[Read!] Feed Rod Worm /worm Gear Lubrication

[tomh]

(Moderators, please post where you think it's needed).

Many lathe owners will oil their machines using the owners manual and let it go at that.
However, there are many places that are not covered in the manual that get over looked through lack of knowledge about the machine and/or not understanding what is going on behind the covers. Example: The feed rod drives a worm that drives a worm gear that drives the carriage and all this is hidden between the carriage and the bed and often goes over looked. Due to the lack of lubrication this will start to give problems that are hard to isolate such as a binding, jerking of the carriage leading to a bad surface finish which is often hard to see at a glance and even more difficult to diagnose and that will drive you nuts. Below is a photo of the gears that need lubrication.

 

[janvanruth]

what i see in the picture is a leadscrew that is dry a dust and therefore cannot transmit oil to the wormgear.......

 

[joshua43214]

Interesting. I just double checked the users manual for my lathe. It does not say to oil the lead and feed screws.
I just always assumed all machines called for it, and that it was just part of maintenance.
I use ISO 68 for this, but almost any type of gear or hydraulic oil with work.
You can pull the tube spring cover back on the imports to put oil on the screw.

Thanks for reminding people who might otherwise overlook this.

 

[Bob Korves]

My Kent 13x40 also does not specify any lubrication there. That is a mistake. I reach around behind the apron regularly and hit the worm gear and the half nuts with a light coating of Lubriplate 630-AA light grease (NLGI 1). Way oil would probably be fine, too. It is little wonder that those components regularly wear out, and the lead and feed screws as well. Lots of load, no lube...

 

[Tozguy]

Part of my lubrication routine is to douse the rack, lead screw, feed rod and start/stop rod liberally with 15w40 diesel oil then run the carriage from one end to the other. I'm not happy until oil is dripping from everywhere.
However, I wonder why some of these worms and gears are made of brass. Besides maybe being intended as a weak link in an expensive gear train, is it possible that brass to steel contact can do without lubrication better than steel to steel contact can?

 

[janvanruth]

bronze rather than brass, as strong as steel and self lubricating up to a point