Help Me Get Shapering!

As far as tearing it down... I think pulling the ram is a good idea (sorry, no good resources), but I'd consider leaving the gears as they are. I think the oil port in the middle is a 'drip' style (and likely not filled with grease), so you might be able to basically just hose down the inside with degreaser, and soak it out of the bottom.
 
I'm still looking for one more Gits oil cup. In the above picture you can see a zerk on the countershaft. It's supposed to be an elbow style oil cup. I'm trying to find one for a reasonable price.
 
ErichKeane said:
As far as tearing it down... I think pulling the ram is a good idea (sorry, no good resources), but I'd consider leaving the gears as they are. I think the oil port in the middle is a 'drip' style (and likely not filled with grease), so you might be able to basically just hose down the inside with degreaser, and soak it out of the bottom.
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That's not a bad idea. I'll get into tearing it down soon and document it well for future.

I'll likely not want to tangle with the innards so I may just do as you suggest. I'll get all the excess grease I can see than maybe spray it all down with mineral spirits or kerosene or something to clean it.
 
Weldo said:
I'm still looking for one more Gits oil cup. In the above picture you can see a zerk on the countershaft. It's supposed to be an elbow style oil cup. I'm trying to find one for a reasonable price.
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I unfortunately don't have a good source for them, I ended up needing one and spending too much (like $20/each!) at mcmaster.
 
I toyed around with the idea of using zerks with an oil gun like this one.

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See the below vid for a demonstration of how this type of gun works. Until I saw this video it was unknown to me.

The lube job starts at 1:56. In the vid John explains how the zerk fittings on his lathe are meant for oil, not for grease and proceeds to lube them with this plunger type oil gun. Looks to be quick and easy, however, the temptation to the uninitiated is to use the fittings for grease as opposed to oil.

 
Hmmm. Now I'm starting to think I could use the zerks with a plunger oiler like the bridgeport one you linked. It would be quick and easy.
 
It works pretty great! As you mentioned, the only downside to it is that people see zerks, and use grease. On my mill (which is all zerks), someone had pumped the machine full of grease as well. I suspect someone who just didn't know.

I wonder if the same happened to your machine. Someone swapped a bunch of cups (damaged one? Or just wanted to unify to match a mill sitting next to it?) for zerks, and went on oiling it. It passed onto the next person, who saw zerks and decided they needed grease. The rest is sticky history :)

In the case of my mill, I had to tear it down and use a bunch of pipe cleaners to get rid of all the grease. In your case, I think I would hose down the inside (aerosol degreaser would make quick work of it), then pull the ram to wipe it down.

The only one I'd be concerned about is the one above the stroke adjustment. Though, I suspect you could put some degreaser in a push-n-lube to force the grease out, and then just force some oil in behind it.


FYI, I JUST got my 7A as well, See https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/new-atlas-7b-shaper.84336/ . You can see what I mean about the grease cup on the near-side of the main shaft. The only hold up I had getting mine running though was to make a vise!
 
I had to clean grease out of my Bridgeport as well. I replaced the zerks with some from an auto parts store. They work, but the push oiler doesn't seal against them. I modified a grease gun to pump oil into them that way. At some point I would like to swap them out and try getting the push oiler working. The grease gun is annoying in some of the tighter spots.
 
ErichKeane said:
wonder if the same happened to your machine. Someone swapped a bunch of cups (damaged one? Or just wanted to unify to match a mill sitting next to it?) for zerks, and went on oiling it. It passed onto the next person, who saw zerks and decided they needed grease. The rest is sticky history :)
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You are probably right about that.

I think I will go ahead and use the zerk fittings. I like the simplicity and cleanliness. I have oil cups all over my Atlas lathe and they often over flow when filling. I like that the zerks make it a closed system and you can force oil into the small gaps.

Of course I already bought some Gits oil cups, so if anyone needs a few I have some on the way that I'll probably not use.

ttabbal said:
I replaced the zerks with some from an auto parts store. They work, but the push oiler doesn't seal against them.
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Do you know if there are different types of zerks? Like a kind for oil and a kind for grease? Or maybe the auto part store fittings were a low quality?
 
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