Need to grease my jet...

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angboy

Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2005
Messages
2,136
Location
North Las Vegas, NV
I have all sorts of bottles of various lubricants- in my shop guys! I have ones that I can't even name, but some include brake stuff, and white lightening, and lithium something and maguire's (red) magic stuff, and of course, some WD-40... I know that one of them was one that I bought to lube my jet lathe awhile back. Well it's starting to sound like the knees of a creaky old fart guy- sounds like it's puttering along when it starts up and shuts down. So I think it needs me to squirt one of these liquids into it, but I can't remember which one is appropriate. Can anyone help? What sorts of ingredients should the proper lathe-lubricant have or not have?
 
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I am a newcomer to this hobby,but I can't imagine what would require greasing.I know that mine can make sqeeking noises coming from the 60 degree live center tip sqeeking inside the dimple of the mandral if it's not snug there.The ball bearings are sealed,I would guess in the headstock,and live center.

Can you detect where the noise is coming from? That would give you an idea on if it's something you can grease,I'd think.

Hope you get it solved,

Steve
 
The bearings are sealed so no lube there. If it's a smaller Jet, maybe the set screws on the pulleys backed out, this can cause some disturbing noise.
 
Owners manual? I can't use that, can I? I thought that was against the rules :biggrin:. Anyway, it maybe more of a cracking, creeking kind of noise, which is why it reminded me of knees. It's definitely coming from the headstock and it just sounds like it's complaining as it starts up and slows down, and is making this sort of knocking sound. It's a rhythmic sound and could be normal, it's just that it's a chance in that it seems louder than how it would normally sound when starting up or slowing down. And I remember that I had used one of the many bottles of various lubricants that I have, to in the past just remove the headstock cover and squirt some in there on that round thing that moves inside the headstock.
 
The "round thing" is the pulley that the belt rides on. Lubing it will make the belt slip. Unless the pulley set screws are loose (as mentioned above) then chances are you have a bearing going out and since they are sealed, the only remedy is changing them.
 
I received a Turn crafter for xmas. It came in the 12th of Jan. Thats when my troubles began Alinement for one. Was eating my live centers It would start squealling like a pig. I took a steathascope and found the problem , bearing at the pully. They sent me a replacement motor. It came in broken. Looks like the box was dropped. I'm now waiting for a replacement lathe. Non in until mid July. Wish I could lube mine.
 
hilltopper46 said:
I'm a creaky old fart guy and I take glucosamine. I don't know whether or not it work on your lathe, though....
Click to expand...

Tony ... You are NOT alone here on the Forum. I know I am right there with you!

As far as the lube question, IF it squeaks I believe you need to be sure just what is squeaking. IF it groans/moans something is definitely not right and you must find it now. :cool:

As advised already ... KEEP ALL GREASE AND OIL OFF YOUR PULLYS, unless you just want to have slipping belts. Quiet, but slipping!

I suggest the manual or quick call to the manufacturer for suggestions.
 
What you describe sound like a worn belt. Have you had any jams that stopped the headstock dead but the motor kept going? That would account for the bumping noise from the material worn off the inside of the belt at the jam point.
Another thing to check for is shavings trapped in the slide of the belt tensioner keeping you from applying the correct amount of pressure to the belt.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I'm sure hoping it's not bearings because frankly I don't know what those look like or where they're located or what I'd do if that was the problem. I did notice another symptom tonight, which is that when I was stopping to sand what I was working on, when I tried to twist the turney handle on the left, twisting it in the opposite direction of the way it turns when the lathe is on, it was kind of grabbing or feeling really tight in a few places. I did take the cover off the motor and it had a lot of gunky stuff in it so I cleaned that up some and kind of realized then that I hadn't changed the belt in quite awhile, and it was looking kind of rough.

When I turned everything manually with the cover off, again it kind of felt like it was sticking during the revolutions. I couldn't see any kind of pattern like that it did that at any certain contact point on the belt, but I did have a spare belt so I'll try to figure out how I changed that before and see if things improve once I take that step. Hopefully that'll solve the problems and I won't have to worry about where or what a bearing is!
 
One thing that is worth trying is to turn the handwheel back and forth by hand with the belt under tension. See if it feels like there is any slop in the connection between the handwheel and the motor, i.e when you reverse direction does the handwheel turn a bit before the motor begins to follow along.

Another thing to check is to turn the handwheel until you get to that "tight" spot and make a mark with a crayon or pencil on both the spindle shaft pully and the motor shaft pully (make the mark on a spot where belts never run). See if there is a pattern to the location of these marks when you hit the "tight" spots when turning the handwheel.
 
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