BOSS 5 Bijur oil pump help

[braidmeister]

I am trying to tie up loose ends with my BP retrofit and wanted to get some feedback from you guys that have 'been there done that' in regards to the Bijur lube unit. My (limited) understanding thus far is that the lube unit stays on for 30 seconds at a time & has a low oil switch in it. I haven't disassembled it yet, but I can see that there are wires going into the electrical cabinet. Does anyone know if this is 120v or 230v? Assuming single phase...

I know I have to disassemble it and flush the lines etc...not there yet. My main concerns/questions are:

1) Is this 120 or 230v?
2) How should I wire up the low oil switch? I have I/O interface board. Will an indicator light suffice? (I am disciplined not to run if low/empty)
3) Should the pump come on when the main (BIG) switch is energized?
4) What is the plunger for? This isn't a one-shot.
5) Is there anything that I need to know that I haven't listed?

Thanks!!!
-Brady

[Hood]

The pump will be 120V I would think as even the UK ones are and we usually use 240V here.
I have used the main contactors in my retrofit and use them to switch on the oil pump when the spindle is turned on. I didnt bother with the float switch, just bypassed it, but now I think of it it would probably have been an easy enough job to wire it into the contactors feed circuit. As I will be the only person using the mill I considered the float switch not needed as I check the oil level daily.
The pump works by gearing and when power is to it the gears turn and after a while the plunger is operated and a shot of lube gets pushed out. The plunger can also be operated manually (if the gearing/cam is in correct position), this is usefull for priming the system.
Hood

[machintek]

The old BOSS machines (in the US) had BIJUR pumps which were either 230 (single phase) or 115 VAC depending upon which wires were used.
The VMC used pumps that ran by a timer in the control.
The BIJUR ran a cam that would lift the plunger and then it would fall off the end of the cam, thus pumping oil. Usually this occured once every 20 or 30 minutes.

George

[Al_The_Man]

If a level switch is not fitted, you should have a sight glass for level monitoring, The thing to check on the Bijur systems is the metering device at the end of every oil point, these look like just another brass fitting, but have a number stamped on them for the orifice size, they should be replaced after several years of use as they become gummed up, even with these small plunger operated pumps, it is possible to obtain ~25lbs pressure.
Smaller Bijur plunger pumps have a timer motor fitted, the larger ones have a gear pump and no timer, so they have to be cycled externally by timer.
Al.

[jderou]

I just had my boss disassembled to replace ballscrews. My findings were that ALL of the metering fittings were clogged, hence the need to replace ballscrews. I am also needing to rescrape the knee sometime down the road because of this.

[braidmeister]

Thanks for the input.

jderou...OUCH! Now I definetly want to take the whole deal apart and flush it/clean it!!!

-B

[jderou]

What sucks about this setup is if one meter clogs, you will not know it until probably a long time down the road. I have been working on a different pump that pumps a fixed volume of oil to each point seperately, and will alarm if for some reason it fails to pump.

[braidmeister]

What if I made a manifold at the pump and ran individual lines to each location with an appropriately sized nozzle at each end? DO you think that would eliminate some of the clogging issues?

[jderou]

You still wouldn't know if any of the lines were plugged, because if one meter gets plugged the others would just flow more. Unless you had some kind of visual flow check in each line. I have thought about making a low volume pump out of a small air cylinder with 1 line coming from it into a manifold with a series of solenoid valves. A plc would open each valve one at a time and pump the desired amount of oil. If the cylinder doesn't reach the end of its travel (clog) it would alarm. Actually it would be a whole lot less likely to clog because you wouldn't need the metering devices any more.