lens42
Aluminum
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2009
- Location
- Northern CA, USA
The oil in my one-shot lube tank ends up in the base over night. The oil pump/tank is built into the mill saddle. The plunger head mounts on the saddle left side and seals with a gasket. I'll be replacing that gasket, but I also noticed that all the compression fittings on the manifold seem to leak as well. I pulled some apart, and they don't look (to me) like they will ever really seal.
The fittings consist of threaded bushing that pushes the copper tube into a coned washer that flares the tube end. There is no compression ring (I guess it's supposed to be part of the bushing). Even if the flare seals. it looks like a good seal would also require the back of the cone to seat perfectly inside the manifold, but I can see that that surface is very rough inside the manifold. Oil seems to leak past the bushing threads (there is no tape) and also between the copper tube and the hole in the bushing. Tightening the bushings didn't help.
There are currently no meter valves in this set-up. The copper tubes just go off to their destinations. I suppose there is little back pressure, but I prefer to not have the tubes empty out. Also, since the manifold is below the lube tank, I seems like there might be nothing to stop the tank from dripping out through the various manifold leaks.
My questions:
1) Should I just toss the manifold (it's threaded 10mm/1mm pitch), and get new tubing and fittings with normal (to me anyway) compression rings? i.e. as shown here:Bestline Products - Lubrication Fittings
2) Should I stay with copper tubing or switch to plastic?
3) Lots of threads on the this topic say that metering valves are required. This mill doesn't have them now, and I would have no idea what flow rates to get for each.
4) I noticed this "regulating" manifold on Bestline: http://www.bestlinepro.com/images/products/fittings/B-6-image.jpg. Would this give me the same flow adjustment that meter valves provide? This seems better because it would let me "tune to fit", but in lots of forum searching on this topic, I've never seen this manifold mentioned.
Looking for any guidance that can be provided.
The fittings consist of threaded bushing that pushes the copper tube into a coned washer that flares the tube end. There is no compression ring (I guess it's supposed to be part of the bushing). Even if the flare seals. it looks like a good seal would also require the back of the cone to seat perfectly inside the manifold, but I can see that that surface is very rough inside the manifold. Oil seems to leak past the bushing threads (there is no tape) and also between the copper tube and the hole in the bushing. Tightening the bushings didn't help.
There are currently no meter valves in this set-up. The copper tubes just go off to their destinations. I suppose there is little back pressure, but I prefer to not have the tubes empty out. Also, since the manifold is below the lube tank, I seems like there might be nothing to stop the tank from dripping out through the various manifold leaks.
My questions:
1) Should I just toss the manifold (it's threaded 10mm/1mm pitch), and get new tubing and fittings with normal (to me anyway) compression rings? i.e. as shown here:Bestline Products - Lubrication Fittings
2) Should I stay with copper tubing or switch to plastic?
3) Lots of threads on the this topic say that metering valves are required. This mill doesn't have them now, and I would have no idea what flow rates to get for each.
4) I noticed this "regulating" manifold on Bestline: http://www.bestlinepro.com/images/products/fittings/B-6-image.jpg. Would this give me the same flow adjustment that meter valves provide? This seems better because it would let me "tune to fit", but in lots of forum searching on this topic, I've never seen this manifold mentioned.
Looking for any guidance that can be provided.