Is there a way to quickly check if the X-axis ball screw is being lubed properly? When I turn the X-axis from the front cover panel using a 3/16 allen key, it seems very rough - almost as if I can fee the balls clicking around in the ball screw itself. This thing should be as smooth as butter, shouldn't it?

In another thread, I'm having problems with a failed X-axis - I believe, among other things, the ballscrew may not have been lubricated properly. I have an air-oiler that I presume was working when I bought it, but upon further inspection during the failure, I noticed the oiler wasn't dripping. So I increased it. A lot, actually, for a while to ensure lube got everywhere... but I don't really see lube coming out. I see evidence of it on the main way, but I can't tell if it's getting to the ball screw. Now it's dripping once per 15 seconds or so. About double the recommended dosage. The excess will probably flow somewhere...

I removed one steel bracket holding the rear bellow from the rear of the X on one side (it's cramped in there...didn't want to disassemble everything, and one screw wouldn't allow me to remove that annoying wire shield) and peeked through the small hole without bending all the brackets holding the bellow.

Well, I know what a well-lubed ball screw ought to look like - it's usually glistening with oil, and nice and shiny. This one looked... dry and had a mysterious white film on it. I really didn't get a good look though. I could be wrong. But I was expecting glistening, surely.

Can anyone tell me how to inspect the X-axis ballscrew for lube without taking it significantly apart? Like, for example, where should I look to see the excess oil dripping? Isn't there some sort of tube feeing into the ballscrew nipple? Or does hardinge just drip onto the ballscrew from somewhere?


Torin...
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