12x36t/13x40GT oil drain valve

[hustlebird]

I tried doing this on my lathe (May 2022 pm-1236t), and unfortunately it did not appear to be 1/4" npt, but rather m16x1.5 taper (no taper on the internal side, only the external side, a standard m16 bolt fit, I hope its not something else!).

Put an order in for an m16x1.5 to 1/4npt elbow, but its been lost in processing ever since. Hard to find for reasonable price. If this AliExpress order with it ever comes in I'll let you all know if that ends up working or not. Curious to see others experience here with this lathe.

 

[davidpbest]

I tried doing this on my lathe (May 2022 pm-1236t), and unfortunately it did not appear to be 1/4" npt, but rather m16x1.5 taper (no taper on the internal side, only the external side, a standard m16 bolt fit, I hope its not something else!).

Put an order in for an m16x1.5 to 1/4npt elbow, but its been lost in processing ever since. Hard to find for reasonable price. If this AliExpress order with it ever comes in I'll let you all know if that ends up working or not. Curious to see others experience here with this lathe.

I'm not surprised by your findings. The oil level sight glasses on the headstock and the apron on my 1340GT where threaded some weird metric taper that didn't correspond to ANY standard. I ended up re-threading them to an NPT standard.

 

[oaklandish]

I cleaned under the plug with some citrus based cleaner, then applied some aluminum duct tape (paper backed very sticky) right under plug, then made a trough of cardboard and stuck onto the tape, no muss, no fuss.

From what I could tell they designed a channel to allow for a drain funnel to fit into the headstock to base connection. I folded this piece of plastic from a empty raspberry container. It worked perfectly. I actually ordered the parts from David's parts list but my 1236T was not 1/4"NPT. I coiuld not figure out what it was and decided that I just would try again to replace the drain plug the next time I change the oil.

By the way my factory oil appeared to be to be 1 part oil and 2 parts paint overspray.

 

[Just for fun]

From what I could tell they designed a channel to allow for a drain funnel to fit into the headstock to base connection. I folded this piece of plastic from a empty raspberry container. It worked perfectly. I actually ordered the parts from David's parts list but my 1236T was not 1/4"NPT. I coiuld not figure out what it was and decided that I just would try again to replace the drain plug the next time I change the oil.

By the way my factory oil appeared to be to be 1 part oil and 2 parts paint overspray. View attachment 444066

How many hours did you have on it? Mine was not that bad, but I only had 10 hours on mine.

 

[oaklandish]

How many hours did you have on it? Mine was not that bad, but I only had 10 hours on mine.

Probably about 10-15hrs of actual run time. I have had the lathe for a bit but it took me a while to get it set up and then I have mainly used it for small turning projects for my business. Only recently have I been able to use it for real. Some of it was metal.

This retaining clip on the pulley drive shaft was also out of its channel. It made the gear changes kind of crunchy. I just thought that was part of the charm.... After the oil change and reseating the retaining clip the machine is much smoother. I am glad I opened it up and flushed the head case a few times with mineral spirits before replacing the oil.

 

[oaklandish]

You can see the murky oil and paint overspray is pretty promenent along the oil channels on the top of the head stock case.

Before:

After cleaning: