South bend oils

[porthos]

in the 1960s and 70s; i had a friend that worked in a tool and die shop. they had south bend lathes. he said that they used only 2 oils for lubrication. my thoughts are that the most important would be the spindle oil. the other would not matter much, any guess what that might be??

 

[Eddyde]

Yeah, SAE 10 (ISO32) for the spindle and SAE 20 (ISO68) for everything else. You can use grease on the open gears.

 

[SLK001]

...You can use grease on the open gears.

You can use grease, but don't. Grease will hold on to the swarf, while the oil will sluff if off.

Why can't you use the recommended oils? South Bend wasn't in the oil business, so there was no reason to "over specify" the oils. A light oil for the spindle, a less light oil for the gear box, a heavy weigh way oil for the ways and a medium weight for everything else. A lot of the oiling systems on a SB rely on the wicking properties of the oils in question.

 

[porthos]

i do use the recommended oils. but with modern technology in lubricants; and my friends comments about using only 2 lubricants. i really don't see the need for 4 lubricants. what we need are comments from mechanical engineers and/or chemist in the lubrication fields. what we are doing now is going by technology that is over 100 years old.

 

[Eddyde]

You can use grease, but don't. Grease will hold on to the swarf, while the oil will sluff if off.

Why can't you use the recommended oils? South Bend wasn't in the oil business, so there was no reason to "over specify" the oils. A light oil for the spindle, a less light oil for the gear box, a heavy weigh way oil for the ways and a medium weight for everything else. A lot of the oiling systems on a SB rely on the wicking properties of the oils in question.

To be clear, I'm talking about the main and change gears on the left side of the lathe, not the ones in the apron or QC gear box. In almost 40 years of operating South Bend Lathes, I've never had an issue with swarf getting into the gearing sticking to grease, etc. I don't even see how swarf would get into the gearing? Unless one was using compressed air to clean the machine, which is exactly why that shouldn't be done.

 

[piper184]

To quote a friend: Even the "wrong" oil is better than no oil.

For places that rely on the wick system, it is probably best to stick with a non-detergent oil in the recommended weight. For everything else, modern oils are far superior to what SB had to work with way back when.

For the ways and open gears I had some non-detergent 50W straight aviation oil on the shelf along with a partial bottle of STP. In A&P school they taught that a little STP in the oil makes a good assembly lube as it won't run out of the parts while the engine is being completed. It seemed that this would be a good "tackifier" for use on the ways and open gears. Good lubricity and it doesn't sling as much.

I look at the lathe like a firearm. Keep it clean and lubed and it won't let you down. My outlook might be different if I was in this for a living, but as a hobby, the lathe will outlast me anyway.

If it ain't drippin', it must be empty.

 

[porthos]

how do you grease the gearbox? with the lathe OFF; just smear grease on the gears the best i can from underneath??

 

[Eddyde]

how do you grease the gearbox? with the lathe OFF; just smear grease on the gears the best i can from underneath??

You can do that, but I was referring to the main gear train on the left side of the lathe. The QC gearbox just gets the SAE 20 oil on my lathes. The grease also helps quiet it down a bit.

 

[twhite]

I have settled on 3 lubricants for my SB9
For now it is
Waylube for ways only not cross slide or compound. Vactra #2.

Spindle only. Velocity #10

For everything else
Mobil DTE25. mostly due to that I had a gallon of this. It is half way between the called out oils.

Biggest thing to me is proper spindle oil to keep the bearing surfaces alive.


Cutting oil is my blood.

 

[SLK001]

I don't even see how swarf would get into the gearing?

Drilling thru holes, or boring thru a piece. The swarf will tumble down the spindle and out over the gears. This was happening so much to me, that I turned a tapered wooden plug that I stuck in the outboard side of the spindle.