Changing Headstock Oil

As for the bearing preload being too tight or not, as long as that part of the housing does not run hot, I wouldn't worry about it. IMO.
 
Okay.
We'll let her buck then.
By the way I'll run for a month or two and change out the oil again. I threw in a magnet too.
The apron and gear box oil was very clean however.
 
Bob Korves said:
Another thing I learned from reading all the manuals is that the worm and worm gear and the half nuts on the back side of the apron do not get lubed unless you do it manually. They are not in a particularly easy place to get to. You can use a light grease like NLGI 1, or way oil, on both the worm gears and the half nuts. I use either one, but it is important to lube them regularly, or they will fail. My Kent lathe came with spare worm and worm gears, and an extra set of half nuts. I wonder why???;)
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Bob, a good friend of mine once bought a brand new Leblond lathe. He completely tore it down, and checked every little thing before running it. He noticed the same thing with the half nut and the feed gear. The half nut dovetail wasn't properly machined as well. so he fixed that and installed cap head oilers for both the half nut and the cross feed takeup gear with drip tubes to direct the oil to the correct places. 40+ years later the lathe is still like showroom new.

Yesterday I was talking to a millwright who has worked on lathes full time for 26 years now. He makes a strong case to put the way oil on the ways and oil the gears and worms with AW32, 46 or 68 [EDIT: Hydralic oil AW 32 is preferred here]. Apparently the way oil traps grit, metal filings and dust and suspends it into a great lapping compound - the result is greatly increased wear in the apron. He's rebuilt a few machines that completely wore out because of this. You need the oil to wash away the particles.... I've always loved sacrificial oiling systems, but now I know why!
 
Hydraulic oil. Is that what you mean when you say AW?
 
Yes, in fact we used AW-46 as the bearing oil on the large main bearing of one of our cable stranders, as per factory recommendations. All the hydraulic units I've even seen , used AW-32. The additives in Hy oil causes cancer, at the very least, skin irritation. I treated it with caution.
 
I use exclusively in my lathe a mixture of sperm whale oil, harp seal oil and rendered fat from California condors.
 
ddickey said:
Hydraulic oil. Is that what you mean when you say AW?
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AW32, AW64, etc, are hydraulic oils with anti wear additives. There is also plain hydraulic oil, without the additives. Hydraulic systems have submerged gears, bearings, and sliding surfaces. Gee, just like a lathe... Hydraulic oils also have additives to stop cavitation, and to keep the oil from breaking down. It is also quite inexpensive
 
It turns out that for my model we use AW32 Hydraulic oil, because we do machining in our garages at 45 degrees F, and the heavier oils are too thick at that temperature.

The vendor that imported the machine does an oil change when they sell this machine, and they use AW 32 before they deliver it. That's how I found out!

(sorry I didn't say "hydraulic" in my above post - I'll edit it!
 
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