G8689 mini mill questions

[paulinlapine]

I just scored a Grizzly G8689 mini mill that has seen very little use. Unfortunately, it was stored in an unheated shed and has some surface rust in places. That isn't the problem though, as the rust isn't in critical areas and seems to be cleaning up easily.
I decided to disassemble the mill to clean up the factory goo that is still in places and that got me to thinking what I should use to lubricate the ways and screws. Oil seems too thin, but grease may not be the correct thing either. What do you guys use?

My second question: The Y- axis slide moves easily when at the center of it's travel, but gets quite stiff when it moves away from center in either direction. Would it be OK to use a fine abrasive compound of some kind to even out the stiffness? If not, how to correct this?

Thanks
Paul

 

[jocat54]

I had a G8689 and the y axis was always giving me problems--always adjusting the gibs trying to solve the problem--finally took it apart and cleaned the gib and lightly sanded the surfaces on all the connecting surfaces (pretty rough) and that really helped--although it was never really good. I just used ISO68 oil on all the surfaces. That little mill cut a lot of metal. With a little creative thinking it can do a lot of stuff it probably wasn't intended to do.
Adding belt drive to it was the best thing i ever did to it---well except for the powered x axis. I cast (lost foam)and machined all the parts for the belt conversion using the free plans available from Hoss machine http://www.hossmachine.info/projects_6.html

 

[Hukshawn]

I'm making that belt drive kit right now. It's not been that difficult. The plans are well detailed and I've learned a lot by making it. It's a great first project.... I'll call it a disease tho... it makes you aware of all the tooling you want/need... the never ending need for tooling. I may need a 12 step program...