Lathe Problems?

[randyjaco]

I have a 13” x 40” Lux Matter (TurnPro) lathe sold by Enco. I bought it used and have owned it for about 10 years. It has been a good lathe, but lately I have noticed some scratches on the cross slide ways. Today I decided to take things apart and investigate. Oh yeah, all sliding surfaces on the cross slide are heavily scored. I haven’t noticed any ill effects when using the lathe, but those divots aren’t going to heal themselves. I doubt replacement parts are available, even if I could afford them. I am trying to figure out what to do. Any ideas on what I can do to fix or ameliorate the problem?

TIA
Randy

[macona]

Take it apart, clean it, stone the ways, clean it again, and put it back together. It will be fine and you will never notice it.

[Chuck K]

Take it apart, clean it, stone the ways, clean it again, and put it back together. It will be fine and you will never notice it.

You might want to oil it periodically too.

[Jaakko Fagerlund]

Take it apart, clean it, stone the ways, clean it again, and put it back together. It will be fine and you will never notice it.

This. It still works, it still goes straight and probably takes more load than the motor can give, so just oil it regularly and use it

[aboard_epsilon]

Any lathe after some years/ many hours use, should have its sliding parts taken apart and any accumulated metal paste /swarf should be cleaned out. ..its part of your regular maintenance procedure to ensure this takes place.

all the best.markj

[randyjaco]

Thanks guys. I spent the day putting everything back together. It only too a few minutes to stone things off. It took half a day to reassemble the DRO, Backstop and other assorted attachments 8^(

Randy

[Richard King]

Many times the ways become scored from lack of oil, so be sure you oil the ways on a regular basis. Does it have oil cups / ball detents or a pump inside the carriage? When you want to rebuild the ways write me and I'll make some reccomendations. Rich

[randyjaco]

Richard,
They have ball detentes. I have a high pressure oiler, which usually pushes the oil onto the ways. I oil the lathe pretty frequently with way oil. They seemed to have plenty of oil on them.

Randy

[Chuck K]

Many times the ways become scored from lack of oil, so be sure you oil the ways on a regular basis. Does it have oil cups / ball detents or a pump inside the carriage? When you want to rebuild the ways write me and I'll make some reccomendations. Rich

Rich, Good to see your still alive and giving advice. Seems to have been a lot of people been "disapeared" from the forum I used to see you on all the time. At least you don't have to proofread your posts here to make sure you don't hurt anyones feelings.

Chuck

[Forrest Addy]

Sorry Randy, I'm gonna use your thread for a wise-ass told-you-so response: No reflection on you. Sometimes a restrictor clogs and leaves you in the very fix your in now.

This goes to routine maintenence. I encourage people owning most anything to set aside a time for a check-out, cleaning, and repair. Using myself as a has-been example I used to spend the time between Christmas and New Year to clean and calibrate measuring gear, condut a thorough clean-up to the last chip of the machine tools and floor, remove and service wipers, check belts, hoses, lube systems, leaks, tweak gibs, adjust, tune, go over cords and plugs, inventrory consumables, btteries for clocks, calipers, fire alarms, restore walk-about tools to their rightful place, recover borrowed tools, etc. All the while I'm making list of repair work to either hit at the moment or sometime the next year depending on urgency.

It's a good system. Around Christmas there's lots of relatives to help should they get bored with football and it's work I can break off for family functions. In the end I get a clean ordered shop and a coherent work list of stuff I gotta do in the coming months.

You don't have t have a specific "field day" but you have to admit you do have to spend a little time off the project taking care of the equipment. The more extensive the shop the more needs to be done of course but even small shops have "gotta do" items to fulfil just to stay functioning.

Among the vital details to attend to when commissioning a new acquisitions is a thorough cleaning, inspection and detailing with particular attention to all service points. This include removal of all way wipers in the OP's case and the cleaning and to the extent possible purging of the way bearings.

Every trade has the equivalent of termites that cause hidden damage to the things most cherished and hidden lube failure and scored ways is it for machinists.

There is no possible repair (short of major way and saddle reconditioning) for scored ways but there is a remedy to keep the scores from spreading. Dismantle the whole slide assembly, stone off the raised metal, thoroughly clean, repair deficiencies in the lube system, replace consumables in the way wipers, re-assemble (re-mantle?) and test.

Ever-after you will have to pay particular attentin to cleanliness of the scored ways. The wiper will not clean out the scores. They are for all practical purposes conveyors of debris into your way bearings.

All this is perfect world stuff and we all have priorities. I bring the above up to point ut that running a homeshop carries with it responsibilities to yourself that your equipment is properly maintained. Otherwise you may find scores and galls on your lathe ways and coal in your Christmas stocking.

[Chuck K]

" Ever-after you will have to pay particular attentin to cleanliness of the scored ways. The wiper will not clean out the scores. They are for all practical purposes conveyors of debris into your way bearings. "

That's an interesting observation. I regularly wipe the ways with a rag and reoil, but had never considered the fact that the nicks and scratches would retain abrasives. Makes sense.

Chuck