Warco vmc chester 626 lubrication

Hi all, I've been a busy bee playing with my new mill, really please with it. I downloaded the manual but it is not very thorough on lubrication Particularly interested in the quill and bearings. When the machine is running thick brown grease is sprayed out from the botoom of the quill. Is this normal and if not should there be an oil seal? How do others lubricate?

New mill? Second hand could mean anything from dead seal, to worn sealing surface, to worn bearings to over-greasing.

My very old Centec loses oil from the quill. Slowly but surely. I live with it.

It's only a few years old and had next to no use if any. The table still had the wax paper, hopefully it just needs a seal or something simple like that. But looking at the spares list there is no such part

A large jubilee clip securing some form of ‘catcher’ to the non-moving part, to prevent the thrown lubricant reaching you or the surroundings, might be practical solution. Losing lubricant may, or may not, be an issue.

Hi Adam,

I've had a similar problem with my Weiss WMD30LV. The difference being that it was emating at the top of the spindle and rendering the rev counter useless. Having cleaned it a number of times, it does sem to have stopped now. Either run out of grease, or found anequilibrium. I'm not inclined to worry too much. Possibly the manufacturer was a bit enthusiastic when they applied said grease.

HTH & ATB,

Daniel

Edited By Daniel on 08/04/2019 15:23:29

Edited By Daniel on 08/04/2019 15:24:43

If the machine has not seen much use, it is possible that the lipseal has not yet bedded fully to the seal diameter on the shaft. It may be that the grease in the seal has hardened, and when the grease warms up with extended use, it will soften and allow the seal to bed, and function as intended.

I should live with it. Either the seal will bed in, or the excess grease will work its way out.. Only worry of it continues to leak.

Howard

Thanks for the responses. Looking at the manual it does talk about bedding in and running it for 20 minutes clockwise then 20 minutes anti at low speed then 5 minutes high speed. I'll do that and see what happens.

Cheers

I've owned my Warco VMC for over 20 years, although it is a Taiwanese made version the design is pretty much the same as the current Chinese made examples. Years ago the spindle bearing grease in mine also leaked out on a very hot day. The workshop it was in had a steel roof and the temperature inside was stifling and the grease just flowed out.

The circular cover on the bottom of the quill does not contain an oil seal, it just fits with a small gap around the spindle. When I removed the cover to repack the bottom bearing with grease I machined the cover to accept a felt seal. A light grip of the seal on the spindle is required, if it's a little tight a lot of heat is generated when running high up the speed range.

Thanks Lathejack, it sounds like that's the issue. I just finished bedding the bearings in as the manual states and the oil has stopped but then it's been running in the lowest speed and not even warm after 40 minutes where as actual milling made it warm yesterday. I like the felt seal idea.

Regards

Adam