Lubrication, Lubrication, Lubrication!

The Beer Bottling Machine has lots of moving parts - that are trying to work in a pretty hostile environment.
Lots of movement - lots of liquid - some of it sticky - lots of cleaning with chemicals.
It is important that all of these moving parts - be kept well lubricated.
Food Grade Machine Oil or any number of lubricant that are commonly used in the food industry can be used. These lubricants can be applied either with a brush or a spray - but must be applied!

If it moves - it should be lubricated! - to make sure it continues to move smoothly.

Here I have an example of the bottle lifting pistons binding - and 'lifting' the entire lifting ring!

 The first indicator of the problem is that the lifting wheels did not drop down and ride on the rail when in the lowest position.

 Further investigation indicated that the entire lifting ring had raised up from it's original location. The bolt that was holding the lifting ring locked to the shaft - created a gouge in the shaft - on it's way up.

This was caused by a couple of lifting platforms that had started to bind - not moving smoothly - as they were moving up and down. This lifted the entire lifting ring!

To repair this:
- repair all binding lifting pistons.
- loosen the setscrew.
- raise - yes raise - the lifter ring and inch or so - so that the scared shaft can be repaired.
- lower the lifting ring back into place
- retighten the setscrew.
- TIP - add a bead of caulk to keep liquid from running down the center shaft.

Listen to your machine - it 'talks' to you every day!