Did I get my 1440gt headstock full of cast iron dust?

LVLAaron

LVLAaron

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I recently turned quite a bit of cast iron. I did what I could to contain it and vacuum it, but you know how it is.

I noticed tonight that I had a little clump of dark dust in my sight glass for the headstock... I plan on taking the lid off, and flushing the headstock out with kerosene.


Big assumption on my part, but I assume dust can get in through the spindle bearings?
 
I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I crack the lid open. I've never had to the pleasure of opening a gearbox that is grinding gears or losing metal from bearings, so I dont know what that would look like... but it's such a fine dark colored dust... it's gotta be the iron, somehow.


Is Kerosene appropriate to flush the gearbox?
 
It would be more likely coming from somewhere inside the head stock. When you have the cover off look around for any possible sources inside the headstock.
 
Is this ring part of the seal?

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Even if the seal was leaking oil would come out, not iron going in. There's not likely a vacuum that would pull in iron dust so I'm gonna bet what you're seeing is normal wear or leftover muck from manufacture. Have you changed the oil before? If yes, how long ago?

Changing the oil now won't hurt regardless, if you really feel a need to flush yes kerosene should be fine.

John
 
I changed the fluid, but didn't do a thorough flush a few hours of use in. I'll give it a good cleaning and inspection.

Would it hurt to stick some rare earth magnets inside to collect particles?
 
Don’t be surprised to see metal flakes in the bottom of the gearbox. I had a whole bunch in my brand new 1340GT. Most of them non-magnetic.
 
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