Quick step mill

Hi Gents

I have recently inherited a John Payne quick step mill. And there is reference in the accompanying information on lubrication levels. Is there an actual level plug on the unit. as I cannot see anything obvious and the.literature supplied does not show anything. It just makes a reference to lubrication.

Regards

Phil

This point has been raised before here - do a top right of page search for quick step.

I *think* the filler plug is the hex screw above and to the right of the pulley from the gearbox. Please post when you find the answer!

Pull the small electric plug above the gear change out.

This will allow you to pull the black cover at the rear off.

Just above and to the right of the large pulley is hex head bolt... remove this to add oil to the gearbox.

There is no oil level indicator... ! (except when it comes out of the bolt hole...)

Put the plug bolt back, and reassemble.

Mine doesn't seem to leak oil, and I haven't refilled it for ages... must do so again soon..

Hope that helps!!

Alan

From the Quick-Step manual:

"Lubrication

Use Shell Tellus 37 oil or equivalent. Invert machine and fill to level of filler plug."

On my machine, the filler plug is an Allen cap screw. If the gearbox is filled to the plug level with the machine upright there will be far too much oil in the gearbox.

This is a first-class bit of kit, with its own built-in vertical slide. My only objection is that its weight being well forward tends to bind the cross-slide dovetails.

Do you mean that the oil level should be checked with the spindle horizontal and the body upright?

The prize-winning forerunner to the QSM was, I believe, a larger and heavier machine.

The only interpretation I can put on the maker's instruction is as shown in the photo (this is my first attempt at uploading a photo on this forum so we must live in hope).

The carrying handle is held in the bench vice. From the position of the filler plug you can see that at least twice as much oil will go into the gearbox if the machine is held in its normal, upright position for filling.

I didn't know that a larger, heavier machine was built. John Payne did, I believe, serialise the Quick-Step before going into production.

I should have added that I imagine the reason for the need to invert the mill for oil filling is that if the machine is upright, the oil level which John Payne designed for would have put the filler plug behind the large pulley.

jwb:

Thank you for your helpful further comments. I admit I had failed to note that the instructions do say to invert the machine.

To quote from the promotional colour leaflet "In 1991 a version of the Quick Step Mill, designed for the larger lathe, won the top award in a design competition organised by the Worshipful Company of Turners. This machine created a demand for a smaller version suitable for the 3 1/2" centre lathe and for those lathes not equipped with a quick change toolpost."

There was some information about the QSM in MEW for October 1998.