Way oils, what is still available. What would be good for an old style lathe.

1 of U said:
i use 20 wt non det oil , iso 32 & 68 in my machnes
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I use good old 10W30 on mine. If it can handle 100,000 psi contact pressures between engine cams and lifters, I'm pretty sure it'll be fine for my manual lathe ways. I've also been using 22 wt hydraulic oil on my guns for 3 decades now, and I've never had a single problem. Again, if it will lubricate and protect metal from the massive contact pressures in a hydraulic pump running at 2-3000 RPM for thousands of hours, I'm pretty sure the moving parts on my guns are not a challenge that it can't handle. In certain applications, I would agree that it's best to stick with some of the specialty lubricants. For the most part, for what we as hobbyists do, I don't buy into most of the marketing. I'm an industrial mechanic/millwright by trade, and I do mostly heavy equipment. I've seen every gimmick known to keep battery terminals from corroding....some of them stupidly priced. I've always just gooped the daylights out of the with good old chassis lube grease. I recently changed the 4.5 year old batteries in both my wife's van, and my pickup. As expected, after I wiped away the grease, just like always, everything looked like I put them in there the day before.
 
Shadowdog500 said:
After doing a lot of reading online I decided to try the Sunoco 1180 way oil. I read that it is hard to find but a good way oil. I hope so because a 5 gallon pail of the stuff showed up on my porch today.

I found a supplier near philly(about an hour and a half from me) and had it delivered ups ground to my door for around $55.


I decided to try cheap ketchup and mustard bottles to put the oil on my ways. Hopefully the oil won't have a negative effect on the bottles, I'm keeping it in a loaf pan just in case.

Chris
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Good price on the way oil and great idea to put it in a condiment dispenser! :thumbzup: I'm going to stop by Walmart tomorrow and pick up a couple of them. It will be so much easier than dipping my gloved finger in the gallon jug and then dripping/rubbing the oil on the ways. :eek: :biggrin:

Thanks,

-Ron
 
blacksmithden said:
I use good old 10W30 on mine. If it can handle 100,000 psi contact pressures between engine cams and lifters, I'm pretty sure it'll be fine for my manual lathe ways. I've also been using 22 wt hydraulic oil on my guns for 3 decades now, and I've never had a single problem. Again, if it will lubricate and protect metal from the massive contact pressures in a hydraulic pump running at 2-3000 RPM for thousands of hours, I'm pretty sure the moving parts on my guns are not a challenge that it can't handle. In certain applications, I would agree that it's best to stick with some of the specialty lubricants. For the most part, for what we as hobbyists do, I don't buy into most of the marketing. I'm an industrial mechanic/millwright by trade, and I do mostly heavy equipment. I've seen every gimmick known to keep battery terminals from corroding....some of them stupidly priced. I've always just gooped the daylights out of the with good old chassis lube grease. I recently changed the 4.5 year old batteries in both my wife's van, and my pickup. As expected, after I wiped away the grease, just like always, everything looked like I put them in there the day before.
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I agree, and I've gotten into the same discussion on gun forums too. Bacon grease is better than nothing, and what's more important than what oil you use on your machine is that you oil your machine.
 
I'm using Vactra 2 on my old Atlas. It sits for months at a time these days (regular job in the way of having fun) but I oil the ways every time before use and after cleanup and they are still slightly wet to the touch months later. Maybe it's the flat way design of the Atlas...but I live 50' from a saltwater canal and on a barrier island so we have plenty of salt air, and I've suffered zero rust in the year I've had this lathe in my garage.
 
Castrol Magna BD 68 is the only one i can find on this island, thankfully RS stock it in 5 litre cans as well as the 25 litre,
cost is about €30 for the 5L and €120 for the 25L, 5 will do me a long time.
 
Rotella 15w40 diesel engine oil on ways, rack and pignon, leade screw, and anything else except the gearboxes and apron. Sure keeps metal from touching metal.
 
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I was once the kind of guy, that if the can said grease on it, then whenever I needed grease I would grab that can. Boy, was I in for a learning curve when I went to service my Levin head stock bearings with new/fresh grease! Not all greases can be treated equal. I guess that’s why there are hundreds of grades/types to choose from. Well, I first grabbed that can of grease I had and it gave me nothing but problems. I could not believe it, after all it was grease! I then did some homework and found out there was only one kind of grease recommended for the Levin headstock bearings but the price of the grease was ridiculous. So I decided to try another grease but noting it would say for high speed bearings and high pressure and other specs. Well, guess what, again, nothing but problems. This was getting me nowhere. Everytime I took the Levin apart, I risked damaged to the bearings, and replacement bearings are not available. So, I didn’t tell the wife and went and procured that NYE 374C grease. I was amazed and now a believer that in some applications the correct grease MUST be used!

As for the ways of my lathe, I just keep them “wet all the time” with regular engine oil...works for me. I do use way oil in the BP mill auto oiler though.
 
As long as we are talking about way lubrication in a home setting then some options of using engine oil or other common oils can make sense. The key is as stated above, whatever you use keep the ways wet. If you use a lot of oil on the ways or use coolant then maybe buying a specific oil is called for.

I use engine oil because of how much is already on hand and because of its properties. The ways often get wiped down and I don't use coolant. For my strictly hobby purposes there are already plenty of oils in the shop that will work on ways. If I wanted to lube an old lathe with oil that is easily available and would not require frequent replacement, it seems to me that two stroke oil would be an excellent candidate for the job.
 
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I know any oil is better than no oil but I've read quite a bit on the properties of different oils and it's given me a bias against using "motor oil" on a machine tool. As I understand it, motor oil is designed to keep particulates suspended in the oil so that they can be carried to the filter. Having metal particles suspended in the oil is exactly opposite of what you want to have happen on the ways, gears, or any sliding components.

Granted, in a non-production environment the wear caused by this might not be discernible for a long time and it's still less wear than you would get from an absence of oil. On the other hand, you are still causing more wear to your machine than you would if you were to use the correct type and grade of oil that it was designed for.

JMHO with a bit of OCD :biggrin:

-Ron
 
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