Bad quill??

[Tim Hoyt]

I have a brand new Powermatic 3520B. It has less than 80 hours on it I would guess. Today I had a jacobs chuck with a 2'' drill bit installed on the tailstock. Cranking it into the wood it became more and more difficult to crank. I quit after about an inch and a half of penetration. Figured I must have a very dull bit. It had the "lots of resistance" to withdraw the bit. Something is going on within the quill I suspect. That puppy is real stiff to crank, somethings wrong.

Powermatic has been great with a couple of minor problems so far, but it's the weekend and I would rather not wait if possible. Anybody got a quick fix to this problem? And did I cause this by using a big drill bit? The bit was a Dewalt self feeding armbreaker from my plumbing days. It was NOT self feeding because I was drilling into green popular end grain. I really didn't think it was a big deal, but what do I know?

[Dennis Ford]

The torque of a large bit may have caused some galling of the lengthwise groove in the quill. Take the quill out and check it carefully, some work with a fine cut file should fix the issues.

[Bob Bouis]

There's a nut and set screw on the side of the quill that might need attention.

[robert baccus]

This is quite common on the 3520 it seems. The little screw on the back of the tailstock prevents torque from turning the quill. A big bit will distort the screw and jam things. Most of us replace the screw with something with a wider grip on the quill. Probably a fix on the forum history if I recall.

[Tim Hoyt]

Yep it was the channel on the side of the quill. The set screw was loose allowing the quill to be turned a little bit. That buggered up the channel. I hit it a lick with a file but wasn't really happy with it. Called Powermatic and they are sending me a new one.
Powermatic has excellent customer service, I tip my hat to them.

[Joe Kaufman]

Similar situation with difficulty in advancing an retracting the quill. It turned out that the tailstock handwheel moved on the quill and removed the lead screw free play binding the rotational movement. Readjusted the free play, everything fine.

[John K Jordan]

Yep it was the channel on the side of the quill. The set screw was loose allowing the quill to be turned a little bit. That buggered up the channel. I hit it a lick with a file but wasn't really happy with it. Called Powermatic and they are sending me a new one.
Powermatic has excellent customer service, I tip my hat to them.

I'm glad you got it figured out.

One thing to keep in mind for the future: My 3520b tailstock became very hard to crank. I adjusted the set screw, cleaned the threads, etc but nothing helped. Finally I took the quill out and cleaned the inside of the casting - a thin film of some kind of gunk was preventing smooth motion. Cleaned it out and applied some dry lube and it cranks like new.

JKJ