Lathe wear

[warrenmaker]

Hi guys,
I have just started posting on this site and am just completing my first steam engine over in the castings section.

I have a tech question on my lathe. It is a Liang dei Taiwanese tool room lathe. I purchased it new about 2 years ago. I estimate I have done about 2-300 hours on it. I look after it meticulously. So much so my wife reckons I pay it more attention than her...

Any way as you can see by the attached pic; the ground front bed way is starting to get polished from the carriage moving back and forth. Is this normal. It is not something u can feel,,, Just see. Also u will notice I have the wipers removed for cleaning. They are formed rubber type and work perfect as far as I can see.
I oil the oiler points with a mix of canola oil and gear oil. This mix has worked perfectly on my previous 2 lathes.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks.

[10KPete]

That looks great! The only gotcha is that when they ground the ways the wheel was slightly off and the travel speed a bit high.
That's why the shiny spots aren't an even stripe.

Nice!

Pete

[warrenmaker]

OH.. OK,
thanks Pete. So nothing to worry about then?

[10KPete]

All's right there..

Pete

[petertha]

I have a 1998 Taiwan lathe under the King label (Canada) that is probably quite representative of the quality of that era. When I replaced my power feed rod & improved the worm gear bracket block casting with something much better, I had the apron & top slide off to get a good look under the hood. Rather appalling. The nice, shiny accurately ground vee ways run along something err..... significantly less that that. I blued the surfaces it & just took the lightest of stoning passes to expose the hilltops. There is no way I would call this scraped. Not even 'oil retention' frosting, its cruder than that. Here you can see I'm doing some unscientific pull tests so evaluate if I improved things. First on thin WD40 film, then on proper way oil. Well, somehow the combination 'works'. Quite perplexing because the lathe itself is very tight & accurate. Basically it takes very little pull force, once it 'breaks' it slides like a curling stone. Re-assembled with the mechanical advantage of geared carriage handle, all is well, it moves like on butter.

I would encourage you to have a peek one day. Apparently there was a huge shortage of files, de-burring tools & chamferring bits in Taiwan back then (that's a joke btw). Also my apron oil galleries & ports were completely filled with what I suspect was the brown waxy mung that coats the machine coming overseas. My apron gears & shaft journals never saw a drop of lubrication oil even though I was religiously injecting the nipples. Hope this helps!

[petertha]

ps make sure you have your wiper shields on so grit doesnt make its way where it doesnt belong. Mine are really cheesy plastic but Im going to redesign them & get them 3D printed. I want the hard plastic to be a few thou off the vee for mitigating swarf or grit. But I'm also going to integrate an enclosed pocket which contains .25" felt material. It will be saturated with way oil via the existing lubrication nipples. The idea being it sweeps & prevents the finest debris & self lubricates

[Jo]

When I read the title of this thread I had images of it being about what clothing we wear when we use a lathe   

It must be too early in the morning or I am getting   

Jo

[Jasonb]

You were getting confused with Eric and Zee's thread.

[Jo]

Yes, I had just been reading that one 

Jo

[steamer]

Wot Pete said    it's fine.
Dave

[steamer]

Though   I'd get some proper Vactra #2 way oil for it...

[Vixen]

  to Vectra #2

Mike

[warrenmaker]

Thanks guys, I will go source some Vactra.... although I have no idea where from...

[10KPete]

Vactra is a name of the product from Mobil Oil Co.  Check around for  1) Shop suppliers 2) Mobil oil distributors.

Pete

[john mills]

at work we used to use shell t68  it's a slipway oil

[Baner]

Minitech is the only supplier in Oz that I've found selling way oil at a hobby friendly price and volume.

https://www.minitech.com.au/?rf=kw&kw=oil

There's a selection of Vactra#2 and #4 at the bottom of the page.

Dave.

[JFB]

Be cautious with Minitech, they have suspended telephone and web site ordering and have turned into an ebay only seller. I have an order with them that has been outstanding for over two and a half months, they refuse to answer emails or telephone. They took the money out of my account pretty quick but in spite of what they say on their home page no refund, no communication, no nothing

Real shame, they were going so well, since changing ownership

Joe

[Mcgyver]

That's not any level of wear to worry about, but from someone's who's scraped a few lathe beds, that pattern says the carriage is a not a good fit to the ways.  A plain bearing works because the part rides on a thin wedge of oil; that needs complete bearing to happen.   If there is not complete bearing, oil won't stop the wear because the contact is in specific small areas that extent through the thin film.  The problems this creates is more rapid wear and flex - under load the pancake stack is not fully bearing so will flex a bit.  Not an epic issue, but it does make turning less easy

I'd at a minimum pull the carriage of, blue it as the other poster has done and see what you've got.  Then I'd scrape into the bed if it needed it, but that's me.....I like this stuff working at its best.  But at least do the first part, it might be something simple.  You don't know a machine until you taken it apart and surveyed the bearing surface fits

[Baner]

Pity to hear that about Minitech, Joe. Didn't know they changed owners. I haven't ordered anything from them in a while but they used to be great to deal with.

Dave.