would cutting oil grooves in the saddle and cross slide mating surfaces be worthwhile?

[savarin]

I will have to strip my asian 9x20 down for some serious cleaning and adjusting (I punish it rather heavily at times)
A couple of things I'm looking at are a beefier and longer cross slide screw and I have the info for that.
I feel some oil ports to oil the ways on the cross slide would not go amiss either.
But my major question is regarding the idea of grinding oil tracks in say a zig zag pattern on the mating surface of the cross slide.
The idea being if I use a couple of gits oilers the oil would spread down the zig zag to oil the full length of the cross slide.
Also would the same sort of thing would be worth doing to the saddle as well.
The reason I ask about the saddle is I find the wipers actually wipe the oil off very quickly as the saddle traverses leaving them looking dry.

 

[FOMOGO]

No expert, but makes sense to me. Mike

 

[cathead]

I plumbed two 1/8 inch lines on my old Springfield lathe and added a Bijur type pump to oil the saddle. It was a huge improvement.
Also added some oil tracks under the saddle to help distribution of the oil.

Its an old lathe with non-hardened ways so increasing the oiling helps save on them I am sure.

 

[chips&more]

I just keep my lathe “wet” with oil. All mating surfaces have a film of oil. It does not have any oil paths. I use my lathe daily. Have not seen/noticed any discernible wear.

 

[Kernbigo]

I did what you are talking about to my 9" wide bed south bend, just run it on a long curved angle and don't come off the surface or the oil will run out. You only have to do the top surface and install the gits.

 

[Bob Korves]

The reason I ask about the saddle is I find the wipers actually wipe the oil off very quickly as the saddle traverses leaving them looking dry.

The wipers help to keep the oil in the area where the rubbing is going on, and help to keep chips out. Oil on the ways outside the carriage will help stop rust, but will not directly do anything to prevent wear. The wear area is between the wipers.