Hi this section seems closest to my question...
I have recently bought an Ajax mill, about 1500Kg class INT4, the varydrive spring was broken and a trashed feed gearbox being the main issues.
I now have the head working, seems good, have cut chips.
Turning my attention to the feeds, the gearbox seems to have been in two ratios at once and trashed teeth from several gears. There are still undamaged ratios available so I intend to lock the box in one gear and use an inverter (VFD) to get the feed speeds I need using a rheostat.
Dismantling the entire knee/table assy I found that some of the drive dogs are badly worn, I intend to build them up and recut the dog teeth. This begged the question why, the answer was the lube system appears to be blocked, causing the knee and saddle motions to get really tight, especially the knee, which required a 4ton jack to shift up AND down, my 2ton trolly jack wouldn't shift it.
I am in the process of replacing the 4mm plastic lube pipes, the pump seems to work well enough but can't force oil past the restrictors. I thought they were simply a small orifice type of restrictor but there seems to be a screw adjuster in the outlet. All 8 restrictors in the knee manifold are marked boldly with a figure '1'. I plan to try tomorrow to ultrasonic clean the knee restrictors then connect each of the 8 individually to the pump to see if I can get them to pass oil.
Does anybody have experience of this type of issue and have any suggestions how best to proceed. I don't want to mess with the adjustment because I have no way to re-calibrate. I do wonder if I should screw the screw right in, counting turns then remove the screw to see if that allows a visual check or probe with a very thin wire to remove any debris possibly blocking the restrictor.
I find it hard to see how all the lines can be blocked, unless some previous user has used some contaminated oil. One possible clue might be that some of the paint on the machine is crinkling and blistering like paint remover has been applied, where coolant or lubricant has spilled below the various ways and below the lube pump.
Robert
PS. I finally got the lid off of the oil reservoir, the oil had formed a varnish like seal to the screw lid of the resovoir. There are threads of what I assume is solidified oil, this may well be the root of the problem. Perhaps dunking the restrictors in a solvent or some chemical to dissolve the blockage may get the job done?
Will try to post a picture later.
Thanks for looking.
I have recently bought an Ajax mill, about 1500Kg class INT4, the varydrive spring was broken and a trashed feed gearbox being the main issues.
I now have the head working, seems good, have cut chips.
Turning my attention to the feeds, the gearbox seems to have been in two ratios at once and trashed teeth from several gears. There are still undamaged ratios available so I intend to lock the box in one gear and use an inverter (VFD) to get the feed speeds I need using a rheostat.
Dismantling the entire knee/table assy I found that some of the drive dogs are badly worn, I intend to build them up and recut the dog teeth. This begged the question why, the answer was the lube system appears to be blocked, causing the knee and saddle motions to get really tight, especially the knee, which required a 4ton jack to shift up AND down, my 2ton trolly jack wouldn't shift it.
I am in the process of replacing the 4mm plastic lube pipes, the pump seems to work well enough but can't force oil past the restrictors. I thought they were simply a small orifice type of restrictor but there seems to be a screw adjuster in the outlet. All 8 restrictors in the knee manifold are marked boldly with a figure '1'. I plan to try tomorrow to ultrasonic clean the knee restrictors then connect each of the 8 individually to the pump to see if I can get them to pass oil.
Does anybody have experience of this type of issue and have any suggestions how best to proceed. I don't want to mess with the adjustment because I have no way to re-calibrate. I do wonder if I should screw the screw right in, counting turns then remove the screw to see if that allows a visual check or probe with a very thin wire to remove any debris possibly blocking the restrictor.
I find it hard to see how all the lines can be blocked, unless some previous user has used some contaminated oil. One possible clue might be that some of the paint on the machine is crinkling and blistering like paint remover has been applied, where coolant or lubricant has spilled below the various ways and below the lube pump.
Robert
PS. I finally got the lid off of the oil reservoir, the oil had formed a varnish like seal to the screw lid of the resovoir. There are threads of what I assume is solidified oil, this may well be the root of the problem. Perhaps dunking the restrictors in a solvent or some chemical to dissolve the blockage may get the job done?
Will try to post a picture later.
Thanks for looking.
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