Nautilus Machine Recommendations

No. I just wanted to let you know of it in case you or others are interested.

I have bid on a few machines, just not that particular one. Didn’t want to bid against a fellow T-Nationer if you were! I have bought from govdeals before, sometimes you can get a good deal, but most of the time things sell for too much.

Can you expand on reducing internal friction of these machines? I was able to pick up the compound leg machine for about $200 and the compound chest for $100.

You win the one in Asheboro?

Yeah, and some other machines in Ohio. Hopefully disassembling the machines to load them won’t be too bad. It would be nice if they could just set them on my trailer with a forklift or something.

Start by swapping out the bushings for bearings. New guide rods, new chains(or Kevlar)

Bill Casto at ifr.net knows the best way to disassemble that Compound Leg without killing someone, maybe reach out to him. I won an auction of 11 mostly Nautilus pieces several years ago from the Sheriffs Dept. in Asheboro. All palletized on a dock level with my Penske truck, just rolled them in with a pallet jack. Never had one that easy before or since!

1 Like

I spoke to Bill for over an hour today. He was a wealth of knowledgeable! Definitely an expert on Nautilus and Medx. Thank you for the recommendation! He stated that putting Teflon bushings in the weight plates was the #1 thing to reduce friction followed by bearings then belts or cables/pulleys.

1 Like

Great. If you need any advice on retrofitting, I have done several myself. I also have several linear bearings for replacing the nylon
top plate bushings, 3-1/2” Fenner Dives nylon pulleys and some cable connectors if you decide to go that way.

I’m very interested! I would love to speak with you about it. I added my email address to my profile, you can contact me there if you’d prefer.

Do you know the size of any of the bearings that you used?

I used SCE1212’s in the work box of my stand alone LE matched to a hardened stainless steel shoulder bolt. The stock movement arm bearings between the knees are ball bearings, not needle bearings and I can’t remember and can’t see the numbers on them. I’ll try to find the receipts. I used a Fenner Drives 3.5” od pulley in place of the last sprocket.

I believe I have everything ordered. Thanks for your help!

Have you had any problems with greasing the needle bearings? I have converted the machines that I have but I recently acquired 16 more machines and am uncertain if I should change out the bushings for bearings since I’ve found lubricating some of the bearings to be difficult. In particular the bearings in the cams, not so much the sprockets.

Unless you live in a very arid place, you shouldn’t need to replace the bearing grease, especially if you keep a bead around the ends of the bearing to keep moisture in and contaminants out.

Thank you for responding! I packed each bearing with grease before assembling, so I guess I should be okay then. I’ll keep doing what I’ve been doing.

I have a near mint condition medx leg press for sale for 2500.

I live in North Carolina.

1 Like

Plate loaded?

No selectorized.