1951 Monarch 16" question

In search of some information on my 1951 Monarch 16" lathe, serial number 33255. I am having a problem with the gear oiler located inside of the resivoir. I ran the machine for about 20 minutes with the cover off and didn't see a single drop of oil come out of any of the lines so, i pulled the lines off the pump and turned the machine on. There was a very small amount of oil that started to flow out after about 2 minutes. Is this a normal rate of flow or should there be a consistent drip onto the gears?

Only truly familiar with the early big handle style, but there is a felt on the bottom of the pump on them that gets gooed up

An old machine tool will usually have multiple problems with its plumbing, if you are really lucky its only a clogged filter. chances are its also sludged lines, varnished passages, blocked metering ports(if so equipped), rusted pump, etc.

the truth is, if you want it to reliably oil its self, you are probably going to have to pull it apart.

cyanidekid said:

An old machine tool will usually have multiple problems with its plumbing, if you are really lucky its only a clogged filter. chances are its also sludged lines, varnished passages, blocked metering ports(if so equipped), rusted pump, etc.

the truth is, if you want it to reliably oil its self, you are probably going to have to pull it apart.

Click to expand...

Do you have any idea what the drip rate should be?

First which model lathe is it?

Second, if it is a gear head, and you can run it for 20 seconds without oil being everywhere, it is empty

I had the same problem with mine at first. I pulled the limiter orifice out and cleaned and looked over the piping, still nothing. Then I noticed the oil pump plunger arm that rides on the eccentric on the head shaft had slid off and was not pumping at all. I carefully bent it back over to ride on the eccentric, it pumps now. When you look at the site glass while running the upper oil hole has a slight pulse of oil coming out of it, it doesn't run out fast, but you can see some movement. It looks like the arm may have broke and somebody brazed it back together, not sure. I'm still curious if can get it out to replace it without gutting the machine. With the cover off operate the oil pump plunger manually and watch the site glass. This oil pump inside the gear case.

My oil pump on the end of the machine that lubricates the straight cut gears under the removable cover just provides a drop of oil every once in awhile. It doesn't require a lot of oil to keep the gears lubed up. I did pull out the filter and clean it and I think it did help, it's kind of a pain though.

By the way, my model 60,size 14 machine was built 12/1950. My serial number is 33221. Our machines are almost related..

Mark

they didn't go to the trouble of putting a pump and associated tubing in just to drip a little oil out on the gears, it should be moving some volume.

A problem I had with low or no oil coming out of the tubes was an worn bushing that holds a small shaft to the arm that operates the oiler on the front left of the lathe. Changing the simple bushing evolved into a minor fiasco because of a woodruff key that fell off inside the lathe....way inside. A bit of pondering and some midnight oil got it fixed. Here is a link to that thread: http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/monarch-lathes/monach-60-series-185969/index2.html If that bushing is worn on your lathe, and you change it, do not let the shaft get pushed in the casting when installing a new bushing.

Mark