Replacement spindles for MAX oscillating spindle sander

[Joey Naeger]

Does anyone know of a source for replacement spindles for an older max spindle sander? To be clear, I am not concerned about the rubber drums, but rather the spindles themselves. There is one available in my area that appears to be in good shape, but it's missing all but two spindle sizes. I use the full range of sizes for the work I do, but I have been looking for a machine of this caliber in my area for some time. If there is a good source for spindles, I will definitely jump on this machine.

[Joe Jensen]

I believe Tannewitz sells MAX now. They have them on their website. Tannewitz is an old iron manufacturer in the US. Might require a phone call to them versus email.

[Darcy Warner]

New ones run between 150 and 200 each.
Best to find one with all the spindles.
I once shipped a state b4 to TX for under 200 bucks.

Broaden your search, a complete machine is worth it.

[Mark Wooden]

Darcy is right re: find one with the spindles or expect to be changing the drums to suit your sanding needs, spindle is the same for all but the small (<3/4") ones.
You need to i.d. which spindles fit the sander you're considering- There were five different styles over the production period for the sander; the current spindles availible from Tanny only fit the latest two models, and they seem to think they fit them all- when I ordered one to see if it fit mine, it didn't despite their insistence it did.
YMMV
Good luck with it, they are really good sanders.

[Joe Jensen]

I bought an older one and it had a bad oil leak. The seal was very hard to find and it took me a while to get one that was supposed to work. This was maybe 6-8 years ago. After a couple of years mostly just sitting in my shop, the crankcase seal is again leaking. Does anyone know if this is just a feature or do yours hold oil?

[Darcy Warner]

I bought an older one and it had a bad oil leak. The seal was very hard to find and it took me a while to get one that was supposed to work. This was maybe 6-8 years ago. After a couple of years mostly just sitting in my shop, the crankcase seal is again leaking. Does anyone know if this is just a feature or do yours hold oil?

My max's have not leaked, a couple of my states did, but I had a seal made. There are places that can make any kind of seal out there.

[Joey Naeger]

Darcy is right re: find one with the spindles or expect to be changing the drums to suit your sanding needs, spindle is the same for all but the small (<3/4") ones.
You need to i.d. which spindles fit the sander you're considering- There were five different styles over the production period for the sander; the current spindles availible from Tanny only fit the latest two models, and they seem to think they fit them all- when I ordered one to see if it fit mine, it didn't despite their insistence it did.
YMMV
Good luck with it, they are really good sanders.

That's a good tip. I'll see if I can get the serial number from the seller. Judging from photos, I think it's a more recent machine so I might be in luck there. Ideally I'd find a fully stocked machine, but I just have not come across any. When I say it's in my area, it's still 250 miles away....

[Joey Naeger]

Well, I picked the machine up. I've seen a couple comments in older threads about the Grizzly spindles being compatible with the Max machine. Can anyone speak to that? Can someone with the Grizzly G1071 machine take measurements of the tapered end of a spindle for me? I measured the taper on my machine. There is 1/4" straight section of .69" and 1.15" of taper that goes down to 6.3" That works out to roughly 5/8" per foot of taper.
370872370873370874370875370876370877

[Darcy Warner]

I believe that's the 3rd style of spindle from max. Short MT #2 taper and short threads. Don't believe they sell those new anymore. Used are about 100 bucks each.

[Mark Wooden]

Darcy Warner

I believe that's the 3rd style of spindle from max. Short MT #2 taper and short threads. Don't believe they sell those new anymore. Used are about 100 bucks each.


Yes, right again; short MT#2 with undecut threads. I have the same ones and they told me the current style fits, but they won't seat all the way on my machine. Just got to look around and wait until some of the right size show up.

[Joey Naeger]

So is it just the taper is too long on the new ones? If so, could you not just undercut that section of the spindle on the lathe? That would be an easy modification to make.

[Mark Wooden]

Yes, right again; short MT#2 with undecut threads. I have the same ones and they told me the current style fits, but they won't seat all the way on my machine. Just got to look around and wait until some of the right size show up.


Sorry, just looked at my previous post and saw a mistake- I have had the same ones( from Tannewitz) and they won't seat properly on my machine. Mine has the Short Morse#2 taper with Max Loc threads, no undercut, so its a different length. The undercut models are shorter than mine and current production spindles too long on both the taper and thread.

On mine, the thread bottoms out and honestly, didn't want to take the time to cut back the taper and grind the threads just to find out if it will fit, just sent it back. They might fit yours, you'd have to give it a try

FYI & FWIW, there were/are six spindle tapers made for the Max spindle sanders- Original taper with a flat, Morse #2 full taper, no threads or flat,full Morse # 2 with safetylock threads, Short Morse #2 with safety lock threads(mine), Short Morse#2 with undercut threads and the current Short Morse #2 with undercut threads which is longer than the previous model and they say fits the earlier sanders with the short taper.

So far, only the short taper threaded with no undercut fit mine.

[Joey Naeger]

Sounds like I'll have to do some experimenting. I've ordered a grizzly spindle and will attempt to modify it to make it fit. They are incredibly inexpensive so pretty low risk. I'll report back. In the mean time, majority of my work will be with the 3/4" and larger sizes so I'll be able get to work with this machine.

[Mark Wooden]

Just a side note-
Why do the Max sanders all end up painted beige? Yours is at least the fourth one, including mine, painted that color. Weird

[Darcy Warner]

Just a side note-
Why do the Max sanders all end up painted beige? Yours is at least the fourth one, including mine, painted that color. Weird

That was the factory color for quite a long time. Last couple I had were that color, it was factory paint.

[Joey Naeger]

Success! The grizzly spindles fit with zero modifications! They're cheap too. Also, I had ordered what I thought were just the rubber drums, but they came with spindles and sandpaper sleeve as well. It's going to be very inexpensive to round out the entire set.

[Alan Schaffter]

Just a side note-
Why do the Max sanders all end up painted beige? Yours is at least the fourth one, including mine, painted that color. Weird

I did mine in gray, with red accents and polished crank rims:

Before:

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1774/medium/IMG_3039.jpg

After:

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1774/medium/IMG_3067.jpg

[Joey Naeger]

Beautiful job!

[Joey Naeger]

Well, it looks like I spoke too soon. One of the Grizzly spindles does indeed fit, but the other's are a smidge smaller in diameter. I tried trimming some material off the end of the tapered section on one of the spindles, however I was starting to take off more than I felt comfortable with and it still wasn't seating all the way. Instead, I came up with a pretty shady solution, but it actually works quite well. I carefully wrapped a layer of blue tape around the taper. The spindles seat beautifully now and run without any vibration. I was using the big 4" spindle with the shimmed taper with no issue. I don't love this solution so I will keep an eye out for used spindles. For now, however, this is working surprisingly well. I've only used the machine a couple times so far, but I am totally in love. It's dead smooth. Aggressive yet controllable somehow. I'm running it with a VFD and am really enjoying having speed control. Despite the extra hassle, I'm pleased I went with this machine rather than an import.

371466

[Alan Schaffter]

Well, it looks like I spoke too soon. One of the Grizzly spindles does indeed fit, but the other's are a smidge smaller in diameter. I tried trimming some material off the end of the tapered section on one of the spindles, however I was starting to take off more than I felt comfortable with and it still wasn't seating all the way.

371466

You should be fine removing material from the bottom of the taper, but you'll need to remove enough material so that the resulting diameter (of the shank) is slightly smaller than the inside diameter (minor diameter R) of the threaded section, which is what the smaller spindle looks like in your photo.

https://www.boltdepot.com/images/charts/diameter-hex-bolt.gif

Also, you should check the taper closely and very carefully remove any galling. For that matter also check and remove any galling from the machine's tapered socket. Remember, install the spindle hand tight, NO wrench should be needed or used. The threads should be reverse of the direction of rotation* so that friction on the spindle alone keeps it snug. *If it isn't, reverse the direction with your VFD.

[Phillip Gregory]

I recently bought one of these sanders and wanted to post "for the record" as I had to do a lot of research to find out the answer to the questions you asked.

There are four different spindle profiles for the MAX VS sanders.

1. The oldest ones made from 1966-1968 (200 made) use a standard Morse #2 taper with no threads on the distal end.
2. The 2nd profile was made between 3/1968 and 5/1969 (103 units made) and used the standard #2 Morse taper with the threads on the distal end, but with the threads cut off.
3. The 3rd profile was made between 5/1969 and 3/1980 and used the standard MT2 with the threads on the distal end. 1768 of these units were made.
4. The 4th profile was made from 3/1980 to sometime in the 1980s It is the short MT2 with the threads at the distal end, and there were 1034 of these units made.
5. The last profile was made from the 1980s on and is a short MT2 with undercut threads. This is also the thread pattern used on the MAX OVS as well as the clones, which include the Grizzly G1071 and at least some Jet models.

The sander I bought had bunged up threads on the top of the spindle (the part in the sander where the taper on the drum arbor fits into.) It had lost its jam nuts over the years and one of the POs had used Vise-Grips to immobilize the spindle to change drums, wrecking the threads. I did some measuring and found out that the Grizzly G1071's spindle, drums, and oscillating assembly are identical or near-identical to the MAX's and I put a G1071's spindle in my machine. They changed the spanner nut, drive key, and drive key set screws very slightly, but with the appropriate newer parts from Grizzly, the spindle assembly is a drop in replacement for the short MT2/threaded spindle MAX units as my original drums fit perfectly into the Grizzly spindle.

My sander was painted a turquoise color with a liberal amount of white spray paint overspray. Apparently it was painted red before that and appears to left the factory painted an olive green color.

Grizzly parts are well stocked and not very expensive. The 4x9" sanding drum is $75 and the entire spindle assembly including spindle, jam nuts, dust cover, bearings, drive key, oscillating worm gear, set screws, and drive key with bearings is about a hundred bucks.

[Phillip Gregory]

I believe Tannewitz sells MAX now. They have them on their website. Tannewitz is an old iron manufacturer in the US. Might require a phone call to them versus email.

Tannewitz no longer sells these units, they stopped selling them in the last handful of years. The last price list I saw was from 2008 and listed the US-made VSI at $4400 and the Taiwanese-made OVS at $3300.


I bought an older one and it had a bad oil leak. The seal was very hard to find and it took me a while to get one that was supposed to work. This was maybe 6-8 years ago. After a couple of years mostly just sitting in my shop, the crankcase seal is again leaking. Does anyone know if this is just a feature or do yours hold oil?

The one I got leaked oil but a new oil seal fixed that. The oil seal is a commonly available unit, mine came from SKF (37x7x50 mm IIRC.) McMaster-Carr has them. The State units have a hard to find oil seal as it's a combination steel/rubber unit vs. the standard spring-loaded lipped rubber unit used on the MAX units.

[Allen Louie]

Great info on this thread!

I just acquired a Max VSI spindle sander and it's missing several spindles... fortunately, they appear to be the same variation as @Joey Naeger (https://sawmillcreek.org/member.php?89441-Joey-Naeger)'s and I can likely use the spindles from Grizzly G1071.

I have a few questions....

- Several posts mentioned the drums include the spindle and sleeve as well. However, I noticed two of the ten sizes have a separate part for "complete spindle assembly"... SKU is suffixed with "A".... are they the same part? ...note the 1/4" has a different price.

P1071027 SPINDLE 1/4" $12.50
P1071027A - COMPLETE SPINDLE ASSY 1/4 IN $18.75
P1071028 - SPINDLE 3/8" $17.00
P1071030 - SPINDLE 1/2" $14.25
P1071032 - SPINDLE 5/8" $15.00
P1071036 - SPINDLE 3/4" $13.00
P1071049 - SPINDLE 1" $23.50
P1071049A - COMPLETE SPINDLE ASSY 1" $23.50

- Are the throat insert plates compatible?

- Is the dust collection port/chute (P1071007 / #7 in the diagram) fit? One of @Phillip Gregory (https://sawmillcreek.org/member.php?98471-Phillip-Gregory)'s posts mention "dust cover"...

Thanks!

[Phillip Gregory]

Great info on this thread!

I just acquired a Max VSI spindle sander and it's missing several spindles... fortunately, they appear to be the same variation as @Joey Naeger (https://sawmillcreek.org/member.php?89441-Joey-Naeger)'s and I can likely use the spindles from Grizzly G1071.

I have a few questions....

- Several posts mentioned the drums include the spindle and sleeve as well. However, I noticed two of the ten sizes have a separate part for "complete spindle assembly"... SKU is suffixed with "A".... are they the same part? ...note the 1/4" has a different price.

P1071027 SPINDLE 1/4" $12.50
P1071027A - COMPLETE SPINDLE ASSY 1/4 IN $18.75
P1071028 - SPINDLE 3/8" $17.00
P1071030 - SPINDLE 1/2" $14.25
P1071032 - SPINDLE 5/8" $15.00
P1071036 - SPINDLE 3/4" $13.00
P1071049 - SPINDLE 1" $23.50
P1071049A - COMPLETE SPINDLE ASSY 1" $23.50

- Are the throat insert plates compatible?

- Is the dust collection port/chute (P1071007 / #7 in the diagram) fit? One of @Phillip Gregory (https://sawmillcreek.org/member.php?98471-Phillip-Gregory)'s posts mention "dust cover"...

Thanks!




Sorry for the late reply, work got in the way.

1. The smaller spindle assemblies have the arbor, the retaining nut, and the set screws. The Part 27A appears to include all of those while 27 is just the arbor. (You appear to get a dollar off if you buy the complete assembly.) There is no mention of the difference between 49 and 49A either on Grizzly's website or in the manual. All of these spindles WILL fit your Max.

2. Not sure if the throat plates are compatible or not. The table measurements are different and the trunnions are different between Grizzly's sander and the Max sanders, so I would expect the table assembly on the Grizzly unit to probably be different, and the throat plates may not fit. Somebody would have to measure the two inserts to see.

3. Perhaps the dust cover will fit. Again, somebody would have to measure.

[Cary Falk]

- Are the throat insert plates compatible?
Thanks!



If they do I wouldn't even bother. They are stamped steel and far from flat. I made some out of Corian. I can measure the diameter if you still want to order some.

[Allen Louie]

Sorry for the late reply, work got in the way.

1. The smaller spindle assemblies have the arbor, the retaining nut, and the set screws. The Part 27A appears to include all of those while 27 is just the arbor. (You appear to get a dollar off if you buy the complete assembly.) There is no mention of the difference between 49 and 49A either on Grizzly's website or in the manual. All of these spindles WILL fit your Max.

2. Not sure if the throat plates are compatible or not. The table measurements are different and the trunnions are different between Grizzly's sander and the Max sanders, so I would expect the table assembly on the Grizzly unit to probably be different, and the throat plates may not fit. Somebody would have to measure the two inserts to see.

3. Perhaps the dust cover will fit. Again, somebody would have to measure.


If they do I wouldn't even bother. They are stamped steel and far from flat. I made some out of Corian. I can measure the diameter if you still want to order some.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Cary - you seem to imply you have the G1071? If so, can you please measure the the dust chute... the width and height of the mount and the distance between the two screw holes. No need to measure the throat plates - I'll pass on the them as you suggest.

[Cary Falk]

Allen,
The mounting plate is 9.25" x 3.25" The mounting holes are about 5/8" in from each side and 1" off the bottom of the plate. The throat plates are 6-7/8" in diameter(just in case anybody else that is reading is interested)

Cary

[Allen Louie]

Allen,
The mounting plate is 9.25" x 3.25" The mounting holes are about 5/8" in from each side and 1" off the bottom of the plate. The throat plates are 6-7/8" in diameter(just in case anybody else that is reading is interested)

Cary

Thanks, Cary!

[andy bessette]

Just won the auction on one of these Max spindle sanders and have a question. Going to pick it up tomorrow and wonder if oil will leak out if I lay it on its side without first draining it. Can anyone help with that?

[Allen Louie]

Just won the auction on one of these Max spindle sanders and have a question. Going to pick it up tomorrow and wonder if oil will leak out if I lay it on its side without first draining it. Can anyone help with that?

I transported mine on its side... I placed a towel under it and it did leak a very small amount. YMMV.

[Alan Schaffter]

It is a possibility- there is a 1/4" diam. screened breather hole about 4" above the sight glass on side of the gear case. It also depends on the condition of the upper and lower shaft seals. If you position the breather hole to the top and put duct tape over it you may be OK, but you still need to be careful of the shafts seals. Oh, depending on age of the gear oil, it can be REALLY stinky!!

[andy bessette]

Thanks fellas. Picking it up today.

[andy bessette]

What a beautiful machine! This one had been owned by a school district maintenance department and appears very lightly used. It came with (6) 9" and (2) 6" spindles, plus sanding drums and sleeves. Also (3) throat plates. The spindles have the #2 Morse taper ending in threads with no undercut. It is powered by a 3-phase 220-volt motor which I plan to run off a VFD. This was a great eBay find, though it was a 270-mile round trip for me to pick up.

[Phillip Gregory]

Just won the auction on one of these Max spindle sanders and have a question. Going to pick it up tomorrow and wonder if oil will leak out if I lay it on its side without first draining it. Can anyone help with that?

Yes, it WILL leak as there is both a breather hole at the top of the gear case on the back as well as no sealing between the table and the gearcase. Drain all of the oil from it before moving it, and there is a little under 3 qt of oil in one of these sanders. The oil will be EXTREMELY stinky and you will end up with a lot of it coming out if you move the sander without draining the oil.

I drained all of the oil from mine and kept mine standing straight up all of the time as I moved it, and put it in the back of my pickup truck, strapped to stand straight up. I used two 1000 pound straps and the unit didn't budge. I still had a small amount (2" diameter spot) of very stinky oil come out during transport, which apparently was from the failed oil seal in the bottom of the gear case dripping down onto my pickup's bed. That smelled horrible and was very noticeable even with being upwind driving at freeway speeds (70 mph limit, most traffic drives 80-85.) I still had to roll up the windows to drive home without gagging. I would not put one of these sanders inside of a closed vehicle unless you smoke so heavily you have completely killed your sense of smell. Once I got home, I rinsed the gear case out with a gallon of mineral spirits. It still stank so I hit it with a can of brake parts cleaner, and it finally was tolerable to bring inside but still stinky. It didn't quit stinking until I reassembled the unit and put fresh 40 weight non-detergent motor oil in it and ran it a while.

Off topic, Pure Guard (Omni Products) sells 40 and 50 weight non-detergent motor oil that is perfect for this application. The local O'Reilly Auto Parts had it in stock for about $5/qt. I put 3 1/2 qt of the 40 wt in my sander and it works very well. I first tried the "proper" route in getting 80W-90 GL-4 gear oil from the local oil distributor (sorry, out of stock) and ISO 210 gear oil from a big industrial supply house (we can sell you a 55 gal drum is all.)

[andy bessette]

Wasn't able to unload the machine until this morning, when I had a helper. Blew the dust off and wiped it down. Here's what it looks like. Never seen production. Would like to find an owners manual for it if anyone has a link. Just a tiny bit of oil had leaked out from being on its side for almost a day. Cost me under $800, including tax, plus nearly a tank of gas for the round trip.

https://i.postimg.cc/8c3jw7pR/max-1.jpg (https://postimages.org/)
https://i.postimg.cc/PrpLJQy2/max-2.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[Jim Becker]

Wow...what nice tool! 'Makes my plastic Delta BOSS look like it came from the dollar store. LOL

[andy bessette]

...Makes my plastic Delta BOSS look like it came from the dollar store. LOL

Does the same to my plastic Ryobi benchtop unit it's replacing, too. :) That Ryobi is a great tool for the money. But there's simply no comparison to this Max.