How the heck do I change the oil in a Jet 13x40?

[tmc_31]

JohnnyK,

I have a Jet GHB1340A, vaguely similar to the lathe pictured. The drain for my headstock is inside the cover for the gear train/drive pulleys in the lower right hand corner as you are facing the end of the lathe. There is a short 3/8" pipe with a collar and a pipe plug on it. There are also separate drains for the QC gear box and apron. All are very apparent.

I don't think that siphoning the old oil out will accomplish what you want. As the old oil washes out the drain hole at the bottom of the sump, it will carry metal filings and dirt out with it. If you siphon the oil out, that dirt and filings will remain in the sump.

I have not done this, but it seems to me that in addition to draining out the old oil, it might be worth while to flush the headstock with kerosene or varsol to thoroughly flush out any contaminants before refilling with new oil. On my lathe the entire top of the headstock comes off easily (4 screws) allowing a good view and access to all of the gear train in the headstock. (comments requested)

Hope this helps,

Tim

[Oldguy]

John -

You've got a lot of people trying to help you, but we need a little more information to zero in on the correct answer.

Do yo have a picture of your lathe that you can post? Is it a belt drive or gear head lathe? What is the make/manufacturer and model?

A photo that "kinda looks like mine" isn't a whole lot of help because all lathes "kinda" look alike. A few specifics would go a long way in helping us find you an answer.

Glenn

[JohnnyK]

Thanks again for the replies. If I said "kind of looks like", what i meant to say, was, it's the exact same casting (Except as i said, that one seems to have two little screw holes beneath the sights, and this one does not. Other than that, I can't see a difference..

It says clarkson machinery on it, which I believe was a distributor here. I believe it's also made in Taiwan.. But I also believe it's the exact same one as the picture posted.

No, no drain plugs inside. I guess I could pull the whole head off.. Is it a big deal I wonder?

[PixMan]

What about just pulling that top plate off to have a look inside? There should be 4 socket head cap screws holding the cover one, probably right there under the rubber mat.

[GlennW]

It's a belt drive lathe.

There are no screws as the cover just flips up to access the belt and pulleys, which is why there is a handle on the front of the cover.

There is a single bearing on each side of the headstock casting and each bearing is in it's own little cavity with a filler and a sight glass.

It is not a geared head lathe where the headstock contains oil.

In order to drain the oil and clean the cavity out you need to remove the spindle.

If the oil has gone bad, I'd also want to look at the spindle bearings!

[cowboy1]

I had a Jet 13 40 and it had a drain plug on the left side when you opened the door to the drive system.
Mine was a newer one made in China and was yellow. I did drain it and removed the top and cleanded it out and added new oil from the top.

[EdK]

I guess I could pull the whole head off.. Is it a big deal I wonder?

JohnnyK,

By "whole head" I hope you mean the headstock cover and not the whole headstock.
If your lathe is similar to the one in the picture you posted there should be four to six screws holding the headstock cover in place. Just remove those and lift the cover off. It's not a big deal at all.

Ed

[stevec]

Guys. I believe that's a belt drive lathe, not gearhead. There are no bolts to remove to open the cover, it's hinged for access to the belt in order to change speeds.

[JohnnyK]

Correct. You can open the hinged cover, but there is still no access to the oil. The best I can come up with is pull the sight glass, and change a bit, and repeat, and repeat.

[Torch]

There are two blatent spots to put oil IN above the two sight glasses for the spindle.. But no apparent way to drain it out?!

I had the same problem with my machine (although the machine is a completely different casting) -- the plug marked "Oil" was obviously a fill plug, the sight glass was obviously well above the bottom of the cavity and there was no obvious drain, and nothing mentioned in the Chinglish manual.

I removed the gear cover (which on my machine is vertical, bolted to the back) to drain out most of the 1 litre of oil (big mess to control!). When I suctioned the last of the oil out and mopped up the remaining sludge at the bottom, I noticed a hole entering at the bottom from the left side (ie: opposite the chuck). Sure enough, when I opened the left side cover and removed one of those gears, I found what appeared to be an Allen head mounting bolt in exactly the right location.

Obviously yours will be different, but I wonder if your drain is similarly disguised as a mounting bolt?

[calgator]

Johnny K,

If you look at each of the site levels about an inch below is a cap screw, remove the screw and all the oil will drain out. I have a Jet 1240PY Belt drive that I bought used and that was how I drained the oil from the bearings, of course mine was thick, I had to fill it with oil, run for 10 min. then drain again and fill again. I went through this process 4 times to get all the old oil out. Hope yours is easier than mine.

Charles,