Regarding the gear oil and filling the gearbox:
Any oil marked ? _W-90? and listed as "safe for bronze", "protects copper and copper alloys", or similar will work If you are running your saw indoors.? There is no need for the home hobbyist to search out "the best" oil because the performance difference between the $6/quart and $25/quart products will never be noticed by people not running their saw for daily 8-hour shifts.? Save your money for where it matters, the blade.
(The same can be said for all the recommendations offered whenever someone asks about cutting oil.? If you are doing this as a hobby you will never notice any better performance with an industrial product than what you'll see using clean "motor oil" from a discount store.? Industrial products are formulated to improve efficiency: faster speeds and less tool wear.? In our basements where changing belt positions takes more time than what we'd save with optimal conditions efficiency is not a concern.)
My saw's manual gives the procedure for changing the oil: With the saw frame lowered put a pan under the gearbox.? Loosen the lower two screws until oil comes out, then slowly raise the saw frame until vertical.? Remove the cover and clean out the box with a soft cloth.? Lower the saw frame.? Add oil until the level is at the lower edge of the gearbox and install the lid.? You don't need to measure the amount of oil, and you can't add too much if you follow the instruction.
My saw is a generic private label 4X6 (Lobo Tool) from 1997.? The only trouble I've had is when I followed some genius's multi-page procedure for aligning the blade that took a whole day to accomplish - and to tear down when it gave me worse cuts than I was getting before.? Shimming the blade guide parts so that they didn't wobble and were aligned to a machinist's rule then adjusting them per the saw's manual has worked well for me.? I can cut steel bar square when checked with a machinist's square which is more than acceptable for what is in reality a roughing tool.
Kurt Laughlin.
