Grease

[Richard J]

Evening Happy Easter
Being a farmer, I have greased the bearings on my Viceroy lathe with normal EP grease. Does anyone know what I SHOULD have used. The lathe is now sluggish when cold, and reluctant to take higher speeds until warm. The trip keeps tripping. If the grease is ok, maybe I need a new trip switch, or maybe a start up new capacitor.
Any advice as usual would be superb

Cheers Richard

 

[Paul Hannaby]

I would be surprised if the grease made much difference to the operation of the lathe. You could try releasing the drive belt tension and spinning the spindle by hand to check if it is moving freely when both cold and warm to see if there is a significant difference.

 

[sunnybob]

How much grease? Did you force it into the bearings till they were full?
That would slow it down. Bearings shouldnt be completely full. I only wipe grease around the outside with my finger while turning the spindle by hand.

Have you checked the makers recommendations? most manuals are available online now.

Do you have a way of measuring the capacitor? Quite a few multi function test meters have that now. look for a setting with a small back to front y with an f next to it (stands for micro farad). If you have one and it does, you must disconnect both terminals before testing it. If not, replace that as a first solution anyway as they arent very expensive and can cause slow running.

 

[Richard J]

Hi
Thankyo for your replies.
Yes to be fair I do pump grease into a bearing until I see I start to weep around the seal. So maybe I've pumped it in too much. I will keep my eye on it.
I will look for a manual.

Cheers

R

 

[sunnybob]

As paul said, the easiest way to check the bearings is to disconnect the motor and turn it by hand.
Capacitor is first suspect, then the grease. Its unlikely to be the fuse /mcb/ whatever unless that and the wiring is pretty old.

 

[Richard J]

We are busy Lambing at the moment,and not much time for playing!! I had a quick look,and is the capacitor in the switch box, in the motor end, or behind the plate on the back of the machine? I know it's not in the junction box on top of the motor, because that was my first point of call, and it's not there!!! I have 4 up to 400 uf in stock. ( I know it's not really a 'u')!!!!!!!!!!!

Richard

 

[sunnybob]

Lambing? here in Cyprus theyre harvesting the grass for silage. I think lambs happen as and when here, as i never see a bunch of lambs at any particular time as the weather is not an issue to them.

Dont know your lathe and motor, but I have never seen a capacitor at a different location than at the motor.
Is there a piggy back hump on top of it?

Funny thing about the backwards y, but I'm actually typing this on a greek keyboard, but I would have to tell the puter to reboot into greek for me to type it.
The hardest thing about helping people on the internet is not knowing how much they know to start with.
Is this yours?
http://www.lathes.co.uk/viceroy/img10.gif

 

[Richard J]

Looks very much like it.
I have only been as far as Paphos and Limassol in Cyprus.