Myford ML10 (later model) lubrication

Be careful with synthetic greases as they cause , 'Skipping' of ball and roller bearings the balls and rollers do need a tad of resistance to roll properly and I have read of premature bearing failure by use of synthetic low friction stuff. Traditional is best it seems.

It is easy to think that filling a bearings void volume with grease is the way, but in my trade on some tiny bearings I had to apply lube with a hypodermic syringe, a miniscule dot of oil otherwise it affected the performance of the instrument. Ask a Watch repairer how much oil on a spindle, very little and dont get it on a hairspring.

Clive

No one seems to have taken the point that you cannot see what the greasing level is in the ML10 bearings. So it makes sense to let the grease come out, at least you know the amount you have got in there!

As to good old British tradition of letting grease out to purge the lubricant in the bearings. Sounds a damn good idea to me. My friends big Chinese lathe has far worse system than that!

Andrew.

The point is if you put one or maybe two squirts of grease into a completely empty bearing, that is enough grease to lubricate the bearing.

I was thinking more in the traditional lines of drip lubricators on plain bearings that then puke all over the lathe, and my Norton "Patented Oil Bath" primary drive system.

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

I also have a speed 10 lathe and have often wondered if I am putting the right quantity of grease in the roller bearings. I pump grease in until it can be seen emerging from the bearing (as per instructions as has been stated ) which means the bearings are full and this is probably too much grease. When the lathe is run ,the bearings eject some of this grease, making the mess described by a previous poster. I can only assume this results in the correct quantity of grease remaining in the bearings.

​ I have done this for about 25 years and the bearings still seem fine ,so I will continue doing it this way. After greasing the bearings I run the lathe at slow speed for a while to allow the grease to settle down then speed up the lathe to expel the last of the surplus grease.

Doug