Craftex B2229 3in1 Mill-Lathe-Drill Heat issues.

[trunner]

Hello,

Before I begin, I searched for this information about B2229 heat issues and could not find anything, so I am creating a new thred. If one exists, please accept my appologies.

I have recently purchased a B2229 from Busy Bee Canada (this is the equivalent to the Grizzly G9729 in the US). It appears to be a good home unit, not a $20,000 machine by any stretch, but it will work (I think) for what I need.

My issue is that I am doing the break in procedure and the motorS and motors pulley get HOT and I mean just about hot enough not to touch on both the lathe motor and the mill motor. Power is not an issue its on a dedicated 20amp breaker, and the plug is about 4' long to the outlet, the outlet is about 15' from the electrical box. I have set the drive belts to the manufacturer recommendation ("The belt should depress about 1/2" under normal finger pressure." page 9 Lathe section item 1 Manual:http://www.busybeetools.com/product_manuals/B2229.pdf), and no odd noises. is this just the kind of temperature I can expect from this unit? Can anyone with this unit please check and see if their B2229 runs hot? It has a built in fan on both motors, now I should mention that the "engineer" that built this thing did put the electrical box about 1/4" away from the air intact on the milling motor, but that does not explain why both motors get so hot.

Also, I could not find this information anywhere so I want to make it available when people search for it this is what it took to setup this unit (so far):

This machine has been fairly frustrating to setup. The instruction manual they provide says to grease the main drive bearing, however as the drive bearings are encased in the head stock and dam near impossible to get at; weekly greasing isn’t going to happen. To be sure I contacted Busy bee and they advised me "This is an I - d - 10 - T error", as I work in I.T., I have little sense of humour for being called an Id10T by a tear one tech support monkey. After that call was finished his manager informed me this is a known translation issue as the manual was originally written in Japanese. "Grease" was supposed to be written "Oil" and is handled by the oil reservoir. Also half the oil points are not even addressed in the manual. find them all, oil them ALL!

Also they say to use HL70 or #70 Gear oil as the main source of oil in the machine. I called every company in Calgary looking for this oil and found absolutely nothing at all. Finally I phone busy bee again (same phone agent ) and he advised me to use motor oil, I again asked for his manager who informed me that this oil apparently is not available in Canada (or at least Calgary). The oil that replaces it is "Shell Tonna 68, 20 weight, non detergent" this has also been discontinued () and is now called "Shell T68" and is available in 25ltr or 170ltr drums. Note that 25ltr of this will last you WAY!!!! longer than this machine will be alive! The manual does not cover this, but I am guessing that the reservoir is about 100ml and so a 3ltr that I got from a machine shop in town was just fine thank you!

Again the manual does not explain this part so just a heads up, when it tells you to oil the Mill head and does not tell you where other than to say "The mill head and worm".... the "Worm" refers to a worm gear inside the mill height control and is oiled via a oil nipple. The "Mill Head" is telling you to drop the mill head and squirt some oil in the elongated hole running from bottom to top on the front and back of the shaft. Get a pump oil can, you will be happy... one with a fine point on the end of the spout.

Ok, that’s my rant, any help is really appreciated.




-Jim
(Craftex B2229 Mill-Lathe-Drill combo)
(HobbyCNC and home made 4'x2' table)

[trunner]

Well I called Mr. BusyBee Tools tech support guy. Got someone new this time, he informs me this machine will run hot and it is expected. He also tells me no break in proceedure is requiered on the milling machine. Once I re-read the instructions I found the manual also says this (DOH!), you just need to be paying attention. But as the break in proceedure is supposed to be 15min at each speed starting at the slowest and going to the fastest. This would mean you would be at it for 4 hours just for the mill. Not a fun day...

I also learned a key point about the break in proceedure for the lathe today. once you finnish going through all the speeds until you get to the fastest. you need to then do the same for the three speed selections I, III, and II on the lever on the side of Head Stock. Just one more thing NOT in the manual.

-Jim