[peter.blais]

Hi, My BP series one has an old bijur lube setup on it. Its mostly electronic with a pull up manual lube knob. I searched all over bijur's website but didn't find much, can anybody tell me what knobs / adjustment / whatever there is to this thing?

I can't tell if it does anything automatically or not, I don't dare just leave it for a week and see if it goes down,and I can't hear it doing anything over my rotary converter.

I'd like to find the info so I can wire this thing up or sort it out and be able to use it properly other then just pulling the manual lube all the time. It does flow lube correctly to all the different lube points when you do that though.

[snakebit95]

Can you post a photo of it? That might help members determine what you have.

[keebler303]

if you have one similar to mine then it is run by a small electric motor. Whenever the spindle is running, the motor is running. It is geared really low and it pumps by slowly lifting the plunger and then letting it fall. If the motor runs then you should be good. How do you know its flowing oil correctly? Have you taken the thing apart to get to all the meters? If so, and it all works, you are lucky. Most have been clogged beyond repair.

Matt

[peter.blais]

If I pump it a few times manually in a short time I can visually inspect and see the way lube. It is evident on the quill, Y axis, you have to get pretty crafty with a mirror and a flashlight but it definantly does lube the x and the screws.

I don't think it runs in that case- I have never once seen the plunger lift on its own. I guess I"ll have to take a peek and see if its hooked up to power correctly and such inside the case. I do know the low lube alarm is just jumpered.

[widgitmaster]

http://devcocorp.com/american/bijur....FQRYVAod0j_wjQ

[peter.blais]

Ok, pretty much seem to have this thing figured out. It IS running, I just didn't realize how slow the cycle times are on these things until I looked at the link above. Only thing I wish is that it had some sort of manual lube so I could give things a squirt before I start moving things around for the first time of the day. I've just started pulling it up as far as it'll go depending on where it is in the stroke and then letting the machine sit powered up for a bit before moving it.

[lakeside]

You should not have to do this. As long as you run your machine and on a regular schedule I would not worry about it Just pull it twice a day if it make you happy. You will just be wiping up more oil. As I always say "never pour, drip or use anymore oil, then you are willing to wipe up. . You also don't need to pull it up as far as it goes. The system has lines full of oil it not a true pressurized system, more of a drip type system

[tobyaxis]

First time seeing this post. MSC has a parts list for Bridgeports in the back of the BIG BOOK. Go to www.mscdirect.com to get one.

You can also call Hardinge because they saved Bridgeport by buying them out, Thank God for that.

[peter.blais]

Yea, well, it took a lot of work on college student / garage tig welder wages to save up and buy this thing, and the ways are as-new... So i'm a little paranoid about keeping them that way. haha

The fact that the rotary converter is so noisey (I really do need to get an inverter for the spindle and use that converter as a paper weight) and the cycle time is so slow for the lube, not knowing what was going on with it was driving me crazy.

That, and the fact that I grew up racing shifter karts, and then raced open wheel cars- Things where you spent 10x as much time wrenching then using... The concept that there isn't a billion hours of maintance to be done is bugging the hell out of me. I feel like its going to explode into a million pieces when I turn my back on it.

I did a bunch of machining in school, I'm getting my M.E. degree, but we never had to do any maintance, all we did was sweep up our chips.

[sdeering]

I have a boss5.
I had problems with my pump. No bigey. It pushed out the check ball holder for the pump. I checked all the lube points 1/2 were not getting oil. I cleaned all of them. I never could get the top 3 points working correctly with the rest of the system. I removed them from the auto system. I oil them manually now.
As far as the original pump. You can give it a shot manually as long as it is at the bottom or part way down the travel of stroke. If its at the top the stroke you will have to wait for the motor to move it down.
Do check all of the points for oil. The only way to do this properly is to disassemble clean and hook the oiler up to the parts as they sit on the floor. Each meter valve has its own filter I should have bought new ones but I just cleaned the filters and used lots of shop air to remove any debris.
Hope this helps
Stephen

[creep_pea]

How do you get at the meters under the table, do you just undo the ball screw on the rigth hand side then slide the table across till you can get at them or does the table have to be supported or something.

Cheers

Chris

[snakebit95]

Just as you mentioned......remove the nut on the X ballscrew and slide the table. Be carefull not to pull the table off the machine!! It is HEAVY!!!

[creep_pea]

Cheers Snakebit I'll have a look at it later

[sdeering]

I slid the table competely off and also removed the Y under that. An engine hoist works well for the table. There are lost of lube points under there.
Stephen

[creep_pea]

Managed it just sliding it to the rigth hand side, I used a prop to take the weigth of the free end.
Found the x axis ball screw meter to be blocked the rest were ok.

Thanks again

Chris

[snakebit95]

Glad it turned-out to be an easy fix!!

[Astroboy]

I fixed my Bijur pump (was a TMD-5 model) and lubrication system on my BP series 1 CNC with help from:

1. Bijur: 1-800-631-0168 talked with Clarice X5473 (very nice) faxed me service instructions with part list and diagram
Parts used:
B9834 Motor cover gasket $1.53
B8197 Resevoir gasket $3.03
B5220 Leather cups (need 2) $2.65 each
S-109 Filter group $17.37
H0-402 "O"- rings (bought 2) $1.16

Make sure that everything on the inside of the Bijur unit is spotless, and put some oil in it and make sure it works. Make sure that you write down the wiring connections before you take it off the machine.

2. General Bearing 1-800-373-2105 or 1-323-588-2101 - talked to Bob (last name Fytman I think), who is a factory rep for Bijur. Sells the metering units (little brass items located at places in the line. There are some on the left side of the machine. Check those first. Make absolutely sure that the line going up and back (to spindle) is working! I used part number 185502 (bought 3 for $7.37 each). Metering units have numbers on the side: 3/0 lowest flow, 0 0 next lowest, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in order of increasing flow. Check the number on the side and order the same number. Bob can help you figure out what you have.

3. ME

I slide the bed (~340 pounds!) off to the left of the machine and supported it on a table and an eyebolt on the bed with a pulley system up to the top of my garage. Was able to get to each metering unit. Was able to clean out all the chips and other gunk under the bed as well. Check each one for flow, and replace if there is not some flow. Clean out oiling grooves on ways with Q-Tips and any orfices that bring oil to the grooves (mine were full of sludge). Even the gib should be taken out and cleaned because it has holes/slot in it that was gunked up. Only draw back, is that now that all are working I get lots more oil on the floor.

Solution: Go to dollar store and get cheap aluminum cookie sheets and place on floor and machine base. I refilter the way oil using coffee filters (also bought at dollar store) and use it on my manual lathe ways (much cleaner than chips and works better than car oil). I would not reuse it in the Bijur unit because those metering units get clogged with small particles.

My machine acts like it is much smoother with the bed and cross slide moving much easier now.

Hope this is useful to all! - John

[NC Cams]

Astroboy: check out the properties of Dexron III ATF. It has anti-rust and anti-oxidation agents that can help ungunk sludged up lines and passage ways.

We've used it in a pinch for spindle oil, way oil and goodness knows what else. It, too is better than engine oil because it has agents in it the keep rubber o'rings from swelling detiourating - motor oil doesn't.

Cheap and easy to get, too.

Recycling oil as filtered via coffee filters may remove particles but other chemical contaminants may remain. I'd be real learly of filtering oil that has been thru the system because you don't know what it picked up. Besides, the red color makes it real easy to see if it is ATF or oil from someplace else that you NEED to be concerned over.

[Astroboy]

I had not considered ATF fluid. Some brands seem to have a really nasty smell to them, however. I bought a quart for one of our vehicles, and I had to put it into two zip lock bags to reduce the smell.

One concern that I would have is that Vactra 2 has substantially higher viscousity which would make the thin film of oil on the ways thicker than ATF. Because it is thicker, it makes things move more smooothly than a lower viscousity fluid, and would have less wear. Manual transmissions usually have 90 weight gear oil in them for this reason. Automatic transmissions have other reasons for going to thinner oil.

But a quart of ATF is probably substantially more inexpensive than Vactra 2.

And ATF addititives would stop rust and other things. Since I always use RE-LI-ON oil as a cutting fluid, I never have to worry about rust, but for those that use water based coolant/cutting fluids, then reducing rust would be a good feature.

Interesting idea - Thanks - John