Super Lube For Lathe Cone Pulley?

[wildo]

My South Bend renovation guide says to use "Super Lube with Teflon" grease for the cone pulley. I'm googling around and I find plenty of types of Super Lube brand grease, but none of them are specifically called that name.

I have a couple questions:

1. Can someone please point out the specific grease I should use, and
2. Can you also point out a grease gun for this type of lube?

I assume that it takes a normal grease gun, but I really have no idea.

 

[Steve Shannon]

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/social/swf/B0042FG74W/o=ShareProduct/ref=tsm_1_aw_swf_d_sp?vs=1



Steve Shannon

 

[wildo]

That's the only Super-Lube I could find in a tube like that; I figured that must be it. Thanks for confirming!

 

[DSaul]

Harbor Freight sells it in a 3 oz. tube.

 

[Steve Shannon]

That's the only Super-Lube I could find in a tube like that; I figured that must be it. Thanks for confirming!

I buy the squeeze tubes from Harbor Freight but you need to get it into a zerk. The packaging is the only difference. The ptfe listed is the generic name for Teflon, which is a trademarked name.


Steve Shannon

 

[wildo]

I buy the squeeze tubes from Harbor Freight but you need to get it into a zerk. The packaging is the only difference. The ptfe listed is the generic name for Teflon, which is a trademarked name.


Steve Shannon

Looks like Harbor Freight sells a 3oz grease gun that can be loaded with bulk grease (no cardboard tube) which seems perfect for the 3oz tube.
http://www.harborfreight.com/grease-gun-with-3-oz-grease-95575.html

I went ahead and ordered the zerk from ebay.


Thanks everyone for your replies!

 

[DoogieB]

Ok, before you get yourself in trouble here's some information.

For many years the cone pulley on SB lathes was lubricated with oil, like is stamped into the cone in the picture from the book. This actually works pretty well, but you have to do it often and it's tedious to remove that little set screw so often this was forgotten about or ignored. In the last few decades of the company, SB started to recommend a special Teflon grease to make the lubrication interval much greater. For instance, my 1974 SB 10K has "Grease" stamped into the head pulley. Whatever you do, don't ever use cheap axle grease or any other kind of waxy grease for this purpose. It's a great way to lock the cone pulley onto the shaft.

So, here's the recommendations:

The original grease recommended by SB is out-of-production, but there's still some NOS available on Ebay. Search for "Roy Dean grease" and it will pop right up. It ain't cheap.

The recommended SuperLube grease consistency is NLGI-1, not the more common NLGI-2. You can get the "1" but it's harder to find. The NLGI-1 is thinner and I think would work much better. Remember, these lathes were designed for oil.

Or just use oil.

 

[wildo]

Very helpful, DoggieB! I did find the Roy Dean grease on ebay already, but interestingly- the guy who sells it (Steve Wells) is the same guy who wrote the refub guide that calls for Super-Lube. So now I'm curious if I should use the Roy Dean instead of the Super-Lube. Opinions??

The Roy Dean stuff might have been what South Bend originally recommended, but the Super-Lube has modern lubricant technology. So... is there actually a tradeoff?

 

[Steve Shannon]

Very helpful, DoggieB! I did find the Roy Dean grease on ebay already, but interestingly- the guy who sells it (Steve Wells) is the same guy who wrote the refub guide that calls for Super-Lube. So now I'm curious if I should use the Roy Dean instead of the Super-Lube. Opinions??

The Roy Dean stuff might have been what South Bend originally recommended, but the Super-Lube has modern lubricant technology. So... is there actually a tradeoff?

I agree with your thoughts. I'm pretty sure good quality old grease isn't better than good quality new grease.


Steve Shannon

 

[wildo]

That's exactly my thoughts!