Thread: What oil for linear way Akira Seiki lathe?

I have a linear way Akira Seiki lathe and do not have the maintenance manual. Can someone who has one tell me what oil you use to lubricate the linear ways?

It's most likely the same for most linear way machines...but I thought I'd ask.

Steve

I have 3 linear guide machines, 1 is a greased way, other 2 are oil, I use Mobil Vactra #2
Dave

1 is a greased way

Hardinge sold one to you too, huh?

Greased rails... could be a Cinicinatti.

Joe

Oh, really? I though Hardinge was the only one doing that. It's the only one I've heard of anyway.

Didn't realize, this may be more common than I thought. Hardinge says to use Kluberflex, (I think that's the name of it). It's slightly over 100 bucks per tube.

Bzzzzt

Milltronics Partner 6 (greased) (400 ipm rapids slow by todays standards)
Milltronics Partner 1 (way lube) (320 ipm, figure that one out, same motors, same screws)
Takisawa TC1 lathe (way lube) (400 ipm in X 800 in Z)

They never really told me to use anything special for grease, it was recommended to use a good wheel bearing grease, can't se any wear on the rails so it must work, been using it for 8 yrs

It does help keep the skank out of the coolant tank though. I don't push it 24/7 so it's not really an issue. I does take a couple hrs to grease it though. Have to pull all the guards to do it.
We had a newer one at work, VM17, that had a common grease manifold, could grease that one in about 10 minutes.

Dave

Cincinatti specifies several different brands of equivalent greases.
I found the Mobil variant at McMaster, I think it was around $20/tube, not too bad.

Joe

Thanks for the feed back.

Steve