PowerPro Woes...

[dusty]

I have worked on the phone with Sue. She is experienced and I would normally tend to accept her analysis. However, I am skeptical.

Since I do not have a PowerPro, I cannot comment on whether the vibration that you sense is normal or not. Comments from others, here on the forum who own PowerPros, makes me feel that it is not. Most will say that the PowerPro is much, much quieter and runs as smooth as silk.

You need to chat with them.

Tolerance buildup is not a good thing. Tolerance accumulation is normal and if the parts in inventory are all within tolerance when they are assembled those tolerances tend to cancel one another out and have "no ill effect" on the resulting assembly. I tend to believe that Sue is using the terminology without really believing (or understanding) what her words imply.

Let me ask one question. If you remove the quill and run the PowerPro without it do you still experience the vibration.

[wa2crk]

A build up of tolerances? Really? Tolerance build up is something that is known to mechanical engineers and is generally accounted for in the dimensioning of the mating parts. Even differences in coefficient of expansion/contraction can be accounted for.
Did something break in the shipping process due to rough handling? There has been at least one case of damage reported here of rough handling causing a problem.
My power Pro is very quiet and smooth and I never had a problem with off center or egg shaped drilled holes.
Bill V

[rjent]

I also am deeply concerned about this. ShopSmith has always had the "fix it at all costs" policy until now. Very disturbing.

Now with that said, I will say my Mark 7 that I purchased about 18 months ago, basically had the sticking quill at well. I waxed, cleaned till I was blue in the face, but nothing would keep it from sticking a few inches from full retraction. Until a month ago or so. I now works fine, some burr or something was restricting the retraction and is now gone. As far as vibration, It is smooth as silk, at all revolutions.

I don't know what to say other than work it hard and see what happens.

What does it feel like at 10000 RPM?

[wa2crk]

From the things that he was describing I would not go near 10,000 RPM.
Bill V

[dusty]

I'm going to say it again (with a bit more enthusiasm).

Remove the quill and run it at max speed and report what it does. If it runs smooth - report that immediately to Shopsmith (Sue).

[rjent]

I'm going to say it again (with a bit more enthusiasm).

Remove the quill and run it at max speed and report what it does. If it runs smooth - report that immediately to Shopsmith (Sue).

Is he allowed to remove the quill? He was told NOT to do anything to it, is my understanding. Did I read that wrong LOL....

[rjent]

From the things that he was describing I would not go near 10,000 RPM.
Bill V

My feelings about that, and I agree, I would be unconfortible in doing it, is that it may cause a failure. If it does, problem solved, if it doesn't, it at the least may provide more info.

I think I would wear Kevlar though

[ERLover]

What I think about it all, Bah Humbug!!! A crap sandwich.

[dusty]

I'm going to say it again (with a bit more enthusiasm).

Remove the quill and run it at max speed and report what it does. If it runs smooth - report that immediately to Shopsmith (Sue).

Is he allowed to remove the quill? He was told NOT to do anything to it, is my understanding. Did I read that wrong LOL....

If that is the case and this is part of a problem isolation, I would do as told.

If Shopsmith is NOT in the process of isolated the reported problem, I would not hesitate for a moment to run it up to 10,000. It is designed to do that. If it does not, NOW is the time to find out.

All important however is the verification of this statement.
He was told NOT to do anything to it, is my understanding.

[rjent]

I'm going to say it again (with a bit more enthusiasm).

Remove the quill and run it at max speed and report what it does. If it runs smooth - report that immediately to Shopsmith (Sue).

Is he allowed to remove the quill? He was told NOT to do anything to it, is my understanding. Did I read that wrong LOL....

If that is the case and this is part of a problem isolation, I would do as told.

If Shopsmith is NOT in the process of isolated the reported problem, I would not hesitate for a moment to run it up to 10,000. It is designed to do that. If it does not, NOW is the time to find out.

All important however is the verification of this statement.
He was told NOT to do anything to it, is my understanding.

I agree with you 100 percent. I went back and reread the post and yup, no touchy. I say run it up to 10000 let it blow if it will, if not, I would seriously think about just returning it. I wouldn't put up with it.

Sorry this took so long to post, life got in the way of play again!

So I called SS and asked to speak to CS about what was done to my headstock. They referred me to Sue Powell who apparently does the repair work on the headstocks. She was very nice and remembered working on my headstock.

She and another tech also felt the same vibration / chattering that I did and she said they adjusted things to spec and sent it back. I politely expressed that it still vibrated and the quill didn't retract either. She offered to let me send it back again, which for now I've declined.

The more we talked about what was going on she did agree that it was not vibration free like my old head stock and the vibrations I'm feeling are "normal" due to "build up of tolerance issues" in the parts. Which I think translates to crappy manufacturing. She assured me that other than being annoying, there was nothing being damaged inside and while they would be happy to work on it again, she could not guarantee it wouldn't still have issues. I asked if it was anything I could do myself and she gave me a definite NO. Also, shared that when I pushed on it laterally the vibration went away and she didn't think that was significant or useful...again Tolerances.

I did drill some new holes and they are nice a round this time so they must have done something but I still think I could go to Harbor Freight Tools and get a drill press that ran smoother for under $100.

On the quill issue (which begs the question, how did it leave in this condition if you worked on it...and no I didn't as that question) she has advised me to loosen the set screw on the top and to make sure there were no burrs or junk in the groove that would be holding it up.

Sooooooo, not sure what if anything to do next. It drills a decent hole, I can probably get the quill to work so I guess I just chalk it up to "tolerances" and keep moving?

What do you guys think? I just don't want to keep shipping 80lbs of headstock back and forth.

And thanks again for all the help!

Unless I am interpreting that wrong ....