general knolege question

[Polly]

on the older model lt40 hydraulic how meny greese fittings are their / please answer before you go count them , 8)

[Chuck White]

I'd guess around 14 on the LT40G18 Manual Mill!

I haven't been around my FIL's mill in over a year!


I think my LT40HDG24 has 26 grease fittings.

Chuck

[ARKANSAWYER]

  Wanda is a 2001 LT40HDG25 and all I can remember greasing is 11.   I am getting a drink now and fixing to go back out to saw so I will look and count for sure.

[Polly]

this was kind of a loaded question ,i greased mine today it is i think a 1987 model lt40 hydraulic ,i counted 19 fittings , i found some tucked away out of site ,the reason i bring it up i kind of wonder how meny problems could have been avoided if only a lot of the fittings had not been overlooked , i know i am guilty myself ,i found some today that i had been overlooking , if your saw is similer and you got more then 19 fittings let me know and i will look for more ,it has a 24 hp onan engine , someone on the forum was having trouble getting his saw head to move forward ,is what brought the fittings to mind ;) ;)

[Bibbyman]

Kind of a loaded question.  I can think of some parts that have been replaced that now come without fittings.  The head cam bearings and roller guides on our 94 mill had fittings but new replacement parts do not.


I figure fittings come with an audio warning when they need grease – they start to squeak!   :D

[Chuck White]

Polly

I was having trouble with my saw head moving back for the next cut.
Turns out it was slow in both directions.
I got a replacement belt yesterday and I cleaned some of the sawdust off of the drive chain.

Now, as far as greasing goes!
All of the grease fittings except for 3 are to be greased every 50 hours!
The 2 roller guide wheels should get a shot of grease every 4 hours!
The up/down gear reducer shaft is only supposed to get greased every 1,000 hours!

I guess it's been more or less proven that too much grease contributes more to wear than no grease!


Chuck

[Dan_Shade]

the problem is grease can hold grit, which in turn causes wear.

you have to stay on top of lubrication.

[Brucer]

On my mill, with its various options, there are 24 that should be greased every 50 hours, and 1 that should be greased every 1000 hours. I didn't count them -- I looked at my home-made maintenance checklist.

Not greasing often enough is bad. The lubricant dries out, leaving the waxy carrier behind to plug things up. Pretty soon it's DanG near impossible to force grease in and you start to get serious wear.

Applying too much grease is bad. In rotating applications it can blow out the bearing seals, leaving the bearing wide open for dirt. In pivoting applications the excess grease collects dirt and grime.

Greasing too often is bad. Every time you inject grease into a fitting there's a chance of forcing in a little dirt.

And here's a supplemental question: What procedure do you follow when you grease something on your mill?

[ARKANSAWYER]

Well I went back out and found that Wanda has 21 grease fittings all together.  Some are not there that were when I bought it.  There are 11 that I grease about every week and a few once in a great while.
  What I donot  grease enough is the drum switches.  I have gotten real good at rebuilding them.  Once rebuilt they last a long time as the silver solder is harder then the original metal.

[Polly]

preventivate mainteance on your saw or any piece of eqpt for that matter can save a lot of hearach and downtime and most of all money  ;) ;) : most everyone has a pm program of some kind , i was only trying to bring up some discussion on the subject ,i just changed the transmission oil and steering box oil on my farmall cub that polly bought me both were contaminated with water the stuf coming out the drain plugs looked like milk