I'm not sure if I noticed because of Glenn's recent thread with his Nova 1624 but I recently noticed a bit of freeplay in both of the spindle bearings on my Jet 1221SP.
While squaring up an off-balance bowl blank I heard and felt some clunking through the workstand so I took off the bowl/faceplate and loosened the drive belt. For both the spindle and the handwheel, I get a clunk up and down as well as front to back. I don't have a good way to measure it but it's pretty obvious/easy to see and hear.
The lathe is about 6 months old but I have used it a lot. I would estimate that I've turned well over 100 projects on it and, as my first lathe, you can correctly guess there has been some rough use, tool catches and even a couple spinning pieces prematurely ejected.
So, should there be any easily detected freeplay in the spindle bearings? The lathe has roller bearings that are not adjustable.
While squaring up an off-balance bowl blank I heard and felt some clunking through the workstand so I took off the bowl/faceplate and loosened the drive belt. For both the spindle and the handwheel, I get a clunk up and down as well as front to back. I don't have a good way to measure it but it's pretty obvious/easy to see and hear.
The lathe is about 6 months old but I have used it a lot. I would estimate that I've turned well over 100 projects on it and, as my first lathe, you can correctly guess there has been some rough use, tool catches and even a couple spinning pieces prematurely ejected.
So, should there be any easily detected freeplay in the spindle bearings? The lathe has roller bearings that are not adjustable.