Which Way Lube for the Lathe?

Way lube is a light oil with additives that make it sticky which helps it cling to vertical surfaces such as machine ways with the added benefit of not being easily washed away by coolants. Many high priced specialty lubes contain a secret component developed in the 1960's for the space missions of the time, no one outside of the government knows exactly what they are with the possible exception of Carl Sagan and he refuses to discuss the subject, he has also been dead since 1996.

Good Luck
 
For my mini lathe and mini mill I use compressor oil mixed with STP oil additive,the compressor oil is actually a 30 weight, non-detergent, single viscosity oil.
 
Have you ever seen an old lathe and it has brown looking ways? That's from sulfur based oil. Mobil Vactra use to have sulfur in it until the reformulated their oil. Now Vatra doesn't not have sulfur, so no bar chain oil. I would bite the bullet and buy "Vactra 2" I used to use Vactra 4 on huge 6" + spindle machines. If there is a machine shop near you take a 1 gallon or quart jug with you and introduce yourself and see if you can buy some from them. Many are nice and will give it to you.

I was looking at the H&W web site yesterday and they sell quart bottles of way oil for $8.50 http://www.machinerypartsdepot.com/product/002-0102

All in all H&W is a reasonable on there prices plus they have some really informative You Tube videos on Bridgeport repair.
 
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