Myford lathe headstock wick oiling ystem?

It's me again.

I am an inquisitive type who likes to know how things work, so wondering about the wick oiling system I stuck a plastic tube into the oil filler cap which feeds the wick on the Myford Super 7 headstock and blew down it, and to my surprise oil spewed out of a hole in the back of the headstock casting in line with the grub screw at the front of the headstock.

Can this be right?

Yep.

​

Stops you overfilling.

Now you've blown all the oil out of the system, I trust you refilled it and checked the level

The top of the filler stops you over-filling, the vent stops air locks inside the oil galleries and prevents bubbles with no escape route expanding with temperature increase from denying the bearing adequate lubrication

Thanks, I can sleep easy now with the knowledge of how it works.

I have a super 7 with the wick system.

I have been thinking about removing it to look at its condition, as I saw Myford advertising new springs for the system,

I have asked them twice if I can replace the spring and felt piece with the gearbox attached and the lathe set up in the stand.

So far no reply.

There is NO mention in the book which came with the lathe about any of this either.

Can anyone help me with this.

Cheers

You can replace the felt wick by removing the spindle. No idea why you would want to replace the spring, they don't really wear out. If you really must replace the spring you need to take the headstock off as can be see from Fig 27 here

**LINK**

as you can see the bore for the spring is larger than the hole in the headstock bearing and the other end is underneath on the mating face with the bed.

regards Martin

This got my attention because although I recall replacing the felt wick when I re-built my S7 many years ago I could remember nothing about the spring and wondered whether I had inadvertently failed to replace it!

However, I note from the manual that the spring is retained by a sealing plug beneath which is an O ring and my guess is that I left the spring, etc in place - commonsense suggests that the wick would have long since stopped working if the spring were absent.

I agree that it seems unnecessary to renew the spring but as a matter of good practice the wick and O ring should no doubt be replaced when there is an opportunity to do so.

Edited By ega on 26/03/2018 15:32:43

Thank you Gentlemen,

My first and previous lathe was a Super 7 with an oiler, I loved it because I could set the pin point screw to allow a drip of oil, the best thing was I could see it working.

I would hate to run the bearing dry and most likely used more oil then necessary.

The new oil system, I cant see if the oil is getting freely to the bearing, I did not know about the air hole mentioned above.Taking the spindle out to see if it is working is a serious business.

I didnt know the spindle had to come out to see if it was wicking correctly.

My lathe is only a recent up grade made in 1986, my previous was made in 1952 and still a beautiful machine.