[jetflatline]

Couldn't find any existing threads on this...

Last weekend I did a lot of high-speed drilling in Al plate and i noticed that every 5 or 10 minutes a rather large drop of oil would appear on a plate almost directly under the spindle. This was manual mode and I was being pretty gentle on the feed to save the drill bits. The head was warm to the touch but not hot like others have experienced.

Having never owned a "real" mill before, I'm not sure if this is expected behavior or not. Is it worth tearing it down and replacing all the seals or do I just keep an eye on the oil level and top it off as needed?

thx,
--jet

[Runner4404spd]

My recommendation is to just keep an eye on it and top it off. i went through a pretty extensive overhaul of my mill when i got and the spindle assembly. i found one little hole in the casting at the top that i epoxied closed. this seemed to help. also running the oil level a little lower and i now use ATF fluid in the head also helped stopped the foaming which i believe was causing some of the pressure inside the head. also i took out the vent and drilled it out added a hose barb and attached a peice of 3/8 clear plastic tubing as my head vent.

[Runner4404spd]

My recommendation is to just keep an eye on it and top it off. i went through a pretty extensive overhaul of my mill when i got and the spindle assembly. i found one little hole in the casting at the top that i epoxied closed. this seemed to help. also running the oil level a little lower and i now use ATF fluid in the head also helped stopped the foaming which i believe was causing some of the pressure inside the head. also i took out the vent and drilled it out added a hose barb and attached a peice of 3/8 clear plastic tubing as my head vent.

[Cruiser]

Jet,
What you are seeing can be oil or it can be melted grease from the spindle. Take a mirror and look up at the bottom of the spindle and see the big washer with the holes in it. This is just a shield of sorts. If you see the drip coming from there then it is most likely melted grease. You can easily take this ring out and set it on a piece of leather, I used the tongue from an old boot, cut out a ring from leather a bit bigger and then cut the hole a bit smaller and put this up in spindle and then re-install the metal washer. This will contain the grease and assist from coolant spray and chips from getting in.
If the drip is coming from the outside of the spindle then it is oil coming from somewhere near top of box, usually from the vent and induced from foaming which can be seen in site glass, instead of oil you see the white foam. Changing the oil in box will take care of the foaming if you select the right oil, dexron ATF appears to work out fine. With no other leak points other than the vented fill cap then it would be feasible to make an extension for the vent to give room for the air to escape oil and the oil to return to the gear box. Don't go small tube, use large as possible, it doesn't have to be too long, The one I used was about 10" long and I used fittings to step it larger at the top of the tube.

[mikefayettev]

I have one of the later model 12z mills and about 6 months ago I started getting the same type of leak. I have not located the source yet but the drops are at various areas of bottom of the head. Around the spindle and all over really. I believe that if it was a spindle seal the leak would be isolated to that area. I leaks while just setting dormant. The fluid appears to be a bit darker than the DTE Heavy/Medium lube that I am using in the head.
The Dex ATF sounds like a good idea since the DTE has a lot of foaming.
I guess I will have to look closely at the housing for any cracks, etc, and check the vent as well.
Thanks all for the replies to Jet's post.

[RustedOut]

I had a oil leak problem on my IH mill a couple of years ago that ended up being the motor shaft seal. Apparently it either never was installed correctly or had worked up the shaft some. Pulled the motor and drove the seal back down and fixed it. Been good since. Doesn't sound like the source of these leaks though.

Bob

[jetflatline]

Jet,
What you are seeing can be oil or it can be melted grease from the spindle.

I assumed it was oil and not grease because it never solidifies, but I'll take a look. I think I'm just going to take apart the entire head at some point soon, all the stories of people finding sand, grit, or chips in the head makes me a bit nervous.

[dbdb]

I would take it apart, I found hand fulls of casting sand in my IH clone (inside gear box, spindle, everywhere). Alot of the bolts on/in the machine were also loose. I also had several bearings let go in the first 30 min of opperation due to the sand in the gear box.

[SWC]

I am also having some leaking issues. I hvae lost about 1 liter of oil in less than 10 hours of cut time. I have called Tommy 62 times asking for new seals and he either never gets back to me or when he actually does (3 times) he says Oh ya I will get u those seals i keep forgetting or my guys were supposed to send then to you I will check I thought we sent them to you. This has been going on since January. Does anybody know what the part numbers are for these things. I am getting tired of waiting for Tommy to get me some. Thanks

[jetflatline]

Wow, I'm only seeing drops every now and again, not a full liter.

[SWC]

Mine leaks so bad i am not even sure if there is seals in it. I ran it today for a quick 12 minute program. It triggered the limit switches at 8 mins and leaked out about 1 teaspoon of il in that time period. Mine just leaks oil even if it is not running,it will just drip all over the table. This is very fustrating to spend 12k on something and get no support. I have been asking for help since jan or feb. It has been so long I can not even remember. I have left well over 60 messages for Tommy and still no new seals or limit switches.

[sdfoiler]

SWC,

Mine had a slow leak also out of the box, but I never really worried too much about it until other stuff went to he!!. I was pretty worried about taking the head apart since I had never disassembled something like this before, but it is a VERY simple task. Seriously, I could probably take it apart replace all the bearings/seals and put it back together in an hour... ok, maybe 2 at the absolute most. Just pull the drain plug, ake the motor off, and then the top of the head. Mine was leaking where the top connects to the lower portion of the head - it wasn't a seal at all. So I put silicone on the top when putting it back together after I replaced all the bearings and all is well now. I didn't look for seals, but I got the bearings at a local bearing supply place... everything was very common - even though it's metric. After getting it back together, no more drips. I know you don't want to have to do anything to a 12K mill, but you are obviously not going to get any help from IH.

I understand Tommy is overwhelmed... either he (and IH) will succeed or fail. My guess is on the latter with customer service like this. I don't even bother calling any more. It isn't worth my time. Its sad because he has a good product. I'm guessing we are all going to be on our own very soon.

By the way, I'm guessing your limit issue is a noise issue, and not the limit switches themselves. What do you have your debounce set at?

Good luck!

[SWC]

Sdfoiler, I am very new to this so i do not even know what the debounce setting is or how to adjust it. Any tips that you can give me will be appreciated. All I know is that after cutting today for about 25 minutes there is 2 puddles of oil on my table aprox 5inches* 5 inches each. Something has to get done fast. Thanks

[sdfoiler]

Debounce is in the General Settings of Mach3. If you go into the settings, you'll see a number in that field. The bigger the number, the longer the time it takes to trigger a limit switch/estop, etc. So in theory, a noisy signal might not trigger the limit switches with a higher debounce. However, if it's too high, you might lose a little precision in your homing.

Try to find where that leak is coming from. Pull the motor off and check the seal there. Pull the front plate off and see if it's coming from around the top section. Or it could be the seal for the spindle also. But I'd try to find where the source of that leak is so you have an idea where to go. It won't be as tough as you think. You don't need to pull the spindle for now, but you may end up taking out all the gears out of the head when it's all said and done.

[Cruiser]

SWC,
Have you looked at the gear box site glass on right side while it is running and saw white foam ? Put hand on top left side of box near front and at the vented fill plug, If a pool of oil then it will flow down the inside of the front cover and pool in bottom of cavity and drool out from under the front cover and around the spindle. The best fix for this situation is to change out the oil for some that don't foam, like the dexron ATF or such.

[SWC]

sdfoiler, what setting would you recommend for this debounce? Thanks

[SWC]

Cruiser, I have a vent tube that goes in a loop about 12 or so inches. No oil on the top of the head at all. if i knew how to post pictures I could show you how much oil it leaks. I ran the machine today for about 25 minutes and I have 2 5*5 inch puddles on my table. There is no foaming when the machine runs. Any other ideas? any help on posting the pictures? Thanks

[sdfoiler]

sdfoiler, what setting would you recommend for this debounce? Thanks

Well, what I would SUGGEST for debounce is something lower than 500. But I had mine at 5000 at one point and still couldn't get the false trips to stop happening. So it's really hard to say. What is it set at right now?

Now that I have everything working, I think mine is at 500 or 200 or something. I haven't messed with it since I got the limit switch fixed (faulty wire), so I'm guessing I could lower it, but it's working so I don't care.

I know all this is frustrating. Trust me, I've beat my head against the wall for the past year and a half. But I'm still VERY glad I did this on my own. Now I understand how everything works and what's supposed to happen. It will be a good thing in the future if something decides to start giving me issues again.

[SWC]

still can not find the deboiunce settings. If you could help me out that would be great. Thanks

[sdfoiler]

If you go into the general settings in Mach3 software, you will see a screen that looks like this. It's the box in the upper right corner (Debounce interval)