Tail Stock Oil

[Froneck]

I have been doing some needed maintenance on my 14" Hendey 18 speed gear drive. I drilled the areas above the ways for wipers and will be making the wipers but did buy a wiper strip from McMaster. Have felt on the way. Also drilled and reamed holes for Gits 90° oil cups to supply oil to 2 holes 1/2" diameter made with end mill and will fill with felt in the way area for oil. I did use oil on the ways but it seemed to run-off and tail stock hard to move so I though since I was cleaning the tail stock, giving it a paint job I'd add an oiler. I have a tail stock on my L&S that has an oil reservoir that keeps the ways oiled so I added oiler to the Hendey. One down 3 to go!
Whats the best oil to use? Use the same in the tail stock spindle, feed screw and ball thrust bearing I also added?

 

[M.B. Naegle]

On my 1909 16" Hendey, I use Mobile Vactra #4 for the ways, Mobil Velocite #10 for the main spindle bearings, and Mobil DTE 26 Heavy/Medium for everything else (gears, bearings, etc.)

I'm adding ball top oilers and way wipers to my saddle right now too. The cross-slide is a bit of a challenge though as the stop rod prevents me from drilling an oil hole on the chuck side. Do you have a picture of how you're doing yours?

 

[Andy FitzGibbon]

On ways, I generally use way oil.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[Greg Menke]

My ATW has a single apron reservoir for the cross-slide & saddle and all the apron gearing, so I use Vactra #2 for that whole thing. Quickchange gets the same since I oil them at the same time. I use it on the quadrant gears too since thats entirely a loss system and maybe the Vactra hangs around longer. Same with the tailstock ways and internals.

Headstock gets Heavy/Medium DTE since it recirculates. I use Velocite in the Bridgeport and sensitive drill spindles.

 

[ramsay1]

Walmart bar and chain oil on all my machine ways.. Cheap, and stays put.. Cheers; Ramsay 1

 

[Froneck]

Spindle and screw I mentioned is in the tail stock. There is an oil hole with brass screw on cap that will oil the Tail stock "spindle" feed screw and I think the thrust bearing. I bored the end of the cover and installed a ball thrust bearing for the feed screw. Not sure how I will make the way wipers but I did purchase the a way wiper from McMaster, it was for another application but I made something else. The Saddle on my Hendey does have way wipers but cross slide don't so I might use some of the McMaster wipes on it. The rear of the cross slide does have a wiper but I'm thinking of adding a cover for the ways. One problem with Hendey is the slotted screw that is under the cross slide that attaches the saddle to the apron. Though there is no scoring of the ways yet chips will fill the screw slot and get dragged under the cross slide. I shortened the screw slightly and filled the opening with clear epoxy, it works but not well, hot chips are melting the epoxy! My next attempt was on mt 24" Hendey, I replaced the slotted screw with hex socket head cap screw. I counter bored the hole a little deeper, shortened the head of the screw. I then made an Al. Bronze plug and pressed it in. I used a file with paper on the ways so as not to file the ways. Then carefully scraped the bronze to height of the ways. Works great!!
I do have way wipers on the Newer Model C P&W lathe, I'm thinking of making something similar for the Hendey.
I'll make photos when I make the wipers. I can remove the wiper on the P&W, make photos and post here if someone is interested.

 

[ClappedOutBport]

Unless you're running this thing 12 hours a day, will it even matter? I use Vactra because it stays put. The important thing is that is has oil.

 

[Froneck]

Some times I do use the lathe 12 to 16 hours sometimes longer! However having 6 lathes there are times when the 14" is not used. However the 14" Hendey is the lathe I use the most. But the tail stock might not get used for weeks. Seems every time I want to use it especially just to drill a hole the ways are dry and I either get the oil can or just push it to get what I want done. So I'm thinking if a put felt pad soaked in oil the ways will oil them selves, the felt will retain oil and pipe cleaner in the oil hole from the oil cup will keep the felt oiled yet not run out if filled with oil weekly maybe longer. I also purchased other Gits oil cups to put in holes like the end support for the clutch and lead screw direction rod. I'm thinking it would be better to cover the holes to limit what might fall into them.

 

[Peroni]

My Hendey lube chart just says to use an SAE30 oil. I use a #2 way oil in the apron and on tailstock ways. Rest gets an ISO 46 industrial turbine oil.

Tailstock on my 16" Hendey will be getting wipers and oilers like what you're doing. I also have the same concerns with the slotted screws that secure the apron, great place to have chips get stuck and gouge underside of the cross slide.

 

[Froneck]

I use bronze or brass to make a plug on top of a socket head cap screw. I put a long set screw in the threads to limit the chips then counterbore the hole a little deeper and shorten the head of a socket head cap screw. Drop of loctite on the hex wrench helps remove the set screw after cleaning the chips out with air. I mic the hole diameter and make the plug press fit. Depth mic to check needed thickness to limit excess removal. Flat file with paper on the ways to get the plug .003". Then scrape plug flush. I use brass/bronze because of the color difference. If some time in the future I need to remove the screw the color change will make it easy to locate the plug and drill it with tap drill so it can be tapped and jack screwed out. Hex hole in the screw makes it easier than slotted as used by Hendey. 3 Hendeys done 1 to more I need to remove epoxy "Plug" that worked but chips melted and make a brass/bronze plug.

 

[johansen]

Walmart bar and chain oil on all my machine ways.. Cheap, and stays put.. Cheers; Ramsay 1

My experience with a ~70 pound load pressing on about 6 square inches of white "formica" with oil grooves in a fractal pattern of nominally 1/4" square areas of contact riding on top of cast iron (which really means some kind of white plastic, as the "formica" part of it is not the bearing surface)

was that at normal surface grinder speeds, or about 1 foot per second, ordinary motor oil and transmission oil performed far better at reducing friction than did bar and chain oil. as in night and day difference. the bar oil simply would not develop an oil film.

secondly, i used the same 1/32" turcite to lift my tail stock on my southbend 9 as i did to lift the saddle. i lifted the headstock with set screws to get it aligned and then filled the gap with epoxy.

as i sort of knew ahead of time, the turcite would make clamping the tailstock a bear. and it was. until i added oil grooves. then it became acceptable. i still wouldn't recommend it. but adding the grooves also made it a whole lot easier to slide the tailstock across the bed.