Lubrication For An Atlas Mill

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Rob

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I am in the process of cleaning old grease and gunk from a Atlas Mill. Looking at the manual for the mill it is hard to see what to use for the gears in the feed gear case item MF-1 that is used to drive the table. It says to put a few drops of oil on the bearings each time you use it but I didn't see where it says what to use on the gears. When I disassembled my feed gear case it was full of old dried grease.

Thanks
 
Rob,

First, I don't know why Atlas never put the change and mitre gears in the mill on the lube charts. For the same parts in the lathes and shapers, they specifically recommend Keystone # 122 periodically (no actual time frame given) applied to the gear teeth to, as they say, provide for quite running.

Nearly an hour of searching turned up a couple of hints that Keystone was bought by Carter which was bought by Total. And two sources say that the Total grease shown in the PDF below is equivalent to Keystone 122. I haven't yet located any for trial.

FWIW, I have for the past 30+ years used Lubriplate 105 which seems to work pretty well and doesn't sling off badly.
 

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I had the same question when I was going through my MFC mill and never did find a definitive answer. I tried asking Clausing technical support and all they did was send me a PDF of the lubrciation chart in the MFC manual, which doesn't say anything about the gearcase. My gearcase was also full of dried grease. I ended up just using oil, but I think I may try grease. There aren't any oil holes on the gearcase, which makes me think it wasn't designed to be oiled.
 
Nearly half of the gears in the MF* (12 out of 25) are from the 618 Lathe or the 7B Shaper. Atlas eventually did lube instructions for the 7B and for the 6", 10" and 12" lathes specifying Keystone 122 grease on the gear teeth except for the ones in the carriage (which are not for the most part accessible). So it seems logical that that would be appropriate for the mill.
 
Thanks for the info. I had read the manual over a couple of times thinking I was missing something. Off to NAPA this weekend to see what they stock. Hopefully one of the above or something very similar.
 
I have some of what they call epo grease , it's tacky and not real thick. It's used in the gear boxes of hammer drills and other power equipment , I did repairs on lots of that type of tools for several years. It's green and like thick syrup but stays on the gears . Try looking it up I bet it would work well on them.
 
Sounds like a possibility. Who made it (that you have)?
 
I have some from skil tools and milwaukee , I think grangers sells it too. Used in some of the hypoid gear boxes too. Take a look on eBay , I'll ck there too.EBay has some search 08c10-pwl-019 Exolite epo grease large tube $20 shipped. Or try the skil worm drive 80111 either should stick to the gears . Or maybe try the Lucas gear lube , in auto stores .
 
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Thanks. Grainger's is closer than eBay so I'll run over there in a few days.
 
I went to NAPA today to look for grease and ended up getting a tube of Lubriplate 105. Not much to choose from along the lines of open gear lube. Finished putting the mill together and powered it up for the first time in years. It is very quiet. Will post pics in a couple of days.
 
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