Harrison L5

[david lockwoodParticipant @davidlockwood10028]

Hello every one I have recently bought a Harrison lathe and have a query regarding the oil nipples on my lathe they have all been filled with grease and the lubrication chart on the lathe states only oil. I have tried to oil the lathe through the nipples but the grease blocks the oil from getting through . I would be worried about striping down the lathe as I have doubts about my ability to fit it together again properly. would blowing It through with a compressor be sensible?

regards David

[david lockwoodParticipant @davidlockwood10028]

[John Allan Watson BrownParticipant @johnallanwatsonbrown]

If you can unscrew these nipples then just take them off. Clear the holes and the nipples manually with a fine pointed scriber until you can get oil through. Replace and tighten up the nipples again and only use oil after this.

[JonParticipant @jon]

The oil feeds in to wavy radiused slots to disperse the oil along the carriage or cross slides.

Without stripping and cleaning you will never know whether there is any blockage.

 

On my 140 very similar now scrapped, i used to fill an air powered grease gun of oil and pump it through under very high pressure. Most of the dirt used to come out seen along the spread of the gib strips and underside.

May need to slcken gib strip off and opposite side. If beds and slides are good there will be no or very little oil that should come out!

 

[adyParticipant @ady]

You don’t really have a choice.

If you don’t sort it out it will probably get damaged.

 

Lathes are a suck-it-and-see hobby, especially nowadays with so few highly skilled people around.

 

Just take your time and get to know your lathe.

Eventually, if you persist, you will be making lathe bits which are going to fail.

 

A lathe is almost unique because it can fix itself.

[david lockwoodParticipant @davidlockwood10028]

Thanks for the replies. I have tried poking it with the scriber but it is suprising how long these oil ways go and there only needs to be a little of the stuff to stop the oil. I have stripped the top slide and cross slide and cleaned them, the rest are mostly in the carriage which looks like a very complex assembly with the power cross feed gears and such. also the lead screw bearings and gearbox have probably been greased this will be awkward if / when i have to strip them down to clean the grease out i was hoping that there would be some sort of dissolver or something

 

regards David

[JonParticipant @jon]

The rear by tailstock are easy and may need a tap out.

Just visualise how the lead screw fits in the Norton gearbox if it has one, it will pull out and has a shear pin.

 

Dont need to fetch carriage off just remove all the cap hd screws from top and rear gib strip. Knock or tap off the top, the carriage will then hang on lead screw.

Might need to remove cross slide lead screw, but at same time can readjust and clean etc.

[david lockwoodParticipant @davidlockwood10028]

Thanks Jon i will give it a go. I should probably get my bench set up first as I had to take every thing down just to get the lathe in so I am now without a bench or shelves it s such a mess sob sob

[JonParticipant @jon]

Know the feeling David i had to endure 10 1/2 months with up to 1/2 worshop gutted. Couldnt do a thing about it until the 140 went, should see the stuff i had under tarpaulin and in the house.

It felt quite cold with no partition.

 

Nearly all the centreless grinders we rebuilt, operators were forcing grease in the slides. Recipe for grinding paste!

[adyParticipant @ady]

I think the mentality for a newbie is that grease will “last longer”

 

I greased up my first unit instead of using oil.

Damn, what a mess when I came to clean it up, and it was only a wee unimat sl.

 

I haven’t even thought about using grease since then, oil is perfect for that “wipe clean as you go” mentality needed to keep a machine right.

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