Help Picking Oil For A Ww1 Era Lathe

[jhuston]

Hi everyone,
I'm in the midst of rebuiding an unusual lathe; it's a Mulliner Enlund 14" engine lathe , somewhat similar in design to a Hendey "conehead" lathe, and was built sometime before 1919 when the company was purchased by Porter Cable.
The head is lubricated by ring oilers, and I'm unsure what the best suited oil would be. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you,
-James Huston

 

[brino]

Hello James,

Welcome to the site!

My advice would be this: http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/is-this-worth-restoring.50994/page-2#post-428686
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/is-this-worth-restoring.50994/page-2#post-428686

-brino

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Whale Oil, by gum!
but seriously, it will depend on how hard you are going to use the lathe and what temperature it will be used at.
for example, you wouldn't want to use ISO 100 @ 26*f

i'm sure 20wt to 30wt oil oil should work out for you, or iso46 or iso68 oils may suffice

 

[jhuston]

Thanks for the welcome as well as the recommendations; the lathe will be used in a climate controlled basement shop for the sole purpose of parts making ( I collect vintage Porter Cable tools and machines and often need to fabricate missing or broken components). For being around 100 years old, this lathe is still nice and tight, and I intend to keep it that way going into it's second century.

-James Huston

 

[francist]

Well now you've gone and done it! We're going to need to see pictures of all those machines now, that's all there is to it!


-frank

 

[jhuston]

Frank, let me see how you go about loading photos and I'll be glad to!
-James Huston

 

[Ulma Doctor]

to load photos... you'll see the icon for a landscape picture
simply click the picture icon
it will ask for a URL
simply cut and paste the url form your picture and click the insert tab - baddabing you should be able to post pictures

 

[jhuston]

I'm still figuring it out; photos to come.

 

[jhuston]

Gunrunner you need to order a set of these for the Z axis hand crank. Bill did you just spit coffee on your monitor? :rofl:

View attachment 253356

 

[Glenn Brooks]

I just went through a similar process when restoring my 1919 Dalton lathe and a latter model 1944 Burke #4 horizontal milling machine. I settled on 90 weight non-hypoid gear lube - emphasis on the non-hypoid formulation. As in Warning- Do Not Use modern hypoid gear oil. Napa auto stores usually carry a few bottles tucked away next to all the hypoid gear oils. Hypoid oils are much to 'slick'. They do not adhere to low pressure bearing surfaces, hence don't provide the necessary lubrication to non hypoid gears. Also these new oils have additives, such as sulphur, etc, that corrode the ' yellow metals' - brass and bronze composits used in early day gears and seals in the machines. Non - hypoid gear oil is the original oil formulation produced for use in the earliest day internal combustion machine transmissions and various kinds of gear boxes and PTO's. So it is ideally suited for lubricating and protecting gears on early lathes and mills.

Alternatively, some early lathes use non detergent 30weight motor oil for gearbathes. You will have to decide which is more suitable for your machine.

Maybe one final comment - it's probably a good idea to lube your mating surfaces with vacra #2 way oil. This stuff is way better than gear oil or motor oil - or cutting fluid for that matter- for lubricating ways and other machined surfaces.

Glenn