So we searched on the ol'e internet for people that had installed the spindle bearings and couldn't find one example that'd shown all the steps and so we ended up trial and error and last week after we thought aha its all good, and ran it , realised that the spaces on the top bearing for the spindle were blinding obviously not meant to go underneath but on top.

so pulled it off again. This time i opted for a two part pulley puller, which was a lot easier to handle.

http://www.harborfreight.com/automotive-pulley-puller-66868.html

flip the jaws around, and it'll let you grab the lower bearing (or the spacers) and then pull it out.

of course getting the lower bearing out again meant popping the bearing, which leaves the race inside, removed it with again.. used the bearing separator and a dead blow to gentle remove the race from the spindle.

used this bearing separator kit and the larger of the two to remove the lower bearing race from the spindle. put the flat side against the spindle and the angled side into the race, tighten it down til it starts to move and you can get purchase on it, then flip it over so the flat side is on the race and gently tap around it with a dead blow to move the race off, take your time and don't let the separator contact the surface of the spindle where it mates with the bearings.

http://www.harborfreight.com/bearing-separator-and-puller-set-93980.html

we are now experts at removing bearing races ;), last week i marred the spindle a tad and we used some diamond laps to clean it up.

so lower bearing, 4 x 1mm of the spacers on top of the bearing, so it mates with the outer housing. then however many you need to be able to lock down the top bearing, the spacers go on top of the bearing again.

the giveaway that it wasn't right was that the R8 slotting screw was centered in the hole now, even though it should have been obvious when we installed it, but paid so much attention to trying to finding someone else who'd done it and documented it wholly, and then measuring up the inside/outsides etc didn't think about what would happen with the upper bearings spacers being underneath when the machine pulled down... ah well..

so its back together now, and this coupled with the belt drive have vastly improved the finish quality of the test facing we did, the interference patterns are considerably less noticeable.

next is CAD'ing up a Z axis holder for a nema 23 to direct drive (or maybe we'll go belt) and mount the Z ball screw since its the easiest, i'm learning more of solidworks to do this and we'll measure up the machine, i'm going to remove the upper plate and CAD a new plate with a standoff to hole the motor for the DD, replacing the not so great flashcutcnc boxes one axis at a time.

but at least i'm not using eagle to do my cad now ;)