Oil Pump For Lathe?

[Rex Piekarczyk]

I need an external oil pump for my lathe gearhead. What type of common pump could I adapt for this that would give me @ .5 GPM?

[Richard W.]

I would use the smallest hydraulic pump I could find and either gear it up or down depending on where you hooked it to.

Another thought is you could use a power steering pump from an old car. Say from a toyota or ford escort. Then it could be belted from the motor direct. So when the motor runs oil is pumped. Don't cap these off when running because they produce over 1,000 PSI. Plumb it in with no shut off valves.

Richard W.

[wayne m.]

Tuthill pumps are commonly used on machine tools.
www.tuthill.com

[Rex Piekarczyk]

Power steering pump was my first thought for price and availability, but don't know how slow they can go & still move oil. Same for the salvaged tractor hydraulic pumps I've found.

I saw many Tuthill pumps on eBay, and the site you provided has performance curves that I need to pick the right one.

[JKWidener]

A little suggestion here. Above was mentioned on not adding a shutoff valve. This could be a problem with some metals getting oil on them. Get you a 2 way shutoff valve, so when you shut it off, it directs the oil back into the holding tank. Just make sure that the fill cap is vented, or install a vent in the top of the tank.

[John C Walker]

use a pump from an oil burning furnace, it has an adjustable relief valve built into it.

[Monte Stock]

I believe a power steering pump would work well. The price would be rite and would be easy to hook up. But I would definitely use a bypass valve like JKWidener suggested. That way you could use as much or as little oil as you needed without restricting the pump flow.

[Rex Piekarczyk]

Originally Posted by John C Walker

use a pump from an oil burning furnace, it has an adjustable relief valve built into it.

I tried to find the flow rate for one of those, but it was rated in inches of mercury, not volume.

[J.B. Castagnos]

Power steering pumps will be unforgiving to metal and trash, I would install an inline transmission filter. These are available at auto supplies, look like an inline fuel filter, have a magnet in them, and will bypass if plugged to prevent starving.

[Lutl]

you can try the pump of a carbonator its a rotary vane pump with a pressure limiting bypass valve

[Rex Piekarczyk]

What's a carbonator?

[Richard W.]

I don't see why you would need a valve to run the oil back into the tank. Just run the oil to the headstock where you want it to go. I mean you are either running the lathe or you're not. If you have a valve to divert the oil flow back to the reservoir, then it possible to run the lathe with no oil going to the headstock. So why have a diverter valve.

Most lathes don't have a filter on them. Some do however have a magnet on the drain plug. If you do decide you want a filter then you can use hydraulic filters that use automotive type spin on filters.

I happen to think that a power steering pump would be ideal for your application running off of the drive motor. Car engines idle as low as 600 rpm and some run up to 5000 rpm before the engine red lines. Yet the power steering pumps run at all those speed ranges and they do pump oil in those speed ranges with out failing. So I do not see any problem belting it to the spindle motor.

Richard W.

[Rex Piekarczyk]

I'll find a power steering pump and see what speed it runs to provide 1/2 GPM.

[Rex Piekarczyk]

Here's a picture of the top of my oil pump piston which is missing the roller that's supposed to ride the cam lobe above it.

Would removing the entire spindle shaft from the gearhead cause any alignment problems?

The drawing shows a similar model without the roller.