apron sight glass question

Hello All,
I am new here so forgive me if this is an old question. I have a '43 10EE that is a great machine. I have been servicing it and replaced all of the headstock sight glass gaskets, etc. I am cleaning the apron and replacing the sump gasket. In resealing the apron sight glass I noticed that it has a drain or return hole under the gasket at the six o'clock position. This is different than the other sight glasses. They have no hole behind the gasket. The hole is a clear path to the sump. Here is my question: If I install the same gaskets that I made for the other sight glasses, it will cover that drain or return hole (at 6 o'clock position). Is this hole supposed to be open via a slot in the gasket? That hole doesn't make sense to me. A gasket will block it. Any advise?
Many Thanks in advance. I truly appreciate having you all out there.. helping to keep my machine running.
Best,
Peter

Hi Peter,

Welcome aboard!

I also have a '43 10EE with a hole in the apron sight-glass counter-bore. If you look closely I think you'll see that someone just drilled the hole for the sump bolt directly under the sight glass too deep. There was a lot of that sort of thing during the height of war-time production. I filled mine in with JB Weld, but you can probably ignore it.

What's your serial number and build date? Mine is s/n 24315, built 11-1943.

Cal

Im just about to get tho this myself! Post a pic if you can, I would love to see.

Thanks to everyone for your quick responses. Special thanks to Cal. Brilliant, that is exactly what it is. It is the threaded bolt hole drilled clean through. I could not figure out how a return hole would function there. Excellent answer. I will ignore it... that works for me in the rest of my life. My machine was built in 8/1943 Serial# 16315. It has the US Navy anchor stamp in the ways. It also has a plate above the Monarch badge that says... Property of the United States Government, etc and a serial number.
I really rely on my machine and it has never let me down.
For some reason the pics are sideways. I am new at this. In any case, that is my '43, the photo color isn't accurate. it is a very industrial pale green like delta woodworking machines.

Old thread, but since I was working today on cleaning and regasketing the apron sight glass on the 1940 10EE, I thought I would post a couple pictures. I was wondering yesterday why the apron oil pump was painted on one side. Didn't realize that it was intended to provide the white background for the apron sight glass. Also, as mentioned above, the drilling for the sump cover cap screw comes right up into the sight glass opening, so sealing the backside of the sight glass is a little more demanding. I imagine all round dials have this drill hole, since it was clearly intentional. It even has paint in it. This sight glass has always oozed a little bit of oil at the bottom of the cover, now I see why. I think I will cut a small piece of rubber and fit it into the groove where it will be compressed by the cover and gasket.

rimcanyon said:

Old thread, but since I was working today on cleaning and regasketing the apron sight glass on the 1940 10EE, I thought I would post a couple pictures. I was wondering yesterday why the apron oil pump was painted on one side. Didn't realize that it was intended to provide the white background for the apron sight glass. Also, as mentioned above, the drilling for the sump cover cap screw comes right up into the sight glass opening, so sealing the backside of the sight glass is a little more demanding. I imagine all round dials have this drill hole, since it was clearly intentional. It even has paint in it. This sight glass has always oozed a little bit of oil at the bottom of the cover, now I see why. I think I will cut a small piece of rubber and fit it into the groove where it will be compressed by the cover and gasket.

View attachment 277907

View attachment 277908

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I have (had) the same "feature" but I don't think it's supposed to be that way. It appeared to me that some guy on third shift had simply drilled too deep when machining the tapped holes for the sump cover. I filled mine in with body filler (IIRC).

Before:


Filler:


After:


Cal

Cal Haines said:

I have (had) the same "feature" but I don't think it's supposed to be that way. It appeared to me that some guy on third shift had simply drilled too deep when machining the tapped holes for the sump cover. I filled mine in with body filler (IIRC).

Before:
View attachment 278456

Filler:
View attachment 278457

After:
View attachment 278458

Cal

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Hi Cal. Your lathe did not have the hole for the bottom cap bolt through drilled into the sight glass well. I.e. the drill hole stopped short of the location where the cork sealing ring would have sealed the sight glass, so no leak would have occurred (the bolt hole itself is sealed by the gasket on the sump cover).

Dave

True. But I don't think that all round-dials are like this. It will be interesting to hear from other round-dial owners.

Cal

Cal Haines said:

True. But I don't think that all round-dials are like this. It will be interesting to hear from other round-dial owners.

Cal

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one more input from the community. I do have a hole in the bottom of my RD apron into the sight glass bore.