Test 1U Universal

[David Lewis]

I just acquired a Test 1U universal milling machine on Craigslist here in Portland, OR. It still had its Seattle School District inventory tag, but it had been owned by a gentleman in the hot rod business for a while. It was filthy, but sort of worked, more or less. It's modestly sized, made in Italy and has a radius table that is perfect for setting miter angles for bicycle tubing. I think it's significantly older than I am.

I'll have plenty of questions for you in the future, but for now I have some questions about grease fittings. This machine, especially the table and knee, is plastered with zerk fittings, and from the reading I have been doing about this subject it appears that they are not for grease. I am ordering the Push n' Lube from H&W, but in the meantime I need to figure out how to rid the lines of the old grease. Is this easy? Should I buy two Push n' Lubes and fill one with solvent and use it first? It's probably a given it has to be disassembled, and I get that.

Secondly, it also has zerk fittings for the spindle at the tool end and the drawbar end. You can see those in my photos on Facebook (link below). Inside the gearbox the backside of the bearings are coated with what looks like peanut butter, and I can't imagine that this machine was designed to accumulate grease like this. Should I also use these fittings with oil? If not, what kind of grease?

Should I expect the bearings to be destroyed? I'm willing to do some work to get it running more smoothly, but I don't want to spend a fortune to make it sparkle or anything. It's just got to cut tubes, after all. I'm not making steam locomotive parts!

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=250671911796953&id=236924019838409

 

[David Lewis]

I neglected to add photos earlier.

Today I removed the table and the upper half of the saddle from the machine. It's a radius table, and there is a bolt with a not-quite 13mm not-quite 1/2in hex size that's keeping me from being able to remove the leadscrew nut, which in turn allows me to slide the piece off of the knee. It's soaking in WD40 as I write this.

I'd like to know any hints you may have for clearing grease lines (which may or may not be stuck, but I'll find out soon!), and specifically which zerk fittings to grease and which to oil. There is an absurd amount of grease built up inside the machine, and it seems to me that if it was designed to be greased there would be a place for the grease to go once it's purged.

 

[tertiaryjim]

Lots of equipment has no place to exit old grease and it just builds up over time.
I would think that gears and slow rolling bearings could use grease but ways, dovetails, and high speed bearings would use oil.
The greases and bearings have so improved that some high speed bearings now use grease but I don't know how far back your machine dates.
Hope you can find some difinitive information.

 

[David Lewis]

@tertiaryjim

There is no documentation on this machine that I can find, but my guess is early 1960s. All the fasteners are metric, but the leadscrews (and dials) and x-axis power feeds are all standard.

I think the zerk fittings were all designed for oil, not grease, but there are a few fittings which have a cross embossed around the ball which may signal that they are different than the others. I wonder if they are for grease, and the rest are for oil, or maybe the other way 'round. The fittings on the spindle do not have the cross. I'll have better photos next week.

 

[astjp2]

A hand grease gun can put out upwards of a few thousand psi, that should clear out any lines with new grease and then you can blow them out with air. Tim

 

[David Lewis]

I should have been more clear with what I was asking. It's obvious this machine was lubricated improperly when it was lubricated at all, and grease was used where it should not have been - EVERYWHERE! After cleaning this mess up I want to lube with way oil where it should go, gear oil where it should go and grease where it should go, and I would like to make sure I have them all right.

For example, the front and rear spindle bearings have zerk fittings, and I wonder if they are made for grease or oil. The backside of the bearings are exposed to the inside of the gearbox, which has gear oil inside. Should I lubricate with gear oil or grease? The mound of peanut butter oozing from the backside of the spindle bearings, inside the gearbox, seems wrong to me, but what do I know?

Also, both the table power feed gear and the knee crank gear have rigid tubes leading from the zerk fitting to a point overlooking the gears, and it seems to me that oil would drip onto it to lubricate it. However, there were mounds of sludge caked on top of the gears and the gears themselves were bone dry. I think oil should go here instead of grease, and I'd like to know if I should use gear oil or just use the same way oil I will use on the ways. I'd have to buy another push n'lube, but that's not really a big deal.

Lastly, I'd like to clean out the oil reservoir in the cast base. There are decades of chips and dried oil down there, and I would like to get some idea of how to tackle it. I will probably never use the oil pump, but I'd like the option, and either way I want to clean it up! I think I should probably do it when the machine is apart, like now. Keep that in mind I can't use volatile chemicals and I can't use running water because there's no drain. What else works?

 

[astjp2]

A solvent tank and some stoddard solvent will take care of most of that grease...Tim

 

[David Lewis]

Again, I should have been more clear. I am NOT asking how to clean grease off of a surface. Originally I asked about clearing grease from a line, but folks answered to fill the line with grease again. That is not going to happen.

I want to know what lubricants to use once the cleanup job is complete.

Known:
Ways: Way oil. Duh!
Gearbox: Gear oil. Duh!

Unknown:
Table x-axis powerfeed zerks (dripping on gears pictured): just use the same way oil or must I use something different?
Spindle zerks: should I fill with Velocite (and WHICH Velocite?) or should I just use gear oil? The bearing drains into the gearbox, so I am concerned about compatibility issues, and I want to know what to reassemble the spindle with before I disassemble it!

 

[astjp2]

I guess you missed my point, my initial point was that grease ususally hardens like a rock in lines because the oils leach out. With the line clogged, a fresh injection of grease will allow you to remove it fairly easy and then you replace it with oil where it needs it. Any way surface or screw gets HL68 waylube. Any gearboxes can get a heavy or light oil or grease depending on seals and gear types. If the gearbox has hypoid gears you can use iso150 gear oil even 80w90 gear oil will work for a gearbox, if you want to standardize you can stick with the 68 but it does not stick to the gears as well as the 150. High speed gearboxes you can put in a HL 32 oil which is a light oil. Tim

In your situation, just use waylube for everything and then you only need one oil and there are no compatibility issues. keep it simple and you can get by with one oil...

 

[Brain Coral]

"Table x-axis powerfeed zerks (dripping on gears pictured): just use the same way oil or must I use something different? "

I also have an Italian made mill and have copper lines running to drip onto the feed gears. These lines are hooked directly to the one-shot lube reservoirs, so way oil is a good bet on that. It will stick to the spinning gears better than other oils.

Brian