One shot oiler troubleshooting (pm833)

[borges1]

Hey all, for some reason i do not appear to be getting any oil from the stock one shot oiler to the Y bed ways on my PM833TV. I noticed it is dry because it started making noise when in motion from the new power feed - not good. No modifications to that factory system have been done. all the other points seem to be getting oil. Any troubleshooting tips before i completely dismantle it? (and all my in-progress DRO/Drag Chain/limit stops etc that i really don't wan to remove right now)

From the one or two pictures i can find on line it looks like the oil feeds up through the bed ways. after the manifold. seems like a super simple system, besides a blockage what could it be?

Is there an effective way to manually get oil onto the top of the bed ways without removing/almost removing the table? just until i sort this out?

 

[talvare]

I am not familiar with the system on your PM mill, but on my BP mill, the line from the One Shot oil pump goes to a manifold where each individual line has an orifice / restrictor to meter the proper amount of lubricant to each machine component. I know that on the BP systems, those orifices sometimes get plugged. You may want to check that on your machine before tearing everything apart.

Ted

 

[Mini Cooper S]

Check that the restrictor orifices are not clogged and that they are actually there. Backpressure is needed to supply oil to the whole system, no restrictors and oil only goes to the first oiling point and not beyond.

That is all
Richard

 

[borges1]

Awesome thanks! anyone have a picture of the restrictors on this machine? i assume it will be obvious if they are clogged, but maybe not if they are missing.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

You could crack the fitting loose on the pump and operate it. This would verify the pump’s integrity.
You could take the oil line completely off and push compressed air through the oil line and see if that clears the smaller lines . Audible air leaks may indicate oil leaking which could be a reason why oil may not be getting to the areas not receiving lubrication

 

[ltlvt]

Hey all, for some reason i do not appear to be getting any oil from the stock one shot oiler to the Y bed ways on my PM833TV. I noticed it is dry because it started making noise when in motion from the new power feed - not good. No modifications to that factory system have been done. all the other points seem to be getting oil. Any troubleshooting tips before i completely dismantle it? (and all my in-progress DRO/Drag Chain/limit stops etc that i really don't wan to remove right now)

From the one or two pictures i can find on line it looks like the oil feeds up through the bed ways. after the manifold. seems like a super simple system, besides a blockage what could it be?

Is there an effective way to manually get oil onto the top of the bed ways without removing/almost removing the table? just until i sort this out?

I made this short video for anyone who may need to see how to get to the x and y lead screw nuts and also a look at the damaged lube lines. Hope this helps.

 

[CGT80]

The oil system on the 833 is crap. They could have easily made it decent, if they had threaded the oil holes and used fittings and then not smashed the aluminum lines or seated the lines too deep which smashed the end of some of the lines closed.

I'm converting my new 833 to cnc and drilling additional oil ports and used threaded fittings for all of them, along with one way valves and adjustable manifolds.

Many of the fasteners on the machine were hardly tight. I'm really glad I ended up tearing it down right away instead of using it manually for a while.

The gib on my Y axis is warped and not at all flat. PM sent a new gib. It has a bow, but appears to be fairly even so hopefully it will be pushed flat when it is adjusted and pinched by the ways. I'm fitting it right now.

If these are some of the best small machines available, I would hate to deal with the lower quality machines.

 

[borges1]

The oil system on the 833 is crap.

If these are some of the best small machines available, I would hate to deal with the lower quality machines.

Ha! i had massive, like .2" (no not .02) backlash in my X wheels until i took the table off and found a bunch of loose bolts. Maybe my gibbs are $#$$ed too - which would explain some things. I wish when i had the table off to figure that issue out i had redone the oil system. It will be much more of an ordeal now. But i think you are right - toss it and start over. The video above of the smashed lines helps push me that way too. Got any info on your oil upgrade? photos? parts? assume i know nothing, which is pretty true for machining things.

I knew this was going to be 'pretty good' and was in my price range. It definitely isn't great, and truth be told i'm underwhelmed with the 'extreme precision' claims. Its a clunky, poorly designed machine that can be brought up to snuff with experience and time (i have neither). At times i wish it had come basically unassembled so i could have gone over all the parts, found bad ones, found inadequate ones, and generally re-engineered lots of it to be be far more user friendly if not usable. Then i/the user would know every detail and how to change or improve it. Not a bad business idea actually since all the castings are virtualy the same: sell the frame kit, sell a lead screw kit, sell a motor/electroics kit, sell an epox/granite power kit, sell a spindle kit. or let the end user choose their own adventure. I bet you'd get a great machine, for a small amount more.

Then again, part of the entire experience for me was knowing i was gonna need to do a lot of modifcations to get the machine i wanted, and i have learned a lot making those improvments. Learning on the job i guess.