Emco FB-2 Oil Change

Hello,

Bit of a novice question here but we plan to do our first oil change on the FB-2 milling machine. I have sourced the correct oil and it seems easy enough to do but should I be using some sort of flushing agent to help evacuate the old oil? Or is warming it up and simply letting it run out enough?

The machine has no technical problems to speak of so I am not expecting trouble or metal particles etc in the milling head I was just wondering about what the “best practice” might be.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions,

Mark

The FB-2 has a helical screw circulating pump which picks up at the bottom and pulls up to the primary drive, then allowing the oil to flow down through the gearbox.
If you run it until it's at a steady temperature you should have stirred the oil enough to pick up all the crud that will come loose and circulate.
What oil are you using? I went with a fully synthetic gearbox oil of the specified viscosity with a compatible Moybdenum Di-Sulphide additive.

Regards,
Nick

As Nick says, run it until its warm then drain. Flushing oil should not be necessary.   When I first drained one I was surprised how little dirt there was.    I can also recommend the addition of a Molybdenum (MolySlip) additive with the new oil.

Edited By Robbo on 04/02/2018 13:44:04

Thanks for your answers gents. I went for Castrol ISO VG 46 which is what the manual said. Any thoughts on whether or not I should add MolySlip to this?

Mark

Mark,
If you're running it at standard plated power and speeds it will probably outlast you, I'm running mine with a 0.55Kw motor and 0 to 200% speed and thought a bit of Moly wouldn't hurt,
Regards,
Nick

Ok thanks Nick, we run in at normal speeds etc

Mark

I`m also planning to do an oil change on my fb 2. But how do you get the old oil out of the head? Are you supposed to unscrew the sight guage.

/Emil

Emil

Standard method from the FB2 manual is to remove the sight glass, put a receptacle for the oil on the table, and then turn the head through a quarter turn until the sight glass hole is underneath and the oil runs out.

Run the machine for a while beforehand to warm up the oil and stir up any sediment. Be prepared for oil to get everywhere it rarely runs out in a nice stream!

Allright thanks a lot Robbo, that was very helpful!

Sorry Emil, just checked in to read the forum and had completely missed this. As Robbo says (and as I PMed you) its quite a straight forward procedure. Mine did run out very peacefully