[Bob La Londe]

It seems that most somewhat affordable linear bearing and ballscrew machines are built with no provision or thought towards lubrication. They get run with whatever grease is already in the balls until they start to die.

I have one professional machine, and it has a pneumatic power hydraulic oiler that puts a drop of oil on every primary lubrication point every 15 minutes. My Taig has no provision for lubrication at all. I've taken to applying way oil to every thing on it with a paint brush every few hours. Thats kind of awkward if its in the middle of a 9 hour cut. LOL. My little Chinese router has round rails and cheap ballscrews with no easy way to lubricate them. They appear to have been originally grease lubricated, but there aren't any grease zerks or easy oil point for long term lubrication.

What got me thinking about this a combination of things.

I recently stuck the quill on my big mill because at some point it was run without oil, and it scored the quill and the liner. The oil it was getting was not distributing well enough after that for the 3D machining it was doing at the time. Nothing I can do about that now. The damage was done before I got it. I am building a "companion" spindle (full Z assembly) to go on the front of the head on that mill using a cheap ballscrew assembly purchased on-line. (Its temporary - when I get current paid jobs done I'll build a new one or rebuild that one with a better ballscrew) Its ok for the price, but has the same issues as most ballscrew and round rail assemblies. No obvious way to keep it lubricated or relubricate.

I also have parts accumulating for a couple machine builds. All of the ballscrews I have seem to have a hole in the flange, but I don't know if that is a lube point or not. There is no cap or zerk there. I've also got supported round rails with half bearings, and square rails with bearing blocks. The round rails and bearings also have no obvious lubrication points. The square rails are mostly THK purchased as the opportunity arose and deals were found. The square rails all have what appears to be a tiny little grease zerk on the bearing block.

Help please.

Lubrication and relubricating your average 1605 (or similar) Chinese ballscrews.

Lubrication and relubricating for supported round rail bearing blocks.

Lubrication and relubricating THK (or similar) square rail bearing blocks.

[underthetire]

Be careful, those may not be zerk fittings for grease. A lot of modern rails have small oil reservoirs built in. they have a small hand oil pump to give them a shot every 2000 hours or so. A lot of the big boys use them now to be "eco friendly".

[Bob La Londe]

Be careful, those may not be zerk fittings for grease. A lot of modern rails have small oil reservoirs built in. they have a small hand oil pump to give them a shot every 2000 hours or so. A lot of the big boys use them now to be "eco friendly".

Ok, so you have given more things to worry about anyway...

Anyway, the bearing blocks on the THK ones I have will roll right off the end of the rail. If you are not extremely careful the bearings will pop out of the wire retainer when you do that. Oops. They appear to be coated with grease.

So anyway, back to the topic which is how to lubricate and relubricate as above.

P.S. I am not sure how oil would be any more eco friendly than grease. Its not like we can use whale oil anymore.

[mountaindew]

Might get some ideas search for Constant Level Lubrication - Oilers
or summit pump inc has some cool stuff
hope this helps
md

[bhurts]

I can't help on the round rail blocks. The ballscrew should have a threaded hole in the flange. It should take a metric m6 grease fitting. Grease it every few weeks. It should retain most of it's grease internally so that may be to often. If you see grease squeezing out somewhere else to are full. Avoid over doing it or you can damage the seals. The thk bearings will either have a grease fitting on one end of the blocks or a screw in rack end that holds the seals and wipers on. If they have the screws just remove one and replace with a grease fitting. My 25mm ina rails use 6mm fittings. Same rules apply for greasing the blocks as for the screws. If you find large clumps of grease building up on each end of the rails or screws then your over doing it. You can use any bearing grease with no issues. For years I used the red marine grease and it worked great. I now use clear ball bearing grease I get locally at a place called Shawn products. It is what I'll use from now on. It's about 15 dollars a tube and works for spindle bearings also. The big reason for the change is it is not black, red or green so no staining on clothes.

Ben