Originally Posted by
SCzEngrgGroup
On a hobby machine, I very much doubt it makes one bit of difference whether you use grease or oil. Oil would certainly be preferred on a very high speed machine, like a 1500 IPM VMC. But, give the limited speeds of hobby machines, and the limited use they see, and the fact that they are not expected to run 24/7 for 10 years, either grease or oil will work just fine.
I struggled for years to get the knee ways of my knee mill properly lubricated with oil. It finally got to the point where rapid speeds had to be tuned down, due to lack of lubrication, and I couldn't force more oil in. So, I removed the automatic oiler, and put in Zerk fittings, and got out my grease gun. Within 10 minutes, I had full rapid speeds restored, and could ever hear that the servo was not working as hard. I was actually able to tune the servo to higher speed than ever before.
I used nothing but grease on my X2, and never had a problem with it.
Regards,
Ray L.
Interesting point I learned when we installed our Brother machine at work. We asked what oil to use on it and the tech told us the machine used grease. This is a 2000IPM rapid speed machine, with a 16k spindle. The grease only needs to be squirted into the machine every 6 months, and grease does not ruin your coolant like way oil. This is just one of the things that makes the machine so reliable and much more pleasant to work with. So done right grease is up to the task as Ray is pointing out.
PM-45 CNC conversion built/run/sold.