[Newbie] 10x18 Lathe Squeaks When Run.

My Enco 13" lathe takes maybe half a gallon in the headstock, and maybe 10 ounces or so in the apron. One gallon should get you started. It would take a long time to use up 5 gallons in one machine. It's also harder to handle a 5 gallon bucket than one or two gallon jugs.

I bought a gallon of ISO-32 (what my manual recommended) at Farm & Fleet and have about a quart and a half left over. You could drain the oil that is in there now and add some 10 weight hydraulic oil to help thin out the residue of thick oil. Run it for awhile, then drain and fill again. I would run a solid copper wire through any oil holes to make sure the new oil can get through OK. If the old oil is real thick, you could use a rubber kitchen spatula to scrape down the sides, top, and bottom of the gear case a little.

With ISO-32 oil in the gearbox, there is an "oil storm" going on inside the case when it is running. Oil splashing all over. As long as you are sure the new oil can get to your main bearing, it should help to wash out the old oil. A second option is to disassemble the gear case and clean every part individually and reassemble. Without seeing in person, it's hard to tell how severe the problem is.

For extra measure, I took a small neodymium magnet from an old hard drive, and stuck it to the bottom of my gear case to attract any metal chips that might be floating around. So far it is still clean.

Hope all goes well.

GG
 
The oils will mix so there is no need to going to this extreme. Of you fell you must then 8oz of kerosene put in & ran for 5 minutes will make it drain like water. The smell will be left behind for a while tho. I use to do this on every oil change until years later I decided it was over kill.
 
Better than peanut butter, and worse than hydraulic oil. It looks like it should clean up ok. Just depends if your main bearing is ok. Hopefully it is.

GG
 
What's my action plan if the main bearing continues to make noise moving forward?
 
Are you *sure* it's the main bearing, and that the squeak isn't coming from somewhere else? It also depends what kind of noise it's making. Squeaking isn't the worst sound a bearing can make, unless it's very loud. I would clean it up good, change the oil once or twice, and see what happens.

GG
 
Before putting the oil back in you can put some ATF down in the hole that oils the bearing then send it by hand or really low RMP(about 60) for a few minutes let it set an hour & do it again. Make sure to oil the bearing again before returning it to work. Just ATF doesn't work very well in that type of bearing.
 
Filled her up this morning before work, I did pour as much Hydraulic oil (no ATF on hand) down the hole that oils the bearing, as would fit. Then let her run:
Squeak, squeak, squeal, silence. Perfect. :)

Happy days! Thanks all!

(Also, Turns out my sight glass works fine, I just needed to remove it, and clean the molasses out. )
:)
 
ATF isn't a oil. It is solvent. It would have cleaned burnt on crust off. Good stuff to keep on hand since it is the best penetrating fluid you'll find. Kerosene works about the same but with the added smell unless you know how to remove the smell.
 
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