I read the auto oiler installation sheet the other day and it kind of raised my eyebrows.

I seem to recall it said after purging the oil lines to set it for 5 seconds every 4 hours. I've got four other (non-Tormach) machines with auto oilers and all of them oil much more frequently than that and for a longer interval. Even my one industrial grade machine was originally setup to automatically oil every fifteen minutes with an electro-mechanical clock timer. That machine shows little way surface wear and it was originally put in service in 1984. Two of my machines have cast iron ways with little or no signs of wear and two have square linear rails. All have ballscrews.

Now I would have just ignored that setting and set something that made me feel more comfortable, except the installation sheet seems to indicate that excessive oiling can CAUSE damage.

I tend to do a lot of complex 3D work that will have a lot of short axis reciprocating moves. I've read that can result in oil being "scrubbed" from those areas. Since Tormach's documentation seemed to conflict with the operation of my other machines, and I might have a specific issue related to the previous sentence I contacted Tormach.

I asked Tormach Tech Support and I did not receive a comprehensive answer. I received... "Its just a starting point."

So I am still left trying to decide how much and how often to set the automatic oiler for to ensure minimal wear over time.