[cowanrg]

I finally pulled the trigger and bought a PM-30MVL. It's arriving tomorrow and my first project will be to do a one-shot oiler setup. I want to get this taken care of first when I'm cleaning it and getting it put together on the stand. I've been reading a lot about oiler systems and I think I'm at the point where I can ask some educated questions.

I bought a manual pump from eBay:

Manual Pump Oiler for Bridgeport Milling Machine One Shot Lubrication CLA8 B | eBay

And was going to run that into a manifold, then into check valves, and into push-fittings in the saddle and ballnuts (to come later). So I'd need approximately 9 feeds from the manifold. I was looking at this manifold in place of making one:

Pneumatic Throttling Adjustable 10 Ways Oil Distributor Valve Manifold Block | eBay

Theoretically, you can adjust the output of each connection. With a simple check valve attached to each output, that should make for a pretty simple system. What do you think?

[AVRnj]

Ive been thinking more about this lately as well as now is the time to do it rather than later. If you do this, would you mind sharing your design?

[cowanrg]

Sure thing. I've read a ton, seriously.

I'm rethinking doing just check valves. It seems like the metered valves are the way to go. But honestly, it seems like if you could just adjust the flow, you could tweak it all a little bit and get similar results. Other people's feedback would be nice. I'll keep looking, but if I did check valves, metered valves, and flow regulators, we'd be talking around $40 per feed, plus the manifold, etc. That brings it up to nearly $500 all said and done. That's a lot when you could probably do it where it would MOSTLY work for $150.

[AVRnj]

Sure thing. I've read a ton, seriously.

I'm rethinking doing just check valves. It seems like the metered valves are the way to go. But honestly, it seems like if you could just adjust the flow, you could tweak it all a little bit and get similar results. Other people's feedback would be nice. I'll keep looking, but if I did check valves, metered valves, and flow regulators, we'd be talking around $40 per feed, plus the manifold, etc. That brings it up to nearly $500 all said and done. That's a lot when you could probably do it where it would MOSTLY work for $150.

I have not read much on this, other than see what a few others have done, so I will follow this closely. $150 seems reasonable, $500 seems like a lot to spend on this upgrade. The components you mention look like they should work fine, but I really don't know much about this topic.

[pippin88]

I've been looking at the same manifolds on eBay. Can't find anyone who has used them.

The metered valves, as you've found, seem to be quite expensive and I can't justify the expense.

[cowanrg]

Yeah, I'm thinking the metered valves just aren't the right thing for an application such as this.

I'm running through a few ideas, but I was thinking of maybe even doing 4 manifolds. one would split the main feed into 3 separate manifolds. Then those three manifolds would have 3 outputs, going to each axis (left, right, and ballnut). My thinking is that if you have a single manifold with 9 taps, there's more chance to have a single output be the path of least resistance. If you use several manifolds, you can put a single check valve on each axis, this only using 3 check valves instead of 9. Also, with 3 mini-systems, you could add metered valves, or flow controls before each individual axis/manifold if you needed better control.

AVRnj, did you ever get the ballnuts installed? You're waiting to see what I do with a one-shot oiler setup, and I'm waiting to see how the double-nuts work out :-)

[AVRnj]

cowanrg, I have not yet installed the ball nuts.

I have designed the mounts for all three axis, and my plan was to 3D print them and install them with the plastic parts first to make sure I am happy with the design before machining the aluminum for my real mounts.

I have run into a few snags, first, time, just have not had as much time as I would like to work on this more.

Second, I had to rebuild my printer as my x axis bushings were shot and I could not get a decent print and was getting constant stalling, took longer than anticipated, but I now have the parts printed for my Y axis, will be doing X next.

Third, my Y ball nut was in the opposite direction of how I need to install it, so I had been trying to machine a piece of plastic like Hoss did to flip it, and that has turned out to be a real pain in the butt. I am using 7202B bearings, which have a 15mm ID, and I am using 20mm ballscrews, so I need to turn down the plastic to about a 16.8mm OD, with a slightly larger than 15mm ID for a tube. This has turned out to be a bigger pain than I imagined as I was not used to turning plastic, and it ends up being a very, very thin walled tube which seems to not machine well at all (tried 3 different types of plastic, and I am on a first name basis with the will call folks at McMaster!)

I finally got a piece turned, and tried to flip them, and the plastic ended up cracking and now I need to repack all of the balls! Tomorrow mornings project, not looking forward to that. If you happen to use the same screws and bearings as me, make sure to request of Chai to put the ball nut in the right direction! I wanted to ask him to do that and just forgot.

So my hope is that by next week I can at least mount everything with the plastic and be ready to start working on my aluminum. I will update my log with pics when I get that far. If you are interested, I could post CAD picks of my mount design in my log in the meantime.

[cowanrg]

AVRnj,

that sounds good. I'll keep that in mind when ordering my screws and nuts. I wasn't looking forward to re-packing. It will be awhile before I order parts for the actual CNC conversion, but I like to plan, so this is all good information. I'm curious how you're doing your mounts, it seems everyone does it a bit differently. I was thinking of prototyping the mounts in wood or plastic first. I have access to a FormLabs printer, so I could easily make some out of resin.

[AVRnj]

I don't think I am doing anything really unique with my mounts, I did build in some flexibility vertically for my bearing mounts so that I can get my axis perfectly level rather than having a tilt. The PM30 nuts really need to screw into the saddle, particularly on the Y axis so I think the mounts need to be able to find their position and have some wiggle room to get it right, since on the G0704 the nut mounts are more pressed against the saddle and have some vertical and horizontal room that the PM30 does not really have. X axis kind of has it, but I would feel better with this big of a machine if the nut mounts are a bit more securely fastened to the saddle. I will post some CAD pics a bit later when I have some time on my log.

[cowanrg]

Well, I just placed a couple orders for things. I ended up going with the adjustable manifold listed in my first comment. I had it all setup to buy something different with 9 different flow control valves, but it was going to cost and additional $100. I figured I might as well see if that manifold works. It's not like this is a critical system really.

[AVRnj]

I actually bought the same one you linked as well, going to see if I can make it work as well. At $23 or so shipped I thought it was a good risk.

[Kevinj308]

I bought one of those manifolds as well, thanks for the link!

[COMachineist]

Hi All
I have been trying to figure out how to get the oil to the ball nuts. I have the Liner motion double nut on my machine. Was thinking just to dibble oil on the screw but that makes a mess real quick. I have not been able to find 6mm fittings to fit the ball nut grease fitting. Any one got any ideas on that. I also have one of these manifolds as well I picked it up a while ago but its the same type thing you linked to.
CH

[Fastest1]

Modify a grease fitting to accept the tubing? Or rethread the hole to something available.

[hoss2006]

I'll be using these M6x1.0 hose barbs from mcmaster that a guy named Garrett emailed me that he used back in Jan.
McMaster-Carr #5058K325
Hoss

[cowanrg]

Have you searched eBay? There's a lot of 6mm fittings on there. I'm just going to be using the push fittings. If the thread is 6mm, it should all work out.

Here's something:

10 Push in to Connect One Touch Elbow Fittings 4 mm M6 | eBay

[underthetire]

Did you check Lubeusa? Fittings are pretty cheap. You can order from all world machine parts. They have pretty much everything for lube systems.

Sent from my G-Tab Quantum using Tapatalk

[cowanrg]

Here's my rough sketch of the system. Everything is on order and was a little over $100 for everything. I haven't bought tubing yet, but I want to wait to see how everything works before buying tubing.

The pump will go into a check valve, eliminating (minimizing?) backflow. This then gets split into two manifolds. I decided to use 2 manifolds just make things neater. Everything before the manifolds is 6mm OD tubing. Theoretically, each port on the manifolds can be roughly adjusted to get the right flow for each fitting. Ideally, I'd use a metered valve at each point, but that nearly triples the cost of the whole system. My wife works in a lab and they use systems like this, along with little tube clamps to regulate flow. It might be a bit fiddly to adjust, but should work.

The outputs of the manifolds are 4mm OD tubing which goes to 90 degree elbows. The 2x6 manifold will supply the X and Y axes. Each will have 3 valves, two for the ways (one for each side), and one for the bull nut. I will show my layout later. The 2x3 manifold is specifically for the Z carriage and is once again 2 for the ways and one for the nut. I assume the nut will need restriction to allow better flow to the ways.

If things don't work out so well, metered valves could be added before each manifold for greater control. But hopefully oil will get to where it needs to generally speaking. I'm also curious if the brass fittings can be removed from the manifolds and replaced with the easier push fittings. I couldn't find dimensions on the threading, so I'll just have to play with them and see if that can happen. I'd prefer if the whole system was all push fittings (for no real reason).

[AVRnj]

Looks good, where did you order the valve and the fittings from?

[johnsattuk]

One Shot Lubrication System - Arc Euro Trade