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Waylube pump issues

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Cast Iron
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Location
Chatsworth, Ca.
So I noticed today that i'm not using any way lube.

I tried to pull the pump handle but there is no pressure reading on the gage???

Watched the pump for a bit and nothing happened "automatically".

Where to go from here??

Unit is a Bijur model. If I don't have power to the unit should it hold pressure still? i'm not sure if it's an electrical issue or mechanical.

Machine is a 92' VF-0.
 
When you pulled the handle, did the plunger go back down? It should.

Without power - once you pull the handle it should go to pressure [I forget, 25psi?] then slowly fall back to zero. Its a clock mechanism that slowly pulls and releases the handle.

You must have a leak, trace the line. You may find it at the fitting that feeds the air/oil lube for the spindle, its at a terrible position at the back of the casting on the Y axis and is prone to pull out, looks connected but leaks. There are a hundred other places but that is suspect #1.
 
The lever should be a little hard to pull up, spring inside, and if you can pull it up and release it, it should show some pressure. If it is at the top of its stroke when you do this it will not do that of course.

If you want to watch it, the spindle must be running. It will cycle about every 30 minutes. If it is not working, you should get a low lube/pressure alarm once in a while.

Mike
 
The lever should be a little hard to pull up, spring inside, and if you can pull it up and release it, it should show some pressure. If it is at the top of its stroke when you do this it will not do that of course.

If you want to watch it, the spindle must be running. It will cycle about every 30 minutes. If it is not working, you should get a low lube/pressure alarm once in a while.

Mike

+1

Adding to this, if you had a leak, I would imagine that you would see some decline in the lube level. If you look behind the lube panel you should be able to find the plug connection for the pump. When the spindle is on, check to see if you have 115V at the plug.
 
Thanks for the insite guys...

Yesterday I pulled the plunger and I got nothing, no pressure, it didn't even make the gage blip. Also, I don't have an alarm but I did notice that the low lude was flagged with a 1 in the diagnostic page so I think I need to do a bit more digging to see why no alarm shows up or stops the machine for that matter.

So today I came in and noticed that the plunger went down a bit and had more stroke when I pulled up on it. Then my partner shows up and we start digging in tracing lines and checking power. We have power so that was a good thing so now it's just down to the mechanics of it.

Dorthy is our latest girl that we bought last month at auction and has been running on our floor for a couple weeks. She has a 7500 rpm spindle which means the waylube is pushed thru the bearings at the side of the spindle from what i'm told. There is a small inline filter coming out of the Bijur unit and this is a stone type filter for secondary filtering. We pulled that thing apart and it had about a 1/8 of an inch of waylube/ grease/ smegma all over the filter and surely it wasn't doing it's job. Even after a cleaning we think the stone element is clogged so a new one is in order. We left it out of the reassembly but still didn't have the flow we were looking for so we tore apart the Bijur tank as I could see some floaties.

OMG!!! I don't think that tank has been serviced since the machine was new. If you went over to your favorite tub of grease and pulled out a handfull that's what I got out of the tank. The filter elements...totally blocked. So after a lot of cleaning and re assembly she holds pressure, and also moves the lube thru the lines like she should.

Can anyone tell me how the spindle bearing lube should be hooked up on this machine? I need to verify it. I remember BGL talking about this at one point and I need to make sure it is hooked up like it should be. Maybe snap a pick if anyone can? Mine is plumbed thru a small air regulator then into a manifold that has 2 waylube lines attached, out the manifold then up to the spindle. I think the idea is the switch opens pushing air...When??...then creates a vacuum as it passes the waylube lines in the manifold and then the air pushes the lube to the bearings. Please correct me if i'm wrong..
 
..plumbed thru a small air regulator then into a manifold that has 2 waylube lines attached, out the manifold then up to the spindle. I think the idea is the switch opens pushing air...When??...then creates a vacuum as it passes the waylube lines in the manifold and then the air pushes the lube to the bearings. Please correct me if i'm wrong..

Follow the line from the small regulator to a fitting mounted on the casting at Y axis opening, best seen from left side, behind main regulator. Bright small flashlight is a handy thing. The lube oil is added to the air at this point, 17psi air / 25+ psi oil. When you turn on the spindle you should hear a solenoid click, and feel air coming out from the fitting on the back side of the spindle. Single line from there to spindle.

I will not be in the shop until Saturday, can send pics if your still stuck.
 
Follow the line from the small regulator to a fitting mounted on the casting at Y axis opening, best seen from left side, behind main regulator. Bright small flashlight is a handy thing. The lube oil is added to the air at this point, 17psi air / 25+ psi oil. When you turn on the spindle you should hear a solenoid click, and feel air coming out from the fitting on the back side of the spindle. Single line from there to spindle.

I will not be in the shop until Saturday, can send pics if your still stuck.

If you need to, you can crank up the small regulator for spindle air/oil just so you can feel that it is coming out. Be sure to return the regulator back to the 17 PSI. This pressure is very important: pressure low = to much oil = spindle overheat; pressure high = to little oil = spindle overheat.

Something else to think about. Since you mentioned that you had sludge in your lube tank and at the filter, there is a chance that some of the lube line metering units can be clogged also. You will find these located where the main lube supply line attaches to a manifold at each axis. There can be multiple units at each axis. See attached image for reference. These are responsible for allowing the proper amount of oil to the ball screws and linear guide trucks. If they are clogged, then it's pretty obvious that you will not get oil to the target areas.

To test them, just disconnect the output line from the metering unit (one at a time) and manually pressurize the system. It can take several minutes, but you should see a couple drops before to long. If no oil comes out, replace them as needed. It can be a bit tedious, but you could end up saving a ball screw or linear guide though.

Good luck!

Also forgot to mention that you will see a 1 on the diagnostics page for the lube pressure until the system has cycled and has pressure. Or when you manually pump to create that pressure.
 

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I think she's gonna be alright.

I fired her up this morning and and the Bijur pulled 22 lbs of pressure. I started the spindle and cracked the fitting next to the spindle and left it open a few minutes. When I went back to look it had some waylube dripping from the fitting so i'm confident that the spindle is getting oiled.

I'll check the orifaces when I pull way covers in a couple days.

Thanks,
 
I was thinking, you may want to check if someone jumped out the pressure sensor. You had no pressure yet the spindle would run and you had no error/alarm. Nothing shocks me anymore when it comes to people fixing symptoms not problems, betting it was "fixed" by shorting the terminals to the pressure switch, its at the top of the spindle under the top cover. I would give a quick look...
 








 
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