joco-nz
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- Feb 21, 2016
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A new Chinese built lathe seems to mean a big clean up. Before starting on this I did a check with Machinery House, the NZ wing of the AU Hare & Forbes, and they informed me the head is cleaned, oiled and run up before shipping. So the focus will be on the ways, saddle, cross-slide, top-slide (aka compound) and tail stock.
This being a bit of a learning experience I'm taking things slow and steady. So to start with I sourced some White Spirits (it seems to less "nasty" than Kerosene), a big pack of cheap toilet paper and a couple of large aluminium roasting trays to act as washing tubs and a spray bottle to apply the white spirits. As of writing I think I will pop in to Bunnings and get a Bag-of-Rags and some chip-brushes.
On the lubrication front I read the manual, read the forums, checked some Youtube videos listened to some advice from some people and settled on:
Helix 20W oil (essentially SAE20)
Lanox MX4
I used the SAE20 oil for lubrication on all the oil points per the lather manual and the MX4 is used as a general rust inhibitor on all the metal surfaces. As I'm a about 400m from the sea as the crow flys I need to be a little paranoid on the rust stopping front.
Anyway, some pics of the top-slide.
The reassembled slide after cleaning. There is still some discolouration were the tool post sits. Not sure how to get rid of that, it doesn't seem to want to move even after a scrub with a brass bristled brush.
View under the slide. You can see a couple of areas where the casting has what I believe are minor flows. The small void on the base that mates with the cross slide is the only potential issue of the two flaws. However given how small it is (probably under 2% if not 1% of the whole area) I doubt that is a problem.
A view of where the lead screw/bearing/handle assembly mounts. You can see the gib, screw and alignment pin holes. The screw hole beside the gib is VERY close to the edge. Hopefully that's not going to cause an issue down stream. No idea if it should be a warranty discussion of if that's "just how its built".
Next step is to do some adjustment of the gibs and see how smooth I can get things. It will also let me know if I need to do some form or lapping at a later date. i.e if things are stiff at different points on the slide travel.
This being a bit of a learning experience I'm taking things slow and steady. So to start with I sourced some White Spirits (it seems to less "nasty" than Kerosene), a big pack of cheap toilet paper and a couple of large aluminium roasting trays to act as washing tubs and a spray bottle to apply the white spirits. As of writing I think I will pop in to Bunnings and get a Bag-of-Rags and some chip-brushes.
On the lubrication front I read the manual, read the forums, checked some Youtube videos listened to some advice from some people and settled on:
Helix 20W oil (essentially SAE20)
Lanox MX4
I used the SAE20 oil for lubrication on all the oil points per the lather manual and the MX4 is used as a general rust inhibitor on all the metal surfaces. As I'm a about 400m from the sea as the crow flys I need to be a little paranoid on the rust stopping front.
Anyway, some pics of the top-slide.
The reassembled slide after cleaning. There is still some discolouration were the tool post sits. Not sure how to get rid of that, it doesn't seem to want to move even after a scrub with a brass bristled brush.
View under the slide. You can see a couple of areas where the casting has what I believe are minor flows. The small void on the base that mates with the cross slide is the only potential issue of the two flaws. However given how small it is (probably under 2% if not 1% of the whole area) I doubt that is a problem.
A view of where the lead screw/bearing/handle assembly mounts. You can see the gib, screw and alignment pin holes. The screw hole beside the gib is VERY close to the edge. Hopefully that's not going to cause an issue down stream. No idea if it should be a warranty discussion of if that's "just how its built".
Next step is to do some adjustment of the gibs and see how smooth I can get things. It will also let me know if I need to do some form or lapping at a later date. i.e if things are stiff at different points on the slide travel.