Thread: Kluber Isoflex NBU 15 - where to buy?

Your best bet is probably Ebay (world wide or Germany). While it is indeed meant to be the bees knees, for typical home use there are probably alternatives that are just as suitable. try phoning one of the large lubrication suppliers (Shell, Mobil, BP) as their technical people can usually recommend a similar product.

Mind you, if you did buy a quantity (Kl) there may be one or two people here who would buy a small quantity from you to offset your cost.

Michael

Agree with Michael, there's lots of BS circulating about greases and oils, and in my opinion unless you're fitting ultra-precision bearings (which would probably cost several times the cost of the machine), and turning the spindle at very high rpm, I wouldn't waste any money on fancy grease. I believe it's pretty much just high quality grease that goes through much higher standards of filtering etc. It's not to say that it's rubbish, far from it, but there's a time and a place for it, and I doubt this is it.

Originally Posted by pippin88

I'm replacing the bearings in my bench top mill to allow higher RPMs. Everyone seems to recommend Kluber Isoflex NBU 15. Apparently the bees knees.

However, it's a bit difficult to find where to buy it in Aus. I googled with no luck, so I contacted Kluber Australia.

They were quite quick with responses but initially provided prices for 1kg and 400g packs (despite my need for about 2cc for a spindle). Eventually we got to a 50gm tube price of 21.3+GST, which sounded great until I got to the minimum order quantity of 25 tubes...

Anyone know where to buy this stuff?

Cross reference for that particular German high speed spindle grease are:

FAG Arcanol L-75™
FAG Arcanol Speed 2,6™
LubCon Highspeed L252™
SKF LGCT2™
Timken Ultra-High Speed Spindle
Grease

You may have more luck to find the SKF or Timken grease here in Australia.


But reading your post... your intention is simply to increase RPM on your benchtop mill. Mind telling us what kind of mill tat is, what type new bearings, what is the rpm range you intend using?

The problem with grease at high speeds is that the churning of grease causes heat. Grease is just oil with some thickener to keep it in place. What does the lubricating is only the oil. When grease overheats at high speeds, the oil flows out of the bearing. After a while all that is left in the bearing is the thickener. Also known as gunk. That is when the bearing dies. The art is to keep the grease cool so it stays inside the bearing. You do that by not filling the bearing with grease. You must make sure only about 40-50% of the free space inside a bearing is filled with grease.

If at all possible, try to use oil instead of grease. But the way some of the less expensive mill spindles are designed, oil cannot be used because there are no seals.

Thanks for the replies.

It's a TM20LV, I don't believe oil can be used.

I'm planning on about 7500rpm to speed as I do mainly aluminum work, often with small cutters. From what I've read, Isoflex is good to much higher rpms than most greases.

The bearings are angular contact bearings, relatively cheap ones.

I've converted the machine to CNC

Originally Posted by pippin88

Thanks for the replies.

It's a TM20LV, I don't believe oil can be used.

I'm planning on about 7500rpm to speed as I do mainly aluminum work, often with small cutters. From what I've read, Isoflex is good to much higher rpms than most greases.

The bearings are angular contact bearings, relatively cheap ones.

I've converted the machine to CNC

I did read NBU-15 has a short shelf life. Something like 3 years. At the price, you want to make sure you get at least fresh stuff.

If the bearings are cheap, it may be more efficient to use a less expensive grease and toss the bearings every second year? I mean, you do not put Mobil1 in a lawn mower either. If I was using P3 class precision bearings for $500 each, I would be happy to spend an extra $100+ for 40 grams grease, but if it is $50 bearings I would simply use a good ball bearing grease (like Molykote BR1, that costs about 40 times less yet is superior to just generic car wheel bearing grease). Just make sure you do not overfill the bearing - overfilling is much worse than using a less expensive grease.

Have you considered a separate high speed spindle, to fit inside your existing spindle? Homemade spindles have been built either as geared multipliers driven by the main spindle, or as belt driven spindles with an electric motor at the side, or as direct drive spindle turbine driven by vacuum from a vacuum cleaner (limited power, but takes care of chips too), or as a direct drive spindle operated by compressed air.

Private message me with a postal address, and I'll send you a 5 or 10cc syringe of it.

Phil.

Thanks guys.

Phil has very kindly put some in the post for me.

Originally Posted by pippin88

Thanks guys.

Phil has very kindly put some in the post for me.

I was hoping this was dead and buried. But I have to make comment on the Google Foo's, that present comment as their own.

Originally Posted by cba_melbourne

Cross reference for that particular German high speed spindle grease are:

FAG Arcanol L-75™
FAG Arcanol Speed 2,6™
LubCon Highspeed L252™
SKF LGCT2™
Timken Ultra-High Speed Spindle
Grease

Only place you could have ripped that off from are these Chinese or Japanese site's. They are lost in translation, as I fear you are.

http://www.timken.com/ja-jp/products...ge_Proof_1.pdf


http://www.timken.com/zh-cn/products...nterchange.pdf

You will not find that on a legitamate U.S Timken site. The very fact you have listed L-75 & Speed 2.6. They are the one and only same grease. L-75 is the old name. Speed 2.6 is the new name. That goes to the speed mean, meaning it can go 2.0 x 10>6 dM

Theres never been an SKF grease called LGCT2. Same translation error. Which you bought into.

The Skiffy grease you are looking for is LGLT2. Minimum order is a 180 gram tube. Care to tell us again how that might be cheaper????

Originally Posted by pippin88

Thanks guys.

Phil has very kindly put some in the post for me.

I was hoping this was dead and buried. But I have to make comment on the Google Foo's, that present comment as their own.

Originally Posted by cba_melbourne

Cross reference for that particular German high speed spindle grease are:

FAG Arcanol L-75™
FAG Arcanol Speed 2,6™
LubCon Highspeed L252™
SKF LGCT2™
Timken Ultra-High Speed Spindle
Grease

Only place you could have ripped that off from are these Chinese or Japanese site's. They are lost in translation, as I fear you are.

http://www.timken.com/ja-jp/products...ge_Proof_1.pdf


http://www.timken.com/zh-cn/products...nterchange.pdf

You will not find that on a legitamate U.S Timken site. The very fact you have listed L-75 & Speed 2.6. They are the one and only same grease. L-75 is the old name. Speed 2.6 is the new name. That goes to the speed mean, meaning it can go 2.0 x 10>6 dM

Theres never been an SKF grease called LGCT2. Same translation error. Which you bought into.

The Skiffy grease you are looking for is LGLT2. Minimum order is a 180 gram tube. Care to tell us again how that might be cheaper????

Arcanol / Speed is minimum 250 gram tube. But we do thank you for your gum "flapping".

Regard's