New Knee Mill Owner. Question about "exercising" variable speed turret head.

[jambesBondo]

Does it have a one shot, because that'd answer the oiling question.

Yep, It does have have a one shot.

Decreases the chance of the Reeves drive from freezing up, and also the belt to take a set. I often recommend to people using a VFD in combination with a Reeves drive to use the mechanical drive for speed adjustment as opposed to the VFD, this gives you the mechanical advantage of the drive and decreases the wear at one point. I also recall somewhere that at the end of the day when you are done using the mill, to bring the mechanical speed adjust to the low speed position. I do not see that the spindle lubrication should be an issue, nor would one need to exercise other parts of the machine on a daily bases. The Lagun are very nice mills, but the Reeves drive can be expensive to repair. As a hobbyist I wouldn't worry about needing to exercise it daily, but probably once a week to prevent anything from freezing up and the belt to take a set.

That's a good point about using the mechanical drive. I do have it set up on a VFD but will default to using the mechanical adjustment. Personally, I find it more enjoyable to use that way anyway.

I'm thinking that it would be a good thing to "park" the Reeves drive somewhere near the center of its travel to reduce the tendency of the belt taking a set by having it bent to a minimum radius at the extremes of travel.

I figured either do something like this, or park it at the lowest speed like mksj mentioned. The middle would cause both pulleys to "pinch" the belt evenly, where as the lowest setting would have the least tension on the belt, but uneven pulleys. All in all it sounds like I don't need to overthink it to much and that as long as I cycle it through from time to time I should be fine for a hobbyist. Thanks!

 

[jambesBondo]

Accidently double posted. Ignore

 

[Beckerkumm]

Reeves drives are great but also a source of problems if not given enough love. They are hard to repair so running them periodically keeps them limbered up. My Moore Jig Bore has a proprietary reeves that is massive and bearings with an extremely high preload. I'm a hobby guy but I run the machine for a few minutes every time I'm in the shop. Some heat in the shop is also a good thing. Dave

 

[woodchucker]

When they want you to run something through it’s ranges, it’s usually to distribute lubrication evenly. Running something at lower speeds all day long might not get lubrication everywhere its needed, but it will at full speed. For grease, the higher temperatures at full speed will help separate out some oil from the base soap to make sure it gets into the bearings. Since your mill will be sitting for long periods of time, it would be helpful to warm it up through its range like Martin said so that all the parts are well lubricated.

What he said..

 

[jambesBondo]

Some heat in the shop is also a good thing. Dave

Yeah, I am in the midwest (Iowa) and we get some wild temperature swings. Not good condensation wise. Unfortunately, my shop is not heated. For winter storage, I plan to build a frame around it with emt conduit and then drape some plastic over it and throw in 2 100W heating elements to keep it above the dew point. In addition, I also have all the exposed metal sprayed down with Boeshield T9. One day I'll have insulation, but that's currently not in the cards $ wise.