Still messing with the bronze bearings on my lathe. They go through oil fast and I decided to take it apart again and give better inspection. I’ve had it act like it wanted to stick to the bearing(you hear the machine bog down). Adding oil again fixes this. This is after adding oil but I suspect it wasn’t enough (more on these thoughts later)
This time I cleaned 90% of the varnish on the bearings off. I had it in my mind that cleaning would somehow erode the surface of the bearing and ruin the lathe.
I first cleaned it with some 1200grit wet or dry and wd40. That did good on the surface. Then i took a razor blade and lightly ran it along the surface to ‘scrape’ any burrs in the grooves that have happened over the years. Then I used a brass brush and some engine decarb spray and got most of the varnish off.
My clearances are 1 thou cold(40*F) on front and 3 thou on rear. I dont know if clearances are supposed to be set when warm or cold. I can rotate the headstock with the caps tightened pretty much the same resistance as if the caps were loose.
I haven’t ran it after cleaning as I accidentally ordered 1/2 fhp belts when it was supposed to take 5/8 so since I had it apart again I’m ordering the right belts.
Another thing I looked into and referenced above about not having enough oil. The first time I took it apart I saw there were felt disks in the bottom of the journal. I didn’t remove these as they seemed kind of stuck. I did notice that they didn’t have enough spring to pop above the surface of the journal. They get oiled from the oiler at the top and it fills the felt reservoir that it sits in.
This time I removed the felts, I found them rock hard and suspect they are not transferring oil as they should plus I don’t think they really made contact with the spindle.
I would like to replace the felts they are about 2.5” long on front and about 1” long on rear. Both look to be 5/16”. They have a spring threaded on to the bottom of them. I cleaned them the best I could for now. They got a lot of their natural color back and are much softer now. I also stretched the springs some so they pop up now.
I’ll have to wait for the belts and see how it does now. But I suspect the oil you put in the top oilers isn’t supposed to meter the oil flow, I suspect its to fill the felts and their reservoir at the bottom. I’m hoping after cleaning out the oil will be more stable.
Does anybody know what the felt cylinders would be called so I could order some replacements? I don’t know if they are even a thing anymore?
Sorry for the novel, I tried to keep it short but being as this is new experience stuff for me I tried to add all the info to try and make sure I don’t omit something important.
