Used cnc lathe routine maintenance

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In this day and age of increased competition in the manufacturing sector worldwide, it is imperative that companies keep their costs of operation as low as possible and this includes maintaining low cost of capital equipment such as used CNC lathes. It is many times cheaper to spend money periodically to keep up with the maintenance of your used cnc lathe, rather than to ignore maintenance procedures and end up having to purchase a new cnc lathe prematurely. The increased cost of this capital equipment purchase may simply be the straw that will put your company into the realm of being non-competitive. Hence maintenance procedures on used cnc lathes are very important to be followed. There are three basic types of maintenance procedures on used cnc lathes. The first is the routine maintenance tasks, the second is the scheduled preventive maintenance tasks and finally it is the breakdown maintenance tasks. In this post, we will consider only the first of the three, namely the routine maintenance tasks on used cnc lathes.

Routine maintenance tasks on used cnc lathes must be peformed every day or every eight hours of operation, whichever is longer. There are some used cnc lathes that are used sparingly every two or three days and routine maintenance on such machines does not have to be performed every day, rather every eight hours of operation will suffice. Note that the goal is to keep the used cnc lathe in proper operable condition and not spend unnecessary time, effort and money in unnecessarily overloaded maintenance procedures. Hence the period between routine maintenance cycles needs to be effectively pinned down.

Routine maintenance for used cnc lathes involves cleaning the chips from the chip pan and parts catcher bucket. Check hydraulic oil level in the main hydraulic tank and top off as needed. If the hydraulic oil runs out, then significant damage can ensue to the hydraulic motor which is usually a very expensive unit to replace. It is cheaper and quicker to keep a watchful eye on the hydraulic oil level in the main tank. Check the lubricating oil level in the guide ways lubricating oil tank and top off if necessary. Some cnc lathes, even the older used cnc lathes will suspend operations and give a warning if the oil level runs low and some will not give any warning. Visually inspecting the sight glass to ensure sufficient oil level just takes a few minutes ensuring proper lube oil levels. Check the coolant levels in the coolant sump and add to it if necessary. While this does not really affect your used cnc lathe performance, running the machine with very little coolant will reduce the life of tooling inserts and drills and result in higher part costs. Clean chips in the chip conveyer portion and replace with a new chip barrel if necessary. Finally give the machine a quick clean up using a bio degradable solvent such as simple green to keep the externals clean and dirt free.

Your used cnc lathe will perform very well if maintained properly and spending a few minutes on routine maintenance goes a long way in this regard.