Threads like this are excellent for long overdue machine tool maintenance.
I did some reading about my free Tida lathe and learned that it was sold as Jet, Enco, and about ten other brands all made in Taiwan in the Tida factory. The factory shut down in 1987. All these years later, these machines are quite well liked. At 650 pounds they are fairly skookum for a small lathe (12x36). Unlike the little Atlas or Sears Craftsman lathes, these lathes have hardened beds with V ways and gears made from decent steel, not pot metal.
There were very few complaints about these lathes even after 40 years of use, albeit hobby type use, which is most of us.
One issue that cropped up was lack of lubrication to the back gear shaft. This could result in seizure of the shaft and a difficult repair.
The lubrication is done by removing set screws in the housing and filling the holes with oil. The set screws on my lathe were painted in with factory paint, so they had not been out since new in 1979.
Luckily the back gear shaft was ok as the back gear hadn't been used much. There are lube points like that in several spots on this lathe.
I counted 11 set screws in oil holes. The manual suggests monthly oiling of these with full time use. Once a year would work for occasional use.
I thought about painting the old thing and in the end just gave it a good cleaning. Some of the brown gunk in the earlier photo was original packing grease from 1979. I even straightened out the bent up chip tray.
This lathe doesn't get much use now, but it seemed worthy of a day of maintenance.
Then another half day doing similar with the Monarch after finding the carriage sump full of shavings and gunk. The shavings must have gotten in via the sump filler, which I suspect was left open while operating for a few years.
The 1944 Monarch has a much more modern lubrication system than the 1979 Tida, or maybe just a much more expensively constructed lubrication system. The lathe has 3 Bijur pumps, one of which is in the carriage and pumps throught copper lines to 14 orifices. All great except the carriage sump was full of swarf and oil sludge. Somehow it was still pumping nicely. The pump has a very effective filter, which was about 50% clogged.
About half of a day was spent on cleaning the pump and sump. At the end of it the sump and pump were both clean, but I was soaked in solvent, while my hands looked like black bear paws.
All because someone asked " Do I need a lathe?"
Glen