Can I polish or clean up Lathe headstock bearings?

[URMINME]

I recently purchased a Whitcomb 8mm lathe and upon receiving it, I totally disassembled the headstock, cleaned and reoiled everything, but I notice that when turning the lathe that it seems there is one point in the rotation that seems to kind of hang up slightly, enough to notice, feels like its hit a high spot or something. I also oiled with a high quality full synthetic motor oil 5W-20 and noticed it seems too thick and causes the spindle to be quite sluggish, but maybe thats what you want, this is my first watchmakers lathe. I do own a sherline which has been amazing and done me will, but I needed a watchmakers lathe for pivots and the like. I appreciate any advise or help guys thanks. 

[HectorLooi]

Before you do that, check if there are any high spots on the spindle.

There is an index pin in the spindle that sits in the groove of the chuck to prevent the chuck from rotating. On some brands of chucks, the groove is a little short and this index pin gets pushed out when the chuck is tightened. If the pin is pushed out too far, it will bind with the wall of the headstock.

Sometimes the part that binds is not the bearings but the spindle lock nut. You can test by removing the locknut and turning the spindle by hand while pushing it into the headstock at the same time.

My second lathe had this problem. I solved it by smearing some Autosol polish on the lock nut and tightening it until I could feel some interference, then I ran the spindle at low speed for a minute and checked again. Then I tightened the lock nut a little more and repeated until everything ran smoothly.