Hi all, I'm on the verge of ordering the re-felting kit for the 10K.
But I'm hesitating because I don't really want to pull the spindle on what is obviously a low-hour machine.
How can I tell if the spindle bearings etc. are getting the oil they need?
Hi David: If the the oils have evaporated, and gummed up the wicks to the point they won't "wick" any more, one way to tell is to discover if they still accept oil. You won't easily see oil escaping the spindle unless something is very badly worn, (and the wicks work OK). but you can rig up a temporary oiler to discover if the oil is making it through the wick.
Try eBay and type "syringe" in the search.
Hmm.. --> Item 302931150330 is typical.
LINK
I tried rigging up stuff like this. (The syringe with some spindle oil has been laying about for weeks)!
I hijacked a piece of the slightly flexible plastic tube from an old gel pen. It fits on the end of a syringe nicely, with a bit of a squeeze, and is firm enough to hold up the syringe. It does not fit quite as well into the oil flip-cap, but does better if you unscrew the cap, and just use the hole. I ended up sealing it temporarily with hot-melt.
You can, of course, vary the recipe to suit what you can rig up.
Roll the lathe for a bit with the syringe (without the plunger). If the lathe is accepting oil, you can see the usage. I don't yet know how many "drips per minute" is good. At the present, I just squirt some oil into the 9C every time I use it.
There are two types of wick oiler on SB's. One is a straightforward slight gravity feed through the wick. The other has (I think), two oiler entries, and the wick takes the oil "upwards" by capillary action, and a spring thing to keep it pressed onto the delivery point. For me, the 9A gearbox wick seemed "OK", but I am going to have to change the wick in the spindle. That one is now gutted anyway.
I still have to eventually get into wick replacement, delayed because for the present, other things will get in the way of messing about with lathes, but I did learn quite a lot about it from these..
From Halligan 142
Southbend Oiler Modification/Upgrade
The capillary action type is shown here (for South Bend-)
->
For a whole lot more, just search "oiler South Bend".
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Getting fancy
This guy has a Myford lathe, and he is far into oilers.
How To Make Good Quality Brass Wick Feed Machine Lathe Oilers
Home Made Oiler Upgrade For Myford ML7
Home Made Oiler Upgrade For Myford ML7 lathe Drip & Cup Oil Manifold
I think I will just stay with the oil can!