Pope A 1935 Spindle Repair

Since the Pope Corporation went out of business it has left owners of Pope spindles without the original OEM to turn to for repairs. As you can see this repair was fairly extensive due to the damage done to the spindle. Our machining and grinding department is designed specifically around making spindle parts that are unavailable or cost prohibitive to purchase. This repair is a perfect example of how we can help you avoid machine downtime and give you options for repair.

CHALLENGE

This Pope A 1935 arrived to our facility in pretty rough shape.  Below is a list of what we found upon fully breaking down and evaluating the spindle.

• Taper looked very worn, good gaugeline, poor taper contact around 50% hitting in the middle of taper
• Incoming drawbar force was 4,545lbs
• Missing the drive dogs, drive keys, and drive gear
• Taper had 20-30 microns runout and was bell mouthed
• Front journal had 6 microns runout, and +1/-10 egged and tapered
• Shaft tail had 12 microns runout
• Drawbar shaft was bent near the gripper end 140-150 microns, run out on flute was 70-75 microns
• Shaft tail where the drive mechanism sits is very worn and fretted
• Damaged drawbar screw sleeves
• Customer supplied two drawbar assemblies
• They want us to take the two drawbars and make one good one
• Rotory union bearings were worn
• Bearing grease was completely washed out
• O-rings under the front coolant jacket were broken, front cover air purge hole was blocked with silicone

SOLUTION

The following actions were performed on this Pope A 1935 spindle:

• Clean, inspect overall dimensions
• Grind, chrome plate, and finish grind the 50 taper, the 90mm front journal, and the rear drive journal
• Replace bearings, bellevilles, rotor union, o-rings, drawbar intensifier balls, and quad seals
• Manufacture two new rear drawbar screw sleeves
• Straighten drawbar

RESULT

After reassembly of all components, adjusting bearing preload, and undergoing break-in and testing procedures, this spindle passed our final quality inspection before being returned to our customer with a 1-year warranty.