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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
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    Hobart
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    Default Appropriate Lathe Oils

    Hi everyone,

    This is just an FYI really, but I'd be glad for comments from people with more knowledge of oil than I! It's probably old news to some people too.

    I have the 'Guide to Renovating the South Bend Lathe' book, which is guiding me on my Hercus rebuild. It specifies three oils to use in different places - spindle, gearbox and 'general'. They are 100 seconds/ISO 32, 15-240 seconds/ISO 32 and 250-500 seconds/ISO 68. (There's also 300-500 seconds way oil but I'm not too concerned about that. Chainsaw bar oil seems okay there.)

    The specified oils correspond to SAE 5W, 10W and 20W monograde oils respectively, which seem hard to get in small quantities. But I've just discovered that these are readily available as motorbike fork oil, on the shelf at motorbike shops in 1L bottles. I'm off to buy some tomorrow, unless there's something I've overlooked. I guess they'll have specific additives to suit their intended application, but I don't imagine that's a problem.

    Ant

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    sydney
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    64
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    3,566

    Default

    When it comes to oil for these machines choice is totally up to you.

    You can go and get the correct oil for the different applications that are required for the machine,not sure how price works,or if you wish just use an hydraulic oil of either 46 or 68.

    I have never had a problem with the use of 46 grade hydraulic,I use it everywhere,I do spray the gear train with chain lube or chainsaw bar oil is also good.

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    66

    Default

    Hi Ant,

    The motorbike fork oils are a good source of the right grades that are otherwise difficult to come by in smaller quantities, I used them for some time on my plain bearing C model.

    For slides and exposed gears, chain or chainsaw bar oils are a good option, whilst the quality is generally not that good (use in a total loss system), they include "tacifiers" that help significantly with adhesion to metal surfaces.

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Location
    Hobart
    Posts
    9

    Default

    Thanks guys for the input. I bought a litre of 5W for $20. Wow, that stuff is runny, and the lathe is spinning beautifully!

    I'll go back for the 10 and 20 when I get further into the rebuild.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Sydney
    Posts
    2,340

    Default

    Remember there is more to oils than simply their viscosity, and different oils have much different properties to suit their intended purpose. I agree with the comment above by Pipeclay, for spindle oil, hydraulic oil is almost certainly the best bet. It's readily available it realistic quantities and can be used as a general purpose oil on everything else on the machine. I also use bar oil on my gear train as the tackifiers in it make it stick to the gears extremely well and significantly quieten down the gear noise.

    Pete

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Perth WA
    Age
    71
    Posts
    5,650

    Default

    I'm with the two Peters re the hydraulic oil.

    I use Mobil DTE Heavy Medium ISO68 hydraulic oil in the spindles of my lathe and Hercus mill and Vactra II on both machines ways. I opted for the heavier ISO 68 after being told by Steve Durden at Hercus that they used used 68 on all their machines.

    Bob.

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