Mill spindle lubricant

[Janger]

ISO 32 or 10W oil.

I bought Alexander's Force International Mill with his CNC conversion. There is no manual... Checking online there is no manual (it's a House of Tools machine). Grizzly has a similar but not quite the same machine. I was reading the grizzly manual on lubrication - the spindle seems a bit shrill to me when running so I thought I would check the grizzly manual. It says to put 2 -3 squirts from an oil can of ISO 32 or equivalent oil (10W weight) between the spindle sleeve and bearing every 40 hours. The picture shows this part of the spindle. Does that sound like a good idea to the forum?

It's hard to tell from the picture but the bearing looks to be a pretty standard O type roller bearing with a plastic cover over the ball bearings. If that is the type then would grease be more typical and probably not actually required for a permanent bearing?

 

[RobinHood]

ISO 32 spindle lubricant sounds right to me.

Here is what I use on all my spindles:



I went with the ISO 22 weight because both my Tool Post Grinder and my Tool & Cutter Grinder recommend 22 weight. I use it in the mill as well - purrs like a kitten with the stuff.

 

[Alexander]

I never gave it much thought because that mill spindle is cheap and easy to rebuild if need be. That being said I like the way you cleaned it up and your making improvements.

 

[kevin.decelles]

I use ISO32 as well. I happened across a couple 55gallon drums of it


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[PeterT]

Your mill is different than my RF-45 but I lurk on forums where guys rebuild or CNC convert offshore machines like these. Lubrication on these offshore Asian jobbies is typically: 'it depends'. Sealed bearings are a hint there is grease in the race. The oil squirt rec probably means relatively low volume directed at sliding parts occassionally. But too much or too thin might not be great to the extent that oil can get inside the seal, reduce grease viscosity or wash it out over time. Hard to tell from your pic & I'm not familiar with the machine. Just saying, maybe check into it a bit further. Noise could be from any number of sources. My mill rattles like the gears don't like each other but it did that from day-1 & apparently the culprit is the sliding spline shaft, not the gear head. The new versions of my mill seem much quieter, yet have essentially the same gearhead. So they must have addressed this.