I’ve had the V1 HDM for many years now…love it. Every time I switch endmills, I have found that the spindle can spin freely with just a twist of my fingers and continue spinning for a few moments. HOWEVER…this morning I turned on the machine and found that the spindle felt VERY “Stiff”…as in it would hardly spin freely anymore. Stills spins…but will not fully rotate even once with a normal “finger spin”.
Running a program, and the spindle fires up, sounds good, spins…main body of the spindle feels cool to the touch (cooler pump working)…but the shaft sticking out the bottom that the collet goes on feels much hotter than normal.
I feel like fine dust has made it’s way into the bottom bearing where the shaft enters the spindle body…should I be lubricating that? Does it need to be taken apart to do so?
The spindle units are sealed, so they don’t need any internal maintenance.
From what you are describing, it sounds like the grease in the bearings is a little cold. When the spindle cools down, it rests. Once it’s run, the bearings will warm up and redistribute the grease over the ball bearings.
If I don’t run mine for a few weeks, I will see the same thing; it can also lead to some different noises when spinning up, but these go away after light use.
Along with the spindle warm up that William shows, you might run the first one or two rpm sequences without the chiller on. This allows the greese in the bearing to warm up and distribute better. You can feel the spindle get a little warm (not hot) then turn on the chiller.
