Rockwell Vertical Mill One-Shot Oil System

[Buffalo21]

On the Rockwell vertical milling machine, because of the way its built, lubing the Z (knee) way is very easy so are the Y ways on the table, but the X ways are a chore. Your trying to lube the underside of the table, hardly a clean or effective way IMO.

About 2-3 weeks ago, I saw an inexpensive one-shot lube pump, that ended up being about $50, with shipping and sales tax. While I was waiting for the pump, I disassembled the table off of the mill and proceeded to drill my oil passages, cleaned the way and gib and lube the pieces and reassembled the mill and adjusted the gib.

I ran all of the necessary piping on the mill, made the line orifices and left a flexible whip, to connect to the pump, allowing for the table Y movement. Today, I was working in a yogurt and cottage cheese plant, on arrival home the pump was setting on the kitchen table. The pump was piped for 3/16” tubing, I was running 1/4” tubing, retapped the pump outlet fir 1/8” pipe. I mounted the pump on the mill knee, connected the flexible whip, filled full of Vactra 2 way oil, and gave it 3 pumps and I had oil at the orifice fittings, two more pumps and I had oil on the X ways. So another successful job in the shop.

 

[tjb]

On the Rockwell vertical milling machine, because of the way its built, lubing the Z (knee) way is very easy so are the Y ways on the table, but the X ways are a chore. Your trying to lube the underside of the table, hardly a clean or effective way IMO.

About 2-3 weeks ago, I saw an inexpensive one-shot lube pump, that ended up being about $50, with shipping and sales tax. While I was waiting for the pump, I disassembled the table off of the mill and proceeded to drill my oil passages, cleaned the way and gib and lube the pieces and reassembled the mill and adjusted the gib.

I ran all of the necessary piping on the mill, made the line orifices and left a flexible whip, to connect to the pump, allowing for the table Y movement. Today, I was working in a yogurt and cottage cheese plant, on arrival home the pump was setting on the kitchen table. The pump was piped for 3/16” tubing, I was running 1/4” tubing, retapped the pump outlet fir 1/8” pipe. I mounted the pump on the mill knee, connected the flexible whip, filled full of Vactra 2 way oil, and gave it 3 pumps and I had oil at the orifice fittings, two more pumps and I had oil on the X ways. So another successful job in the shop.


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Good for you! I have that exact pump on my Vectrax mill. A few months ago, the plastic tube for the X-axis developed a crack in a nearly impossible, but still accessible, spot to fix. I dreaded the thought of removing the table to fix it, so I tried cutting it at the break and fitting a piece of automobile carburetor hose over it. The fit was very tight. It's been on for quite awhile now and has never leaked. An easy fix. Here's a link to thread.

Regards,

One-Shot Lube Leak

I would bet McMaster would have it.

www.hobby-machinist.com