Atlas gear lubrication opinions.

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littlejack

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Well, this is my first post, so be gentile on the newby.
I realize that this is a very elementary question, and the subject has probably been beaten to death. BUT, I have read and received different
opinions on the Atlas "ZAMAK" lathe gear lubricant. I would like to start off with the right lube.
I just got my (new to me) Atlas 10" QC54 lathe in my man cave. I bought it at an estate sale. It has been cleaned up exceptionally well.
The gears were all cleaned so well, that there was no old grease or lubrication of any kind on them. The only NEW lube, was one tiny thread
of what looked like graphite grease around the perimeter in the center of the teeth on each gear. This was/is not nearly enough lubrication.
The gear noise is almost deafening when running.
The Atlas book says to use 122 grease. A fella on you-tube says motorcycle chain lube works great. Others say to use 40 to 60 weight oil,
that grease will catch and hold chips. Don't you need to use a lube that will NOT sling off?
I am sure that there are a lot of lubes that would suffice, but what is the best to use on my "new to me" Atlas?
All suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Regards
Jack
 
I recently went thru the same conundrum. After quite a few hours looking at all the options, I finally decided to go with "Gear Shield Extra Heavy - Extreme Pressure Lubricant". It's available from O'Reilly Auto Parts (they had to special order it, but it only took a day) or their web site http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/d...heavy_-1_2443&keyword=gear+shield+extra+heavy. It is designed for open gears, and comes in a spray can for easy application. The spray can has a straw (like WD-40) for easy aiming. I've only been using it for a couple of weeks, but it seems to work pretty well. It sticks to the gears nicely, and quieted things down quite a bit. It also sticks nicely to your hands and shirt, but that just makes you look more manly. :biggrin: You'll find a lot of differing opinions on this (or at least I did), so I imagine that some will disagree with my choice. However, I decided that pretty much any modern lubrication is far superior than what they had back in the day. So whatever you decide on, I'm sure will work sufficiently.
 
I have been using chainsaw bar oil on the gears, though only in tiny amounts. You don't need much as these gears are running in a lightly loaded condition. EP lube is definitely not required, but you can use it if you like. Anyway, bar oil cleans off easily with any light solvent, even WD-40, and it typically does not fling off of the gears either. I don't have trouble with chips getting on the gears, but that is most likely because I do not use compressed air for cleaning my machines as it tends to push chips into places where they are not meant to go.

As for gear noise, lube will quiet them down, but straight cut spur gears like these are inherently noisy anyway. Helical gears whine when they run, but spur gears growl.

Oh, and it's more important to get lube on the shafts and bushings that the gears run on than on the gear teeth.
 
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The proper lubricant for the gear bushings and any oil cups on the Atlas machine is non-detergent SAE 20. Almost no auto parts stores carry this anymore but you can buy it under the equivalent ISO viscosity system in gallons from places like Enco and if you live in a larger city with a good machine tool supply company handy, probably from them. A gallon will last a long time.

For the spur type change gears, back gears and bevel gears, ignore anyone who says not to use anything that will hold chips if they get into the gears because anything that will not hold chips will not stay on the gears and is a waste of time and money to use. I have always (30+ years) used Lubriplate gear grease usually applied with a wooden tongue depressor. The O'Reilly spray grease mentioned below is, from the user's comments, satisfactory. I don't know about chainsaw bar oil as all of the chainsaws I have had used SAE 30 dispensed by a thumb operated pump. Maybe he meant open chain lubricating oil, which has been reported to work well.

As far as assuming that newer lubricants are certain to be superior to those available in the 40's, the main improvements since then have been in detergents (which are always undesirable on intermittantly operated machinery whose operating temperature never approaches the boiling point of water) and in advertising hype. Despite repeated claims to the contrary by the oil company ad agencies, oil refinery outputs haven't changed significantly over the past 70 years. There are basically three choices for open gears - tacky grease, tacky oil and tacky spray foam. Each of which comes in dozens of different brands. And all of which will hold chips if you are foolish enough to allow chips to get into the gears in the first place.

Robert D.
 
Now I've had a good play with my Sphere , today I noticed a big pile of chippings/turnings on the gearing side of the spindle on the table top & a few bits of it on some of the gears .

Puzzled ...... I couldn't understand it at first, for I've slipped a three of sheets of cut to best shape pond liner under the lathe bit on top of the table top . Whene it's clean up time I simply brush down everything with a 1 &1/4 paint brush so it falls down through the webs & onto the liner . Then it's a case of gently easing the liner sections covered with turnings out and empty them in the scrap metal bucket.


Then it struck me where the pile of turnings had come from .............. They have passed through the hollow head stock spindle , sure enough when I looked with a torch I saw that the spindle was about 1/3 full of metal turnings /chips.

After giving it a bit of a ramrod clean with an ally bar, I pulled some lint free rag well sprayed in WD 40 through it several times to get rid of all bits & clean out years of crud. It also got a stiff bottle brush sprayed in WD 40 through it several times and even more crud came out. I then plugged each end of the hollow spindle with a little bit of open cell foam rubber to stop it happening in the future .. it can be easily removed if I need the facility of the hollow spindle .
 
Way oil? It's already on the bench, it's tacky, and it's non-detergent.

Just from looking at mine after seizing one, I would think you'd need an oil to get some lube on the shafts supporting the gears too...grease isn't going to run into the gaps like an oil will.
 
Use way oil on the ways. Use a high-tack grease (I've used Lubriplate for 33 years) on the gear teeth (some people prefer high-tack chain oil or similar). Use SAE-20 or equivalent everywhere else. If you check the lube instruction sheet in the MOLO or some are available in Downloads, you will see grease called for on the gear teeth plus oil on the gear axles. Where possible, put a few drops on both sides of each gear.
 
Plug the spindle with something like foam rubber cushion material you can poke out if needed. I happened to have some steam cylinder lubricant on hand when I was trying to find something that would stay. Antique automobile supplies. It is used in the steering gear box, differential and transmission. Its called 600 weight. Now before anyone jumps on that description it is thicker than 90 wt gear oil and stays where you put it at the speeds it turns. It's quiet and happy and appears to work well in that application. I see no damage to the ZAMAK after much use and can still hear well today.
 
[QUOTE="
I am sure that there are a lot of lubes that would suffice, but what is the best to use on my "new to me" Atlas?
All suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Regards
Jack[/QUOTE]

I have been using Lucas Assembly Lube on all of my open gears. My change gear lathe runs almost silent and the stuff seems to stick better the faster the gears spin.
I also use it on the gears in my QC gearbox.
HWF
 
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