This is a long video that covers a lot of different topics, so feel free to skip around with the table of contents below.

Table of Contents:
- 0:20 | Stock Taig Micro Lathe Spindle
- 4:07 | Why ER32 as an upgrade?
- 6:14 | Why make one myself instead of buying one from Taig, GlockCNC, etc?
- 8:25 | My Original Design Constraints/Goals
- 15:27 | Challenge #1: Grinding is Basically Unavoidable
- 16:15 | Challenge #2: Grinding the Spindle Taper In-Place
- 19:42 | Challenge #3: Inaccurate Bearing Preload Nut
- 21:49 | Challenge #4: Spindle Assembly is Hard
- 24:52 | Challenge #5: Insanely Accurate Spacer
- 25:41 | Challenge #6: DIY Labyrinth Seals
- 34:06 | Challenge #7: Making T-Slots on Benchtop Machines
- 36:11 | Test Cuts
- 41:15 | Runout Check
- 42:33 | Conclusion (Success or failure? Would I do this again?)

I bought a Taig Micro Lathe a few years ago and I've been very happy with it, except for the spindle bore. When some Nachi TAA series angular-contact bearings fell into my lap, I decided to try my hand at making an ER32 spindle for the Micro Lathe...

This video doesn't show every detail of the manufacturing process, but it does walk through the major design decisions and my engineering choices (good and bad). Hopefully this helps somebody else contemplating building a shop-made spindle.

I think this is also a very interesting look into the strengths and weaknesses of the Taig lathe. It surprised me how much the rigidity and performance improved with the new spindle - suggesting that the bed/carriage/cross-slide are NOT the bottleneck, but rather the stock spindle is the bottleneck, especially for parting operations.

Big thanks to Robin Renzetti (@ROBRENZ ) for his fantastic "TIPS ON PRECISION SPINDLE REBUILD" video. This project went a lot smoother once I took the time to really absorb the wisdom in that video.

Also big thanks to @cylosgarage for help on several key parts of this thing, especially the grinding operations.

While I openly state in the video that this spindle design has flaws (mostly around manufacturability), I did post the CAD files. Download STEP files from the GrabCAD link below:
[[ Ссылка ]]

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