McKenzie Lathe

I run an ISO 220 oil on my front bushing/bearings. It is a total-loss system in that it drains into the chip tray and out a few casting holes onto the floor

I think iso32 was too thin, iso68 is ok for the ways (I use a way oil that's sae30 for that)

The debate will rage on as there are a million opinions . If you google plain bearing oil grade you'll see what I mean

Here is a link to a Mobil brand. https://www.mobil.com/en/industrial/lubricants/products/morgoil-220-oil

My lathe came with grease zerks on those bearings (yikes) but I switched them out and put oilers on. Took it all apart and cleaned it out.

I also check my bearing temp while running and use that as a guide for bearing cap tightness and oil throughput




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I run an ISO 220 oil on my front bushing/bearings. It is a total-loss system in that it drains into the chip tray and out a few casting holes onto the floor

I think iso32 was too thin, iso68 is ok for the ways (I use a way oil that's sae30 for that)

The debate will rage on as there are a million opinions . If you google plain bearing oil grade you'll see what I mean

Here is a link to a Mobil brand. https://www.mobil.com/en/industrial/lubricants/products/morgoil-220-oil

My lathe came with grease zerks on those bearings (yikes) but I switched them out and put oilers on. Took it all apart and cleaned it out.

I also check my bearing temp while running and use that as a guide for bearing cap tightness and oil throughput




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Mine came with grease zerks too! After all the work I did cleaning up this lathe it's kinda sad to have oil splattered aĺl over it. Oh well that's what a rag is for
 
I was just in the shop.... there is nothing like the smell of oil and steel


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Your oilers are very pretty, but the do not belong on that lathe, much more practical are wick feed oilers, much smaller with hinged lids on top and a standpipe inside with a wick going down the pipe near the spindle and looping over the pipe into the reservoir. Polish those oilers up and display them somewhere else, it would be a shame to accidently break one of them, besides you might be tempted to fill them, and forget to shut it off, the result being a big puddle on the floor and oil is not cheap any more.
 
I never found a reliable source for wick oilers. I have a set of GIT hinge top oilers (not wick though) which are 'ok' but require constant attention. I'm not partial to the brass and glass (really plastic), but they work very well in that I can nicely regulate flow, confirm levels etc.

It's not 'if' but 'when' I break one..... agreed. But until then, it's better than the plugged zerk mess it came with. If you can send me a link to a good quality wick oiler, I'd appreciate it though.
 
You may be able to fit standpipes in the Gits oilers, another alternative is the Lunkenheimer bronze oil cups with screwed on lids, I have fitted some with standpipes by drilling and reaming a hole where the normal oil passage is and driving in a steel tube standpipe. More commonly, back in the day, the cup was partially packed with felt or yarn to meter oil out to the bearing. Headstock bearings on a lathe running at normal speeds do not really need very much oil, a drip oiler adjusted down to a flow that addresses the bearing's minimal needs is likely to clog and not feed at all, and an adjustment to assure flow is just wasting oil and making a mess. My little 9" Monarch has what look to be original spring closed oil cups, I punched out a piece of felt to insert in the bearing cap below the oil cup to filter the oil and meter it; I just give it a squirt of oil when starting up, and that is all that is required. With the American High Duty lathe that I had years ago, it came with hinged wick feed cups, and worked fine, when filling the cups, you can squirt a little oil down the standpipe if the machine has ben sitting a long time without running, but since the wick has been feeding to some degree all the time until empty, that may be unnecessary. With wick cups, after the bearing heats up to normal operating temperature, the oil thins and feeds faster than when cold.
I never found a reliable source for wick oilers. I have a set of GIT hinge top oilers (not wick though) which are 'ok' but require constant attention. I'm not partial to the brass and glass (really plastic), but they work very well in that I can nicely regulate flow, confirm levels etc. A good wick for wick feed oilers is ordinary pipe cleaners, bend in the middle to double up, stick down the hold, and bend the fre legs over into the reservoir.

It's not 'if' but 'when' I break one..... agreed. But until then, it's better than the plugged zerk mess it came with. If you can send me a link to a good quality wick oiler, I'd appreciate it though.
The oil cups that you speak of, the Gits brand would be more satisfactory if you stuck a piece of felt in the neck or the bearing cap to filter and regulate the flow, it should be a fairly hard grade of felt, or wicking that is compacted fairly tightly.
 
I love thos old machines! Very nice find!
 
How much more appropriate would this pair of oilers would be? They can be easily modified for a standpipe for wick feed, I quickly polished the one, they are both in nice shape, with 1/4" pipe thread connection; they are available.
 
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