Hello all,
It's probably past time to get some proper way oil. You seem to be in complete agreement on using it for the ways because it will stay in place.
What do the oil ports by the dials lubricate? Which oil should I use there? I am particularly interested because the left "dial" is my power feed; I need to remove the feed to get to the port. I don't care much for me; it seems a shame to have to mess around with the feed unit. Is there a way to oil the relevant parts from below? It seems the maker of the feed could have put a hole in the thing to provide access to the port?? I am really enjoying the feed despite the small annoyance of reaching the oil port.
For the spindle, you guys seem to have some divergent opinions, or perhaps I need to be very careful about the type of bearing in choosing the oil - it was not clear in skimming the search results. I've been shooting 30W in there because that's what I have on hand, and any clean oil is better than no oil. Is spindle oil preferred for a Rong Fu 31? So far, I have found only a port near the base of the spindle. Is there any other place I should oil on the spindle? Pour it in the top, and let it run down, etc.??
Speaking of the spindle, I was trying different speeds to prevent tear out in some very soft (in spots at least) pine that I am using to make a model for part of a gizmo I am designing, and had the mill running fairly fast for a while. I noted that the spindle was (very) slightly warm to the touch; not at all hot, just warm. Is that normal, or am I not using enough or proper type of oil?
Back to the feed, somewhere in the manual I saw a mention of the kind of grease they want for the plastic gear, and I can no longer find it. IIRC, the said to avoid silicon??? Anybody know or simply have a preference? Its still pretty gooey in there, but while I'm buying lubricating gunk for the mill, I want to cover the bases. What about lubricating the gear the engages the screw?
Are there any other types of lubricants I should be asking about?
While I am paying for shipping, I plan to get a scale and probably a few more endmills. So far, I have a HSS starter set. Any recommendations for branching out? A 1/2 inch endmill seems to work well for a lot of what I have been doing, and obviously smaller radii can be useful at times. Should I start by getting a couple of carbide endmills of sizes that I find useful, or am I heading for trouble by not buying sizes in between?
Thanks!
Bill