Clausing 111 spindle bearings leaking

I was researching an American made lathe for my face-book forum and that machine uses Timken bearings with side spacers with seals on the spindle to hold in the oil. Pretty slick idea. Scroll down the pictures and they have the spindle apart.

Bamford-Chase Lathe

Machine Tool Archive, lathes.co.uk, Tony Griffiths
www.lathes.co.uk
 
As a bit of a follow-up incase anyone stumbles across this thread down the road. Loosening the lock nut seemed to fix the issue. After putting everything back together, the spindle now spins much more freely and whatever amount of oil there is space for seems to be sufficient. I ran the lathe for about an hour and the bearing areas had almost no heat build up.
 
magu,

I also have a Clausing 100 lathe. Have pulled my spindle out. There is no need for spindle seals. If you overfill the spindle bearings the oil level will self-adjust ;<) I did have some leaking around the bearing retain thread. Assemble with little aviation gasket cement on the retainer threads.

Read the Clausing manual on the proper bearing preloading. I like the instructions in the 1957 manual since it is measurable.

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Bob G.
 
I see this is over a year old but I am new here so I will add my thoughts. I own the same lathe and during its restoration noticed the lack of seals. I did a lot of research and will share what I learned. These old machines rely on what is called the lost oil principle. It short, you put it in and it runs out. The threaded bearing cover retains just enough oil to coat the lower portion of the bearings. Whatever is above the shaft opening in the bearing cover runs out. This prevents the bearing from "swimming in oil which might cause drag and heat. Clausing recommended adding just a few drops though the threaded plugs above the bearing before each use. This will keep fresh oil in these reservoirs. Happy machining.
 
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