Leadscrew bearing question

[David Kirtley]

My lathe came with bearing blocks for the leadscrew that had no oil ports at all. I drilled some and have been oiling at least the tail end bearing regularly. The head end is a bit harder to get to so it gets oiled less often but still much better than it was.

Right now, I have several things already on the "to do" list for the lathe as well as many other projects to play with. I eventually want to move to tapered gibs, rebuild the handwheel for the leadscrew that I lost when I upgraded to a longer bed, and make a better chip shield for the apron. Should I worry about the leadscrew bearings or just put it on the list of "some day" improvements for the lathe. My options are basically:

Leave well enough alone and just get on with my life.

Put more elaborate oil cups on the bearing blocks.

Build new blocks using sealed ball bearings.

 

[Richard King]

Oil and Grease are good on any mechanical part. If you have room I would put a flip up oil cup on the end. No sense in letting dirt and chips in there. You may want to grind short oil grove in the bracket if you can. With out seeing the machine or the lead-screw it's not easy to imagine what your dealing with. If your having issues drilling a hole, Maybe you can use a copper feed tube and flip up cup on the end or some machines have a hole drilled in the screw end and a Zerk fitting is tapped into the end. You drill a hole in the shaft where the oil would come out with a short oil grove cut or ground in the shaft. One more thing, many of those oil cups and oil tubes have a oil wick or pipe cleaner in them to let the oil drip feed out instead of running out. Re-engineering machines happens all the time if you can improve the machine with a few simple things, good for you!

 

[Ray C]

I'm of the general belief that if the mechanical action is powered by motor (not just by hand) it needs oil/grease fittings and should be properly tended to. Motors are relentless in their ability to wear things down and don't have the common sense to take it easy and reach for the oil can when they feel resistance...


Ray

 

[David Kirtley]

These are the brackets in question. Images blatantly snipped from Little Machine Shop ( http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1296&category=5 )

The version I have of the lathe is from HF. They had no oil holes at all. I went ahead and drilled some like the holes in these. Whether the holes were missing due to a redesign or a breakdown in quality control (such as it is) I don't really know.




A cup on the tailstock end would be possible but the headstock end is back behind the control box and would require at least a tube to lead out to an accessible position. I was just considering doing away with them all together as it would not be too much more work to fabricate new brackets incorporating sealed bearings than trying to retrofit an oiling system to them.

Something on the order of this:



I just wasn't sure of it as I have never seen any mounted on bearings rather than bushings and was wondering if I was missing something critical.

 

[12bolts]

David,
If you drilled your oil holes as big as those appear to be in the pics you are going to need to provide some kind of lid. They are huge for oiler holes!
It looks more like they are drilled for fitting oil cups. They would just fill up with crud otherwise.
Like Richard said, on the HS end just run a small tube to a spot that is convenient to reach.

Cheers Phil

 

[Jack]

I'm all for sealed bearings. Why not use the lathe to upgrade its self? Make sure of clearances! Go ahead, maybe post it as a thread here. I'm sure someone else has the same problem and would apreciate the insight. Come on in, the waters fine!