Add Grease To Steel Gears In Hf Mill?

[62Scout]

Recently picked up a HF 44991 mill used, complete with a set of broken spindle gears. I ordered up a set of the LMS steel gears to replace them (yeah, yeah, I know...should have went belt drive I just didn't want to invest a bunch of money into this before running it, as I'm not 100% sure this will meet my needs yet).

Anyways, upon disassembly, I found the plastic gears to be nearly devoid of any lubrication, save for a very slight film of something oily between the gears and spacer. The steel gears came packed in some kind of grease in the plastic baggy, though I suspect it's more of a shipping preservative than anything else.

Should I clean the steel gears before installation? Lube with anything else? Add to the existing grease on the gears? Or just slap them in as is and move on? The mechanic in me wants to pack that housing full of grease, but then given that it's completely open on the back, that just sounds like a huge mess in the waiting too, lol.

 

[Uglydog]

Yesterday I tore down a versatapper in order to get her lubed up.
Yes, disassembly is required in order to add grease.
Availability of the factory spec grease is nil, as it's been discontinued.
Regardless, I've learned that at least for this application, a pourable grease is required to lube the little miter gears.
I know nothing about the the HF gear box. However, I'm eager to learn what you end up using!

Daryl
MN

 

[coffmajt]

Recently picked up a HF 44991 mill used, complete with a set of broken spindle gears. I ordered up a set of the LMS steel gears to replace them (yeah, yeah, I know...should have went belt drive I just didn't want to invest a bunch of money into this before running it, as I'm not 100% sure this will meet my needs yet).

Anyways, upon disassembly, I found the plastic gears to be nearly devoid of any lubrication, save for a very slight film of something oily between the gears and spacer. The steel gears came packed in some kind of grease in the plastic baggy, though I suspect it's more of a shipping preservative than anything else.

Should I clean the steel gears before installation? Lube with anything else? Add to the existing grease on the gears? Or just slap them in as is and move on? The mechanic in me wants to pack that housing full of grease, but then given that it's completely open on the back, that just sounds like a huge mess in the waiting too, lol.

I would clean the shipping goo off the gears. Then you have a choice - oil - not grease as grease will hold chips and eventually damage them. On my south bend gears I use a moly paste that locktite offers for open gearing. Jack

 

[Andre]

Moly-D is some really great stuff. I've head good luck with CRC engine assembly lube as a general high pressure lubricant. I'm not sure, but it could work in your case.

 

[62Scout]

Well....I got impatient, tossed them in with the shipping goo still intact (before I saw the replies here), and promptly broke one of the steel gears upon installation as I wasn't paying attention to gear orientation in relation to the keys before running the press down. Thankfully, it wasn't the same as the broken plastic gear, so I suppose I now have a hybrid drive system, lol. So it will all be coming back apart again soon when I get another gear from LMS. I only ran it this way for about 10 minutes before I got some chips stuck in one of the lead screws. My fault, again from impatience, lol. I neglected to put the accordion covers back on.

I did find in one of the mill manuals from LMS, one of their Hi-Torque versions, they recommend pulling the head stop off the column, raising the head just past the point that it disengages the rack, and then shooting some white lithium grease in there yearly, which is what I think I'll do when I pull this all apart again.