Help On A Weeping Sight Glass

[deker]

Hi all, been a while since I posted since I haven't had shop time to do anything with the #12 I bought back in Oct of last year.

I previously replaced the sight glass on the spindle gearbox when I cleaned the oil funk out and all seemed well. I recently re-organized the shop and moved the mill back into it's proper spot instead of sitting by the front door (just levered it onto some 3/4" black pipe and rolled it), and now the bottom of the sight glass is slowly weeping oil that's running down under the casting and dripping onto the table. Anybody have any tips or tricks to get the sight glass to seal? I would really prefer to not have to buy another new sight glass since they're a little pricey for what they are and it seems that there must be a proper way to go about fixing a very slight weep/drip.

Thanks,
-d

 

[Jason Annen]

I used a thin O ring behind the glass. In face, I made my own sight glass from thin lexan, with an O ring behind it. No leaks.

Jason

 

[Primitive_Pete]

I used a 36mm acrylic watch crystal 2 for six bucks on eBay and an o ring no leaks....