Problem With New Lathe

[ozzie46]

When I oiled the spindle bearings I saw a lot of black gritty oil come out around the bearings.

I then isolated the spindle by taking the belt off and removing the gears. I turned the spindle by hand and it felt very ruff. So I removed the spindle to check the bearings and this is what I found.

I washed the bearings in mineral spirits and got this. :fan: :fan:

I called Gizzly and told them what I found. They are sending me new bearings.

I knew the Chinese mini lathes suffered from sloppy workmanship but I thought the larger lathes would be better, guess not.

Cleaned head stock out. Now just have to wait for bearings.
On another note I needed a pulley puller to get the spindle pulley off and don't have one.

So I went to Autozone ( no affiliation other than customer)and borrowed one. For those that don't know you can borrow certain special tools there. You pay the price of the tool then when you return it you get your money back.


Anxiously waiting

Ron

 

[cobra428]

Ron,
WOW, That didn't happen with mine but I'm getting a little nervous

Tony

 

[black85vette]

Wow. That's a mess. Sorry you had it happen, but good to hear Grizzly is coming through.

 

[ozzie46]

Cobra, Vette

I should have known when I cleaned the lathe and and found a lot of cast iron grit in the mineral spirits that it would come to this.

Anyway I will start with new bearings when I get it together again.

At least I'm not in the middle of a project on it.
Ron

 

[cobra428]

Grizz is pretty good about that kind of stuff. When I got mine it was missing the tail stock handle. The wheel was there but no handle. Called them and one came in mail a few days latter
Tony

 

[ozzie46]

Good to know Cobra

Ron

 

[doc1955]

I'm going to change oil on the headstock of my lathe this week end man I hope I don't see anything like that.
I ran it though the break in cycles suggested and made some test cut which I was very pleased with. The head feels nice and smooth yet and I've checked for end play and run out and every thing looked good.

I did order the 5c collet chucker and the tube had threads that were .025 under size I e-mailed Grizzly and they stated how sorry they were and that they would have a new tube shipped to me. They also said they would 100% inspect it before shipping it. Well guess what the new tube arrived yesterday and I was dumb founded it was the exact same thing as the first, collets wouldn't even start to thread in. I'm sure glad I was capable and fixed the first tube by boring the ID and picking up the threads and finishing them to the proper depth. Now I guess I can do another one and keep it for a spare. I feel bad for anyone not up to picking up and single pointing that gets stuck with these tubes.


Good luck Ron
Keep us posted on the out come.

 

[ozzie46]

Doc, On this lathe the bearings do not run in an oil bath. They are lubricated by using a pump type oil can to squirt oil in ball oiler holes on the top of the headstock. The manual says to do this daily. These are taper bearings and I wonder if it wouldn't be better to put in grease nipples and use grease instead of oil? The bearings are not the sealed type. They are like front wheel bearings on a car.

Hope you find everything ok on your lathe.

Ron

 

[Stan]

I would expect Grizzly would be more than happy to send new bearings. Compare that to the cost of getting the lathe back and doing the work in their shop and paying the freight back to you.

Did they offer to pay for your time to do their warranty work?

 

[ozzie46]

Did they offer to pay for your time to do their warranty work?
[/quote]


No they didn't. I think it actually surprised him that I had it tore down.
I may call customer support to see what I can wrangle out of them but I won't hold my breath. The guy I talked to was the technician.

Ron

 

[Lew Hartswick]

Doc, On this lathe the bearings do not run in an oil bath. They are lubricated by using a pump type oil can to squirt oil in ball oiler holes on the top of the headstock. The manual says to do this daily. These are taper bearings and I wonder if it wouldn't be better to put in grease nipples and use grease instead of oil? The bearings are not the sealed type. They are like front wheel bearings on a car.
Ron

If bearings are designed to use oil I'd surly never load them up with grease.
Just went through de-greasing the ways on a Bridgeport that some jerk had
pumped full of grease because the OIL points happened to have Zerks on them. :-(
...lew...

 

[ozzie46]

Thanks Lew thats good to know.


Ron