What Oil For Enco 12x36

jocat54

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I am trying to figure out what oil to use for changing the oil in my Enco 12x36 and have decided that I am confused---(nothing new there:big grin:) I think the spindle and gear box use the same oil and the apron is different. The owners manual that comes with the Enco is just about useless---just says machine oil.
Can someone enlighten this grumpy old man?

Thanks,
John
 
I am trying to figure out what oil to use for changing the oil in my Enco 12x36 and have decided that I am confused---(nothing new there:big grin:) I think the spindle and gear box use the same oil and the apron is different. The owners manual that comes with the Enco is just about useless---just says machine oil.
Can someone enlighten this grumpy old man?

Thanks,
John
I am trying to figure out what oil to use for changing the oil in my Enco 12x36 and have decided that I am confused---(nothing new there:big grin:) I think the spindle and gear box use the same oil and the apron is different. The owners manual that comes with the Enco is just about useless---just says machine oil.
Can someone enlighten this grumpy old man?

Thanks,
John
You did not post the model number so I am assuming it is a gear head lathe with an open quick change gear box. Use ISO 68 AW hydraulic oil or spindle oil for the headstock. Use way oil like Vactra #2 or comparable for the quick change gears and in the apron. Those will definitely work. Lube the half nuts and the worm and worm gear behind the apron manually and often with way oil or grease. For everything else, use way oil. Oops, except for the headstock open gearing where you can use open gear lube or wire rope lubricant, or just grease. You can also search the Grizzly site for a similar machine, and use their manual. It will be in readable English and Grizzly has good parts support for those machines.
 
I have an Enco 13 x 40 gear head lathe. My manual said to use ISO-32 oil in the gear box and apron. That's standard 10 weight hydraulic oil. Farm and Fleet has it in gallons, 5 gallon buckets, or 55 gallon drums. It's cheap, too. Mine takes less than a gallon.

There are six oil holes on top of my quick change gear box for the gears. If I'm going to be running the lead screw, I give each of them a shot. I use Mobile Vactra #2 for the QCGB gears, ways, and lead screw.

GG
 
Thanks, I changed the oil yesterday and put ISO-32 in the spindle and gear box and ISO-68 in the apron.
Took a little less than a gallon for the spindle and gear box. Not much for the apron.
 
Ok, what have I done.....I wanted to change the oil in the head of my Enco lathe (model 110-1351.....13x40 size). I drained out almost two 2lb 7oz coffee cans of oil. I started adding new oil from a 2 gallon jug. I wound up pouring all 2 gallons in, but never got a reading on the little sight gage.

I stuck a rod down the fill hole on top as a dip stick & yup, there is lots of oil on the back side, but still nothing at the sight gage, even when I would momentarily turn the lathe on, in each direction. I then noticed that there was an oil drip coming from the main spindle (apparently it doesn't like the oil level to be that high).

So, I've drained some of the oil back out, but not sure where to go from here. How do you get the oil distributed throughout the head? Any advice is appreciated.
Mike S
 
Thanks, I changed the oil yesterday and put ISO-32 in the spindle and gear box and ISO-68 in the apron.
Took a little less than a gallon for the spindle and gear box. Not much for the apron.
That is what the manual for my 12x36 Harbor Freight says to use. Manuals for the 2 lathes seem to be almost interchangeable.
 
The sight glass is very clear. The oil level was just below "half" in the sight glass before I drained the original oil.

Am I using the right fill plug? It is located towards the back on the top of the gear box. I didn't see any other plugs anywhere (I pulled the cover over the change gears too just to see too).

Back when I first got this lathe (a used '97 model in 2005 at an auction) I found an on-line manual for it & printed one off, but now I can't find where I put it. So I'm still stuck for the moment.
thanks for any help,
Mike S
 
Mystery solved......I'm an idiot. The sight glass was so clear (but has slightly yellowed), and the new oil so clear (relative to the old oil), I hadn't noticed the oil level was already above it before I noticed while I was poured the new in......I proved nothing was amiss by taking the lid off of the gear head so I could look inside.
thanks for the tips though.
Mike S
 
When I first got my 12x36 I (also) could not tell how full it was because to the clearness. However, it was leaking around the spindle seal somewhere so I pulled the cover off and discovered that it was overfilled by about 1/2 gallon. I siphoned it to the "full" mark and it hasn't leaked since.
 
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