New mini- mill/mini-lathe set up procedures?

[darkzero]

I agree with the recommendations so far. Both my my current lathe & mill are gearheads which are oil lubricated. I did not receive any documented recommended break in procedures for either. my break in process was to start with the lowest speed setting, run for 5-10 mins foward & another 5-10 mins in reverse. Change to the next speed up & repeat. Be sure to check the headstock temp just in case & any abnormal noises. If it gets extrememly hot that may be a good indication of any issues that might need to be addressed. I changed the oil only after a few hours or so of use cause I have no idea what kind of oil was put in to begin with. On my mill I changed the oil after less than an hour of use as the oil looked very dark compared to what was originally in my lathe.

My lathe has an oil filled gearbox & powerfeed so I somewhat did the same, starting with the lowest feed rate & ran it through all the gear configs but not for that long of periods, to time consuming to do in one day.

For my old belt driven lathe that was not oil filled, I checked all the change gears for proper gear mesh, then ran a similar break in procedure to "break in" the gears. Running through all the speeds doesn't matter here but I also started with the lowest speed. Not sure if it was needed or if it was beneficial but I guess it wouldnt hurt. Keep in mind that the import gears might not always be nicely concentric. So if you set gear mesh on the tight side, as it spins around it might get even tighter. Spin by hand first to check for high & low spots.

 

[Motopreserve]

Great stuff DarkZero (and the rest of you!). This is the kind of thing I wanted to know beforehand - so I could be prepared for tedious stuff upon set-up, and then move on to having some fun, knowing that I have done everything I can to ensure the machines are running as well as possible.