# Pm 1236 Oil Change



## Btroj (Mar 30, 2016)

Am I the only person who ends up with a mess when draining the oil from the lower gearbox on my PM 1236?
Anyone have a way to make the oil change process a little less messy?  
Last time I let the oil drain onto the chip pan and used oil dry to clean it up.  Not ideal but it worked.


----------



## David VanNorman (Mar 31, 2016)

Is there room enough to put a long nipple that would get you to place where there is a place to set something else to catch the oil.


----------



## mksj (Mar 31, 2016)

This has been outlined somewhere in a previous posting, On my 1340 I use a plastic sheet taped to the headstock just below the drain and role the other end up into a tube and tape . This goes to a funnel with a tube going to a pan or container. Considered and bought parts to extend the drain to a different location with a valve, but ended up being more trouble than it was worth.


----------



## planeflyer21 (Mar 31, 2016)

On the Grizzly I just bought, the PO had installed some pipe and a fitting into the drain hole.  This helps keep the oil from dribbling down the side.

I'll post up a photo later.


----------



## Bob Korves (Apr 1, 2016)

I have a 13x40, don't know how different that is, but I bent a piece of thin sheet metal into a trough, taped one side of the trough below the drain opening, one end uphill and the other end downhill, making sure the uphill end of the trough was well above the drain hole and the tape was wide enough to direct all the oil into the trough, and then put the lower end of the trough into a pan big and deep enough to hold the drained oil.  It is really M-I-C-K-E-Y--M-O-U-S-E, but it was easy and quick and did the job with no spills...

The same trough worked for both the gear head and the feed gear box.  It is now saved as a "special tool"!!!!


----------



## Btroj (Apr 2, 2016)

I am glad I am not the only one with these issues.   I wondered about making a plug for the lower drain hole with a valve and hose bib that let you attach a hunk of tubing to run to a catch container.  Then I decided that seemed like an awful lot of work.

How often are you guys changing gear box oil?  Is it based on hours of run time or by calendar?  Mine is just over a year old but I might have 250-350 hours of run time in that period.


----------



## planeflyer21 (Apr 2, 2016)

Here is the setup the PO of my lathe installed.  I'm leaving it.

It fits completely under the cover, while sticking out far enough to get the draining oil away from the machine.


----------



## Btroj (Apr 2, 2016)

Now that is slick.  I need to do some measuring and think on this.  
Thanks for the photos, way better than just a description.


----------



## Duker (Apr 3, 2016)

I don't have this lathe but if I am reading those dimensions and photos correctly there appears to be enough space to fit a quick connect hydraulic coupler which would allow you when time to change the oil connect a longer piece of hydraulic hose and let gravity do its thing away from the lathe. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------

