The lubricants to be used

After translating the oil tables that appear in the Boley Leinen datasheets to ISO grades, and according to my oil dealer, I ended using these oils:

I want to add some notes about lubrication:

  • Renolin MR is a detergent oil. This helped to clean the gearboxes from the old sludge. Just fill with this oil, wait som weeks to dissolve the sludge and replace the oil again. You will end with a clear oil. In case that the oilsight glasses were stained, get a new ones from Teplast. I bought there my spare oil windows. Nice people. Look at the sightglases transparency:

  • It is not clear if detergent oil can be used in the wet clutch. However, Ortlinghaus specifically recomends Renolin MR for his wet clutches. Then, I tried it. I have had no problems of slipping with the clutch.

  • Double check that the oils that you select are not corrosive for copper alloys (like bronze). Look at the ASTM D130 corrosion test results in the oil datasheet. The lower the best.

  • For the guides, the slidings and the barrel of the tailstock I use a slideways ISO 68 oil. However, the gearox oil performs well enough.

  • I used to lubricate the timing gears using a bit of Molybdenum grease (like Molycote BR2) and a couple of drops of gearbox oil.

Volumes of lubricant

The volume of oil that I use in each gearbox is approximately as follows:

  1. Spindle bearings. Unknown. Less than 40 ml each however.
  2. Tumbler gearbox: 50 ml.
  3. Backgear gearbox: 50 ml.
  4. Screw cutting gearbox: 150 ml.
  5. Apron: 150 ml.
  6. Wet clutch: 125 ml.
  7. Bearing of the clutch shaft and plain pulley of the headstock: some cc of grease now and then.

This amounts a total of 80 ml of ISO VG5 oil and 525 ml of ISO VG 68 oil.

Replacing the old lubricant

The headstock oil plugs are located in the following places. Note that I have seen headstocks without some of these plugs (??).

Spindle bearings

You drain the old oil unscrewing two oil plugs. In the case of the back bearing, the first plug is located in the lowest part of the bearing cover (F), the second is in the back part of the headstock (B). Maybe using only the plug in the bearing cover (F) should be enough. You can refill the oil using a plug just in the top of the bearing, under the headstock cover (Y). The procedure for the front bearing is analogous.

Tumbler gearbox

You drain the oil using plug at the bottom of the headstock  (D). Oil can be refilled by straightly uncovering the tumbler gearbox (P).

Backgear gearbox

You drain the oil using plug at the bottom of the headstock  (C). Oil can be refilled by straightly uncovering the backgear gearbox (Q).

Other gearboxes and clutch

The draining plug are in the bottom of the box and their are easy to locate. The filling plugs are on the top and are evident to locate too (W and Z). The plugs of the clutch can be seen in this post.

Lubrication plan

Original Boley Leinen instructions contain a lubrication plan sheet. In some specimens it is also attached to the lathe. I reedited one of these sheets to improve the image quality, translate it to english and actualize oil characteristics to ISO VG. You can download it from this pdf.