PM-1236T/1340GT- how much oil in the quick change gearbox?

[Christianstark]

How old is your lathe? Did you find anything that was actually bad? Or did you just change the bearings out for good of service?

Lathe is only about 6 months old. I HAD to replace one of the bearings, as there was no way I saw at first to removing it without a drift and hammer directly on the bearing. It is the bearing that supports the shaft on the power-feed or lead screw toggle gear. It is an order of operations error I made where I should have removed the axle on the left hand side, retained by a grub screw in the casting, and then tapped or pressed out the axle on the right. Then I decided to replace the 2 bearings on the speed/feed handle axle on both sides, with Japanese permanently lubricated bearings as well, after I felt the bearings that came out from there, and they were just a tad un-smooth. Not gritty per se, but I could feel the balls rolling, where the Japanese bearing I replaced from the original selector axle was silky smooth.

Primary motivation for taking apart the gear box was to remove the paint, clean, de-burr, and re-lubricate everything. The paint was really bothering me, as was the black drips from the gear oil (only coming from the right hand side of the box)

Here is what it looks like today. Paint is gone, some of the milled slots are smoother, and the whole box is quieter.

 

[parshal]

2-3 years later mine still has the black oil drippings.

 

[Christianstark]

2-3 years later mine still has the black oil drippings.

LOL, I am sure I will too, but some of it was from the black grease they shipped it with, and that paint overspray...UGH!

 

[Just for fun]

Looks great, Thanks for the info.