- Joined
- Nov 9, 2013
- Messages
- 790
My Enco 13" lathe takes maybe half a gallon in the headstock, and maybe 10 ounces or so in the apron. One gallon should get you started. It would take a long time to use up 5 gallons in one machine. It's also harder to handle a 5 gallon bucket than one or two gallon jugs.
I bought a gallon of ISO-32 (what my manual recommended) at Farm & Fleet and have about a quart and a half left over. You could drain the oil that is in there now and add some 10 weight hydraulic oil to help thin out the residue of thick oil. Run it for awhile, then drain and fill again. I would run a solid copper wire through any oil holes to make sure the new oil can get through OK. If the old oil is real thick, you could use a rubber kitchen spatula to scrape down the sides, top, and bottom of the gear case a little.
With ISO-32 oil in the gearbox, there is an "oil storm" going on inside the case when it is running. Oil splashing all over. As long as you are sure the new oil can get to your main bearing, it should help to wash out the old oil. A second option is to disassemble the gear case and clean every part individually and reassemble. Without seeing in person, it's hard to tell how severe the problem is.
For extra measure, I took a small neodymium magnet from an old hard drive, and stuck it to the bottom of my gear case to attract any metal chips that might be floating around. So far it is still clean.
Hope all goes well.
GG
I bought a gallon of ISO-32 (what my manual recommended) at Farm & Fleet and have about a quart and a half left over. You could drain the oil that is in there now and add some 10 weight hydraulic oil to help thin out the residue of thick oil. Run it for awhile, then drain and fill again. I would run a solid copper wire through any oil holes to make sure the new oil can get through OK. If the old oil is real thick, you could use a rubber kitchen spatula to scrape down the sides, top, and bottom of the gear case a little.
With ISO-32 oil in the gearbox, there is an "oil storm" going on inside the case when it is running. Oil splashing all over. As long as you are sure the new oil can get to your main bearing, it should help to wash out the old oil. A second option is to disassemble the gear case and clean every part individually and reassemble. Without seeing in person, it's hard to tell how severe the problem is.
For extra measure, I took a small neodymium magnet from an old hard drive, and stuck it to the bottom of my gear case to attract any metal chips that might be floating around. So far it is still clean.
Hope all goes well.
GG