New Quill/Spindle Bearings and Quill Reassembly: Craftsman King-Seeley 103.23141 Drill Press Restoration, Pt. 14

After the fun of Banjo Camp, I'm back in The Dungeon at work on the drill press. Everything has been removed and now I'm cleaning and reassembling.

You may recall the removal of the spindle from the quill in the last go-round. The top bearing just slid right off the shaft, but the bottom bearing will need to be pressed off.

I marked the location of the bearing with some blue masking tape as an aid to locating the new bearing, but as it transpires, I didn't need to worry about it.

You could drive the bearing off the spindle with a 3/4 inch PVC pipe, but I'm going to use my Palmgren 1/2 ton press. I bought it to fret Fender guitar necks, but I keep finding other uses for it.

Put the spindle in the press...this is about halfway off the shaft.

And there it is. Always helps to have the proper tool for the job.

Now we'll put the new bearings on and reassemble the quill.

I cleaned up the quill and the spindle. There was old dried up grease in the teeth on the quill.  I used PB Blaster degreaser and #0000 steel wool to clean them up.

When I put the quill back into the drill press, I'll lubricate it with modern synthetic grease.

I mentioned taking off the lower spindle bearing with a 3/4 PVC pipe used as a drift. This is the reverse, tapping the new bottom bearing onto the shaft. The spindle is too long to use the press.

I did use freeze spray on the spindle so it would contract and hopefully make pressing the bearing on easier. Not sure if it was necessary, but the bearing drove on easily with a couple hammer taps on the PVC drift.

Remember - the pressure goes on the bearing race closest to the shaft or hole it goes on or into. In this case, pressure goes on the inside of the bearing. Putting pressure on the outside might damage the bearing.

A couple light taps seats the upper bearing. Using the rubber mallet distributes the force across the bearing, and in any event, it doesn't take much pressure to get the bearing into the quill.

But if you needed a lot of force here and used a drift, you'd want to put the pressure on the outside edge of the bearing.

The spindle goes into the quill from the bottom. The bearing you see here is the one I put on with the press. The splined end of the shaft slides through the bearing on the other end.

Again, a couple of light taps on the shaft will seat the bearing.

Here's the quill mostly reassembled. Next we need to put the top and bottom collars on.

There is a rubber seal and a collar for the top bearing. I should have realized that the collars locate the quill on the spindle, so the bearings will line up exactly where they need to go - I didn't need to mark that bottom bearing.

Note I used a touch of anti-size on the screw threads on the top collar. Probably not critical, but I figure it will help the next person who takes this thing apart five decades from now.

There's a guide hole on the shaft that the screw seats into.

And finally the bottom collar which the chuck screws on to.

You may recall my adventure removing the dowel pin that holds the collar onto the spindle shaft.

In drilling the old pin out, I made the outside hole a bit deformed. However, the inside hole on the collar and through-hole on the spindle are fine.

I procured a bag of 20 stainless steel dowel pins from McMaster-Carr. I only need one, so I have enough left to restore 19 more of these things!

I figured I'd need to drive the pin in, but it just slipped in with hand pressure. But it won't come out at all. So this is good.

There is a tiny bit of radial play on the shaft, but the same amount of play was on the shaft originally, so I'm in good shape. When the spindle is turning, that play won't matter at all. Whew.

For comparison's sake, here's the quill and spindle after I originally removed them from the press. Note that old lubricant on the quill and the spindle splines.

And here's our newly rebuilt quill assembly ready to be lubricated and reinstalled into the press. The spindle turns very easily; I'm looking forward to getting press back together and turning it on.

The complete restoration saga

Part 1 - Beginning

Part 2 - Electrolysis to Remove Rust

Part 3 - Grinding to Remove Rust

Part 4 - Leveling Base Table

Part 5 - Recreating Model Number Label

Part 6 - Refinishing Base

Part 7 - Removing Motor

Part 8 - Motor Disassembly

Part 9 - Motor Bearing Replacement

Part 10 - Start Capacitor and Motor Reassembly

Part 11 - Removing Threaded Jacobs Chuck

Part 12 - Spindle Removal

Part 13 - Quill Disassembly

Part 14 - New Quill and Spindle Bearings

Part 15 - Engine Turned Aluminum Trim Proof of Concept

Part 16 - Engine Turned Aluminum Trim

Part 17 - Cleaning and Polishing Hardware

Part 18 - Jacobs 633C Drill Chuck Restoration

Part 19 - Cleaning and Polishing Column

Part 20 - Reassembly Begins

Part 21 - Restoration Completed