lathe oil question

I'm having a little bit of trouble assuming a way oil would serve for a headstock----but then what do I know?
I'm far from an expert, but I think I'd use something like Mobil DTE Medium for the headstock. A good idea is to talk to a distributor that handles Mobil products. I've had real good luck with them. They can cross reference almost anything, including foreign oils. Worked for me for my Graziano. Any place I've ever worked, and for my own use, Vactra #2 has been the only choice for way oil.
Harold

"Harold and Susan Vordos" wrote in news:429427a2 snipped-for-privacy@newspeer2.tds.net:
This oil should do fine for the headstock. We use that weight oil in all of our old equipment with gear drive headstocks (Shell Tonna 68). In a gear train, you are looking for a high-pressure lubricant, with decent tacking ability. Way oil serves this purpose well, and would be less resistive than a true 90 weight gear oil, allowing more power to the spindle, and less used to plow the gears through the oil.

Pacemakers are NICE lathes
Gunner
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

I agree with Harold on both choices of oil.
Gunner (who hates it when that happens )
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

I got a lesson on this with my Sheldon R15-6! The lube plate on the machine, AND the manual both say to use Mobil Vactra oil Heavy in the headstock, and Mobil Compound AA in the apron (which is also pumped onto the slideways). While rebuilding the machine, I would mumble tha mantra "way oil in the headstock, gear oil on the ways, very strange!" for entertainment. When I got the machine put back together, I replaced all the lubes with the current equivalent of these lubes. And, when I ran the spindle, I found the bearings getting frighteningly hot after just a couple of minutes! After a day of consultation with the experts in this group, the consensus was 100% that this had to be an incredible error on the part of Sheldon. Somebody had a new book from a couple years later, and it showed Mobil Velocite oil Heavy, NOT Vactra! What a TYPO! Anyway, I had some Velocite #6 which is the called-for oil for the high speed spindle, so I put that in. It is pretty thin, and I think I will eventually replace it, but the heating is gone.
The Sheldon R15-6 uses some pretty exotic zero-clearance bearings that require a thin oil. There is more to this than just the Saybolt rating (SUS, Saybolt universal seconds, the time it takes the oil to drain from one line to another on a Saybolt cup, at a specified temperature). I would be real hesitant to put way lube in a headstock after my experience. And, I would check the bearing temperature carefully the first time I ran it.
Jon

The Febis line is from ESSO and the correct product for a precision roller bearing headstock is K32. K32 has an advertised viscosity of 140 - 170 Saybolt. K68 is gearbox and apron oil. If the lathe has plain bearings on the headstock spindle, then K68 can be used there as well, but only if the spindle does NOT use tapered rollers. Steve

It is my local Exxon distributor that is telling me to use the Febis K 68. Due to the variety of answers, I am still not sure what to do.

Quit listening to your local Exxon dealer and talk to one that represents Mobil.
Harold

We do not have a local Mobil distributor. I will check and see where the closest one is at.

You may not need a local Mobil distributor. There's an email link somewhere on the Mobil web site for support. Thye were fairly quick getting back to me about lubes for a 60+ year old lathe.

Here is what I recently purchased, and it seems to work quite well on my 12" Atlas.
Harry C.