MushCreek
Well-known member
Another day; another project. I have an ancient Craftsman (Parks) 12" planer. I bought it cheap years ago, and don't use it often, mostly because of the terrible choppy finish. I read all kinds of advice on how to tune it up, but it never helped the finish. I decided to inspect the spindle bearings. The shaft runs in ball bearings. One side was fine, the other had a lot of slop. What had happened is that it must have spun a bearing, and destroyed the spindle. The spindle itself is a very soft piece; feels like cold rolled steel. The surface the bearing used to fit on was worn down some .030", allowing the spindle to just flop around. No wonder the thing sounded like a blender full of marbles! I thought about welding up the surface and re-machining it, but decided to just make a new shaft out of unhardened drill rod, which is harder and tougher than the cheap **** it had originally. I also made the two intermediate shafts for the gearbox, as they were beat up, and had to make a new bearing cap, as the original one was broken, and had a metal strap over it. The bearing set-up is odd. The ball bearing is fit by pouring babbit around it, rather than a precision machined recess. I opted to make the bearing cap a proper fit, rather than screwing around with babbit. I didn't take many pictures, as I was in a hurry to get it done. Usually, I tear the whole machine down and paint it, fixing everything as I go. Maybe later. For now, it's smooth and quiet, and cuts great.
