I havevhad my shapeoko pro for just 1 yrar and in that time i jave had 3 compct routers .
The problem is the router bearing down by the collet freezes up .
What am i doing to cause this to happen?
I do a lot of pocket cutting, i have adjusted my feeds and speeds .
In cutting out my pockets it sounds like my bit is struggling so i have up the spoed and cut back the feed think that might help.
But apparently it did not because i just burned up my 2nd router bearing.
Need some advise on how to stop this from happening.
I have been told i should go to the VDF spindle but i don’t have and extra $800.00.
I have already spent upwards of $5,000.00 for this set up .
Ant help would be VERY much appreciated
See:
Yeah, you can totally swap the bearing in the spindle. I do recommend buying or making a proper bearing puller rather than trying to just wiggle it off with some screwdrivers.
These bearings are all shielded, so if you’re killing them it’s probably a matter of heat, but it may also just be a matter of life expectancy. So when you bed the new bearing shim into the housing trying to ensure it has good thermal connectivity and can shed some heat through the outer race to the big aluminum housing.
You can use a calculator like this to try and get a rough ballpark to see if you’re doing something to prematurely kill these bearings, or if they just happen to be defective. We are running these tools a bit unusually, compact routers like this were really not meant to run continuously for hours on end.
Worth asking: Do you use dust collection regularly? Without it, the router ingests a lot of crap in the air and it will absolutely shorten its lifespan.
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Try backing off on the spindle clamp and making sure you have even torque across the screws. The first year I had my 5P w/ Makita Router, my cutters and the collet would get so hot you could barely handle them; even on short runs/light cuts. I was perplexed. The Dewalt router on my 3XL never got that hot. Then someone on here suggested the spindle mount clamp pressure might be too tight.
When I backed off on the clamp screws I could immediately tell I had overdid it during assembly. I loosened the screws until the router easily slid up and down, then carefully retightened the screws until the router was securely held in place. I estimate the screws were tightened to about half the previous torque. Hot bits are no longer a problem. Give it a try.
The Makita/C3D router are very susceptible to lower bearing failure. As others pointed out you can buy the Makita/C3D router rebuild kit. The routers are relatively inexpensive but after the warranty runs out the expense is on you. Maybe time to upgrade to a spindle. As others pointed out dust collection is important and even with dust collection it is a bad environment for the less than stellar bearings in the Makita/C3D routers. The router for a Z-Plus on an SO4 is 66MM and if you dont want to buy a spindle maybe it is time to try another brand. There are a bunch of Makita clone trim routers. Cannot recommend one but you know the ones you have had cause problems.