Faircut lathe

Would appreciate some help from the Faircut lathe owners.

we are in the process of renovating an old Faircut lathe. The drive motor a subject of a previous post has been overhauled, and we are now pondering what oil should be used for the head stock bearings, slides and lead screw. Could some advise please.

thanks

mick

Hi Mick, hope you are enjoying your Faircut.

As far as I know there is no known surviving manual. 1930s lubrication specs often had much lower expectations than those of today though - I've seen one that (paraphrasing) says 'don't use cooking oil'

I feed my headstock bearings with ISO 100 Mobil DTE Heavy... which I think is the stuff recommended for Myfords... but Myfords have a different bearing design.

The oil will flow through the headstock and out again, sometimes on to the back of the chuck. I do find that ISO 100 is less likely to fly around the workshop when used in the headstock than say ISO 32. Note... *less* likely - it will still fly.

On the slides, feed screws etc. I use ISO 32 hydraulic oil (mine came from Machine Mart) which may be right or wrong.

I am sure that other opinions will be along.

My Drummond M-type lathe, of similar vintage and style to the Faircut, has been lubricated for the past 50 years or more exclusively with whatever motorbike engine oil is kicking around the shed at the time.

Others prefer to use hydraulic oil and yet others derive great joy from special thick and tacky machine tool "way oil" specially made for the purpose.

The main thing is that you use oil, rather than exactly what type of oil. Like Andy above, I have tried and found ISO 32 hydraulic oil too thin for drip feed headstock bearings and it just seems to flow straight out the bottom and splatter everywhere. So I soon reverted to the tried and true 20/50 engine oil. Cheap and cheerful.

Have fun with your vintage lathe. They can be very satisfying to turn out good work on old machines.

Hello Andy and Hopper, many thanks for your replies, most appreciated.
At present there are two holes (approx 4mm dis) directly above the bearings. Where, I assume, that there was at one time some sort of drip feeders mounted ?
For interest the lathe has not been used for some forty years, so looking forward to our first attempt at lathe work 😁

cheers

mick

My 1929 Ideal has similar 4mm dia holes in the headstock with short brass cups of the same diameter and maybe 3mm tall sitting in them. There is no indication that anything else sat on top, so I assume they were just oil holes that were replenished every time the lathe was used, which is what I do. There are similar 4mm dia holes in the cast iron bushes supporting the layshaft.

Like Hopper I use good quality 20W50 motor oil which in the Brisbane Australia climate is thin enough to penetrate and provide a good film but stiff enough to not get flung around at operating speeds provided I don't overlubricate. Usually I fill the available holes, start up and run with no load for a couple of minutes until that oil has spread, then top up before using the lathe for actual turning.

So far I have not experienced any problems and there is always a good meniscus (if that is the correct term) of oil around the shaft and outer ends of the headstock bushes while running which shows the oil has spread through the whole bush. Similar for the layshaft bushes.

Mine has a little brass cup that is a puch fit into the hole above each bearing. They are not big (and not the same size on each bearing) so they run out fairly quickly. I made some brass lids to keep debris out.

If you fit something bigger then I'd strongly advise against tapping or any other changes to the holes in the headstock casting. I've seen one Faircut with a broken headstock where the oil holes had been enlarged and tapped.