Help Needed With Automatic Lubrication

[jimskeet]

Hi guys!
Don't know if this is the correct forum category to post this thread.
I use a grease gun to lubricate all the ballnuts and linear guide bearings on my cnc router and I was thinking if I could build and automatic lubricating system for my machine. I searched a little bit on the forum but couldn't find info.

1) Can I use automatic lubrication only with oil or can I do it with grease too and what do you think it is better?
2) I guess will need a pump which I can connect to an output on my breakoutboard with a relay and even program a cycle of lubrication to run every time I power on the machine, right?
3) I use 4 ballnuts and 12 Liner guide bearings that need to be lubricated so what valves should I get to connect them to the pump so I can evenly lubricate all the bearings?

Any tips and advice are appreciated!

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[Jim Dawson]

1) There are systems designed for oil or grease, but normally not both. I use oil on 2 of my machines because they came equipped with automatic oilers. The other machine (Haas TM-2p) gets grease, manually, because that is what the manufacturer recommends. In the case of the Haas, the lines are brought out to the front of the table for easy access. I think the recommended lube frequency on the Haas is once per week, or 40 hours.

2) I would just wire a relay through the E-stop system so the lubricator comes on when the E-stop is pulled out.

3) Bijur Delimon Automatic Lubrication Systems : Overview

[jimskeet]

Thanks for the info!
I have made some research and I don't have a very big budget. I have found this valve.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33060037464.html
I am thinking of getting 2 pieces of 8 outlet valves and connect them in series. So I will have 16 outlets. And also a pump and hoses to connect to every single bearing and ballnut that's all I guess? I will just have to adjust the quantity of oil that will go be supplied over time so it will not leak out of the bearings and spill?
Also my bearings now have grease. If I switch to oil do I have to clean them or something? Or just supply oil and they will get cleaned over time?

[Jim Dawson]

I think the pieces you reference will work OK.

If the oil is not leaking out of the bearing, you are not using enough oil. I have one of my machine oiler adjusted to use about 1L / 40 hours of run time. The excess oil goes on the floor. The other machine, I have it adjusted for a bit less oil because I don't want to spill too much oil into the coolant tank. So maybe adjusted for 0.5L / 40 Hr.

I think the oil will wash out the grease over time.

[jimskeet]

The oil has to leak so much that it drops to the floor? Won't this create a mess? Can't I just adjust the flow so it won't leak so much?

[Jim Dawson]

The oil has to leak so much that it drops to the floor? Won't this create a mess? Can't I just adjust the flow so it won't leak so much?

Not a big mess. Yes you could use less oil. But concider that the bearings are not sealed so they are going to leak, and the oil needs to be continuously added. I prefer too much oil rather than not enough.

[jimskeet]

Not a big mess. Yes you could use less oil. But concider that the bearings are not sealed so they are going to leak, and the oil needs to be continuously added. I prefer too much oil rather than not enough.

I work with wood and the bearings from the gantry will leak onto my work pieces if I use so much oil. Maybe it is better to keep using grease and have it send grease just enough to come out fo the bearings every day or something? At the moment I manually add grease on each bearing. And because I need to add grease to 16 bearings I do it like once every two weeks or something like that... The machine is not working every day though. I use it like 10 hours per week on average.

[Jim Dawson]

Working with wood does present a bit of a challenge. I think that greasing as you are doing now is the best. Maybe about every 40 hours of run time would be fine. If the fittings are difficult to get to, it might be a good idea to bring the grease lines out to a more central location. My Haas has all of the table grease fittings on the front of the table and tubes run back to all of the bearings. Very easy to reach with a grease gun.

[jimskeet]

Yeah I understand this. I was just wondering if I can add a pump that can work with grease and just push a button to grease up the machine instead of using the grease gun every time.

[jimskeet]

Also can you tell me what lines to get for using grease, either with hand gun or if I add a pump? What inner diameter and what fittings? I think my bearings use m6 thread for the grease nipples.

[Jim Dawson]

Yes, you could make a pushbutton central lube system. It would not be inexpensive however. Each bearing would require a proper metering valve to insure the proper amount of grease is applied to each bearing. Like any hydraulic system, without proper metering valves, the grease would take the path of least resistance and one bearing would get most of the grease.

For small systems, I think the most common is the 4mm (5/32'') OD nylon lines, not sure what the ID is. Just about any fitting that you can imagine is available.

This may help to get you started https://www.fluidlinesystems.net/category-s/2252.htm

[jimskeet]

The valves I linked earlier won't equally distribute the lubricant to each bearing. If it gets way too expensive I guess I can add only the lines and guide them together to one single spot and make the greasing procedure easier at least.
I am located in Greece. Do you know of any shops here in Europe that I could check?

[Jim Dawson]

I'm sorry, I don't know of any shops in Europe to check with. But I did find this example of a central grease system. https://shop.andersonprocess.com/graco-563855-kit.html

[jimskeet]

Thanks for all the info. This is way out of my budget. You have been very helpful! :-)

[Jim Dawson]

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