10EE Oil Leak, Any Ideas from where?

[will.mcray]

Has anyone has a leak in this area? This is on the back side of the lathe with the cover below the head stock removed. Yes, I do have a fluid level issue but having never removed the head stick before or the gear box, I am not sure where this would or could originate from. Any ideas?

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[rabler]

I think the fluid can migrate back there from the qcgb. There is a plate on the back of the qcgb that is a possible culprit, but that requires pulling that gear box.

 

[will.mcray]

I was wondering the same thing thinking it could be coming from the other side of the lathe and not the headstock itself.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Will


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[rabler]

Here's a couple pictures that may help. The first one is the back of the QCGB, with the plate that is a possible source. Also a picture of the lathe with the QCGB off. Also a picture of the original and replacement gasket I made for mine. You can see there is a maybe 3/8" gap under the bed where the bed bolts to the base. That gap goes all the way across, and also on mine has a small drain into the chip pan although that may be clogged.

 

[will.mcray]

Thanks for sharing these pictures! Helps me better understand where exactly you are talking about. I am in the middle of doing the VFD conversion and once it’s done, I will dig into removing the QCGB.


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[Cal Haines]

Has anyone has a leak in this area? This is on the back side of the lathe with the cover below the head stock removed. Yes, I do have a fluid level issue but having never removed the head stick before or the gear box, I am not sure where this would or could originate from. Any ideas?

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Given that you have a fluid level issue, it's probably coming from the headstock overflow line. You can see the line in Randall's photo:

Most round-dial and (AFIK) all square-dial 10EEs have headstock overflow drain lines. It goes through the bed casting and drains into the hollow part of the casting, behind the quick-change (QC) gearbox. From there, oil migrates to a tray formed into the top of the base casting. The tray runs from front to back on the base and extends towards the tailstock, directly under the bed. There are usually five drain holes in the right (tailstock) end of the tray: 2 under the QC gearbox, 2 under the AC contactor compartment at the back, and one directly under the spindle centerline. These drain holes often get plugged and/or painted shut, resulting in oil pooling in the tray.

Here's what the tray looks like:

 

[will.mcray]

Thanks Cal! All mine were plugged / painted over. I put a pick into the drain holes and the one under the spindle flowed. Learned something new. I read of drains going to the bed but no one ever specified where the drains were. Thanks again Cal.

Will


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[will.mcray]

After giving it some time monitoring the spindle location, I have determined the leak is inside on the seal area. I have read the in-depth discussion on this and May dive into this.


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