Pm 1228 Break-in?

[sierrasmith71]

My new PM 1228 passes all the power up tests in the supplied manual. Everything moves as they should and in the correct direction .

Question is there a "break-in" procedure that I haven't found?

David G.

Gaithersburg MD

 

[Bob Korves]

I would drain the oil in any gearboxes and clean up any grit and debris found in the gear boxes as well as possible. Then I would refill with a good quality oil that meets the mfr. recommendation. The oil that comes in the Asian machines I have messed with was some pretty awful stuff. Then make sure everything is cleaned of cosmoline, lubricated liberally to help flush any contaminants, and test all the fasteners and wire connections on the machine for tightness. Do not over tighten them or they might fail. Then I would run it without the gears and lead screw turning, starting at the lowest speed and gradually working up to full speed over several hours. Then I would lube the gears and feed shafts liberally and test the different feeds and threads, using each position of each lever, and run for a while in each position. Then get to work...

 

[tmarks11]

Run it for 10 minutes at each speed step. Leadscrew engagement isn't important, since those gears move so slowly that they aren't going to get broken in in such a short period of time. Drain the oil when you are done, swab out the headstock to try to collect all the metal particles, and refill with new oil.

For cleaning cosmoline, I find the orange citrus cleaner works like a charm, and smells good. No need to get fancy with exotic mixtures of diesel and turpentine and eye of newt.