys are going back on tonight and we will see how it works. It should run better without the mouse nest (including a skeleton) in the top of the press and bearings full of mouse sh*t and lint and God knows what else.