The Interact S1 that I purchased must have been run for many years with oil coolant and no splash guard. The Machine Police really should have shown up and given these guys a caning for abject slobbery.

Anyway I have been cleaning it up and wonder what to do about the table/saddle. It looks pretty easy to remove the table, which might allow good access to most of the knee for chip removal and cleaning. Is that right or does that not get you much further?

How often to people normally clean their machines to this extent? Certainly (like in this case) if you can't touch the machine without sticking to it then it is time?

spray bottle of simple green and have at it

no real point in taking things apart, you'd be pissed if you busted something

spray bottle of simple green and have at it

Really, you use simple green? Then rinse it off with water?

I've been going around it with stoddard solvent. Just mucked out the sump, there was about 1/2 gallon of machining detritus/slurry in there with poor access - disgusting. Do you use the cast in sump, or drain the coolant to something a bit more accessible?

the internal sump will give you fits for a while, but eventually it will clean up.Just don't run any white delrin for a while

Tell me about it. I recently joined a new company and the Turret Mill is FILTHY- 2cm layers of congealed swarf. The lathe the guy must have blown chips all over using an air line, they're in the leadscrews and everything to the point where the X axis is bent. There should be a law against it!

Wow, I didn't know that Simple Green would remove congealed swarf. I just finished rejuvinating a 74 Series one and I ended up disassembling it, moving it outside piece by piece and using a wire brush and pressure washer on all the parts. Talking about a messy, time consuming job!!!
Also, I used by shop vac to vacuum all the chips out of the knee. How in the heck does 50# of chips lodge inside the knee when the metal chip guards (slides) are in place???? I think the thing was 500# lighter after the cleanup though and Molly never looked beter!!!
Good Luck
Bill from Spartanburg
:)

Try using 409 Orange power kitchen cleaner. It takes that Greasy film off the machines that other solvents fail to do.

I've used scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner and it worked well. Sticks right on the side of the machine parts, to soak right in.

Gunk works on motorcycle engines and washes off with water... it makes your engine blocks spotless and shiny new looking.

Should also work on lathes I suppose!

http://www.wilco-fastfit.co.uk/wilco/html/gunk.html