Member postings for Steve Langford

Hi Eliza,

Depends where you are - Hampshire is a big place! If you're anywhere within travelling range of Guildford you'd be welcome to spend an hour or two learning a few things on my lathe.

Steve

Hi folks,

Many thanks to everyone who replied - clearly not just me that's confused!

In the end, I figured I'd go with the manual's method - squeeze it in until it comes out. The sludge that came out made me glad I did it. My bearings now have no choice but to be full of grease, but the lathe still runs fine - worst that can happen really is that a bit more grease will come out!

For anyone attempting the same operation in future, a grease gun isn't actually needed - instead, I unscrewed the grease nipples, inserted a syringe full of grease and squeezed that in. Took about 20ml grease before the fresh grease was coming out of the bearing covers. For the rear bearing, it's easy to see the cover and wipe the grease away once you've taken the changegear cover off. For the front bearing, best to take the chuck/backplate off, otherwise you won't be able to wipe the old grease off.

Again, many thanks to everyone for the wealth of info provided!

Steve

Hello everyone,

I'm not a complete beginner, but close enough. I have a Myford ML10 (Speed 10) lathe - it has the later taper roller bearings rather than the plain bearing headstock.

My question is, what to lubricate the bearing with?

The manual says to use lithium grease on a taper roller bearing machine, or oil on the plain bearing types. At the weekend, I tried to buy some appropriate grease from Myford, but the fellow said to just use the oil. I pointed out to him that the manual said to use grease, but he just shrugged and said that the manual was written 50 years ago, and was out of date as everyone uses oil these days.

I'm not keen on that idea. I think if the manual said to use grease, even 50 years ago, that would be because grease is better for the taper roller bearings. The manual might be from a few years ago, but so is my lathe.

Anyway, so I'd be keen to hear what other folks use to lubricate a taper roller bearing ML10, and how often (differing advice there too!).

Many thanks

Steve