Just had to check to see if anyone has ever run into this problem. We have a Shapeoko HDM. When changing bits, it got to where my husband had remove the bolt to put a new bit in. He knows what he is doing and is careful to make sure the thread is correct. Earlier he could not get the bolt off. He is strong and very mechanical. He tried many different tools and it isn’t budging. Well , he made slight progress. Customer service isn’t open today and he is now looking up new routers or spindles to see what we will have to buy! We have only had our machine 2 weeks so this is beyond frustrating.
We understand that many folks can only use their machines evenings, weekends, and holidays, so do our best to staff the support queue during those times.
I recently had (for the first time in years) a stuck collet nut on my 2.2kW spindle (similar to the HDM’s) and I was able to salvage it. It turns out that in my case brute force was the answer, see this thread for the horrible bespoke tool I used:
I thought I would permanently damage the collet thread, but it turns out that after a few more operations of the collet nut on the thread, it is almost as smooth as it ever was.
Just mentioning this in case it helps if you are going to get a new spindle anyway
