oil grooves on the lathe would you or not

[J Tiers]

Seems to me that adding oil groves to a small lathe is a waste of time.
My Logan's and Atlas are from the 1940s and show no wear under the saddles or on the ways.
If they were needed they would be there already.
I just oil the ways outside and enough gets inside to do the job.
Why would anyone worry about this?
But then, what do I know? LOL,
Bill

You got lucky.... You bought machines that didn't get used much. Not many of them available anymore, not almost 80 years later.

Most I look at are obviously worn. Including mine. Don't assume all are like yours, they are not.

It's no kind of a waste of time at all. Oiling from underneath avoids the buildup of the typical gray paste on the ways that you see on so many hobby machines, and some used to make money, also.

[JoeLee]

Seems to me that adding oil groves to a small lathe is a waste of time.
My Logan's and Atlas are from the 1940s and show no wear under the saddles or on the ways. Your lucky !!
If they were needed they would be there already. Not necessarily !!
I just oil the ways outside and enough gets inside to do the job. That was probably the original intention of the manufacturer.
Why would anyone worry about this? Personal preference I guess.
But then, what do I know? LOL,
Bill

The benefit of oil grooves in the saddle is they act as a small oil reservoir as opposed as to squirting oil on the ways and running the saddle over it hoping that the oil will find it's way under the saddle ways. Yea it will but nothing is better than having that oil come from within the center of the way. Better to oil from the inside out than the outside in.

JL...............

[Mcgyver]

Seems to me that adding oil groves to a small lathe is a waste of time.
My Logan's and Atlas are from the 1940s and show no wear under the saddles or on the ways.
If they were needed they would be there already.
I just oil the ways outside and enough gets inside to do the job.
Why would anyone worry about this?
But then, what do I know? LOL,
Bill

Its conceivable that DIY style lathe would, even over many decades, see very few hours. There may be times proper oil distribution seems like braces and a belt, or maybe its wearing faster than it should but not enough to be material (yet) with occasional use. It also depends just how important one thinks proper lubrication is - if things were always properly lubed there'd be no wear (in theory, lets agree it would be at least minimal). Properly mating surfaces wouldn't touch and would always ride on the thin wedge of oil. Its hard to definitive, i.e. let me get back to you in 20 years about how it went, but I think we do know better lubrication = less wear.

There's also what state is the lathe in? A machine freshly scraped to perfection might create a different motivation to do everything to reduce/eliminate wear than 1/2 way worn lathe that is just ok. I haven't bothered except when scraping. In the examples above, I did the DSG compound, its big and I want to last after scraping it. I can't honestly remember if I did the Maximat, compound also fully scraped.

Another reason is being able to create bit of flush. With zerks you can create a bit of pressure pushing out whatever oil and dirty oil is there.

[J Tiers]

Summing up,

Any machine needs oiled. Machines used for hobby purposes do not get a "pass" on that just because they are not in a commercial shop.

If you slop on oil outside the saddle, and hope some gets underneath, it can carry IN other undesirable stuff.

And, mostly, the wipers plow the oil off, to drip into the chip pan, unused, and wasted. If, of course, the wipers are even touching the ways.

If you oil through an oiler that deposits the oil actually at the point that needs oil, under the saddle you know that the oil is not dripping uselessly into the pan. It is in, or at least passes through, the area where it is needed.

Rather than being "plowed off" by the wipers, it will be "held in" by the wipers, keeping it in the area where it actually does some good.

And, any that comes out, may carry OUT contaminants and swarf. That tends to clear off the sticky gray paste found on many hobby machines.

The arguments for NOT BOTHERING sound more like sour grapes, and commercial shop folks considering hobby use to be unimportant, worthless, and not deserving of any attention, similar to the "I ain't makin parts fer NASA, I don't need no stinking micrometer", and "hobby users are just fine working to 0.005", there is no need for anything better than a caliper" comments.

And any

[Brett Hurt]

thanks for the info Brett