New Headstock Bearings

[ShopShoe]

I have started a series of improvements to my 7x MiniLathe.  Among other things I am going to install the tapered bearings from Little Machine Shop.

www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2822

1. Should I prelube them before installation and what other lube do they need? Is there something I can get locally?  (I am confused by so many posts on this subject that I am going back to square one.)

2. I am not planning to install the steel gears upgrade, but would I be better off to do it now as it might be too hard to do it later if I change my mind?

3. I have worked with other bearing assemblies and I am confident that I can adjust the preload, but anyone who has done this can chime in if they want.

—ShopShoe

[Thor]

 When you install new bearings my recommendation would be to install new (metal) gears also.
 Have you read ARCeurotrade's description on how to change bearings on a MiniLathe?  It is for replacing the ball bearings with angular contact bearings, but much of the procedure is similar although you have to shorten the spacer (as noted on the LMS site).
It can be downloaded here:
http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/machineguides/Mini-Lathe-Angular-Contact-Bearing-Change-Guide.pdf

They recommend their Molyslip grease, but any quality bearing grease would do the job.
Found another one here:
http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/machineguides/Super-C3-Mini-Lathe-Dismantling-and-Reassembly-Guide.pdf

Thor

[gary.a.ayres]

I agree regarding replacing the plastic gears with metal ones.

I swapped the bearings on a Warco mini-lathe for taper roller bearings so decided that while I had the headstock apart I may as well change the gears too. The metal ones are way noisier than the plastic ones but you have the confidence that they won't strip. I also drilled a hole in the top of the headstock and made a cap for it so that the gears could be lubricated without taking the headstock apart. I then sold that lathe, and have often since wished that I had kept it.

[samc88]

I did this last year and it's made a noticeable improvement to the machine. I bought metal gears but happily the machine already had them from the factory. It's a pretty straightforward job to do in all honesty, I prelubed mine with bearing grease

Sent from my G3121 using Tapatalk

[ShopShoe]

You may have noticed that this is an old thread.

I did replace the bearings and made several other changes to the lathe at the same time.

That was all over two years ago.

I have some other things to do and I may post a summary of all the changes in my shop at some point.

Life got in the way and I have slowed down my shop time and my posting, although I read the forums most days and make comments if I think I have something to add to a discussion.

Back to the lathe: The bearing upgrade was well worth it. I examined the old bearings and was able to tell by eye that they were in sad shape. As they say, the 7x  Chinese Mini-Lathe can be a useful machine if you consider it a kit that needs to be completed by the user.

ShopShoe