Leaking oil out of chuck spindle - 1946 10EE

[Mapleman2010]

I have a 1946 Monarch 10EE that is leaking oil from the chuck spindle area. The site glass shows no oil. As soon as I fill the oil back up, it leaks right now.
It leaks out right off, not slowly over time. Any ideas as to what this could be? There is not any grinding or noise coming from the lathe when I start the machine. So I do not believe anything is grinding or the bearing is bad. Any help on ideas to fix this problem would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

 

[Don's Engine]

Is your sight glass clean? I mean real clean? If its clouded you may just be overfilling all the time and letting her flow out the overflow. That's how mine was when i first put into to service after years of sitting. Don

 

[Cal Haines]

I have a 1946 Monarch 10EE that is leaking oil from the chuck spindle area. The site glass shows no oil. As soon as I fill the oil back up, it leaks right now.
It leaks out right off, not slowly over time. Any ideas as to what this could be? There is not any grinding or noise coming from the lathe when I start the machine. So I do not believe anything is grinding or the bearing is bad. Any help on ideas to fix this problem would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

Is it leaking out of the spindle, that is down the outside of the headstock, or is it going into the center reservoir?

How long have you had the machine? Is this a new problem?

Cal

 

[Mapleman2010]

Is it leaking out of the spindle, that is down the outside of the headstock, or is it going into the center reservoir?

How long have you had the machine? Is this a new problem?

Cal

I have had this lathe for 40 years. It started leaking about a year ago and I have been just putting up with it and filling it every time I use it.

It appears to be leaking out of the spindle and runs down the machine from there (outside of the headstock).
Thank you

 

[rke[pler]

Is it leaking from the front of the spindle, the rear of the spindle, or somewhere in between? Maybe a picture would help resolve this, try that.

 

[Cal Haines]

It appears to be leaking out of the spindle and runs down the machine from there (outside of the headstock).

Here's a diagram that shows the front bearing on a later model (single sight-glass) 10EE, yours is similar:

Part EE-1128 (pink) is the front bearing retainer. There is a small drain hole at the bottom inner taper, marked in the above drawing with a diagonal red line. This drains any oil that makes it out, around the OD of the spindle. Is that where it's leaking, or is it coming out around the spindle nose itself? Note that the drain hole often gets painted shut.

If I were you, I would pull the sight glass and see how much oil comes out. As Don mentioned, the sight glass can get stained and look like it's always low, when in fact, the oil level is above the top of the glass. DTE Light is so clear that it's hard to see. With the sight glass out, add oil and verify that it's not coming out around the spindle, if it does, something is very wrong. There's an opening in the bottom of the outer spacer (EE-3627) that lets oil from the reservoir get to the bearings. If EE-3627 is installed with the opening pointed in the wrong direction, oil can get trapped in between the spacers.

The cyan-colored passages shown above show one of the possible oil return configurations. Excess oil should drain into the center reservoir, rather than come out around the spindle.

Cal

 

[Mapleman2010]

Thank you Cal. You were a huge help. It turned out that my site glass wasn't clean enough. I took that back out for a third time and recleaned it again. Looks like that was my issue. It wasn't clean enough and I was overfilling the oil.
I appreciate all you do. I really enjoy this forum.
Kind regards,
Don