Is there a common alternative (ie one that I can get from Halfords instead of an industrial oil supplier) to this grade of oil: Mobil Vactra, Shell Vitrea 32. It would be easier for me to pop to Halfords as they are open when I'm not at work. There aren't any oil suppliers near where I work that I could pop out to at lunch. It isn't anything special, it is for the general lubrication on my Adcock & Shipley 1ES milling machine.
Regards
Kevin
Probably sae 10 light machine oil (NOT engine oil), or bog standard hydraulic oil.
Cheers Tim Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service
Have a look at this first:
Sums up things nicely that. Bugger all about what it is, or typical uses, etc but chapter and verse on toxicology, environmental impact, flamability, how to dispose of it, etc, etc, etc. What a world we live in.
Anyway, I supose I'd better do this right and ring our oil supplier at work. Perhaps I could get them to drop off some for me next time they deliver -it's just that I might have to buy a ridiculous amount.
Regards
Kevin
Kevin,
If you compere your Vitrea 32 with a Hypoid Gear oil you may find similar operating characteristics, this may prove a way of small quantities but relative expensive.
Mart> Sums up things nicely that. Bugger all about what it is, or typical
I've found that my local agricultural suppliers have a good range of more esoteric oils - with Halfords you're probably onto a loser!
Charles
Mobil Vactra is one of those oils that is head n shoulders above other companies "supposed" equivalents. I wouldn't settle for anything else. Down here the minimum is 20 litres.
Kevin Are these both specified for the same job? Vactra seems to be a rather different animal from Vitrea, which as far as I can see is a straight machine oil, whereas the Vactra has additives making it better as a slideway oil.
Cheers Tim Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service
Shell Vitrea® Oils are highly refined, high viscosity index, straight mineral oils that give excellent lubricating performance where rust, oxidation and/or high bearing and gear loading are not problems. Vitrea Oils have high viscosity indexes, typically from 90 to 100. They are available in nine ISO viscosity Grades from 13 to 460.
Translation: this is a fairly pure mineral (i.e. natural, out of the ground) oil without a lot of additives (as found in engine or back axle oils). High viscosity index means it doesn't get thinner with increasing temperature as much as low index oils. But it isn't a multigrade (like most engine oils) which have additives which also reduce the amount of thinning with temperature increase.
It looks to me like the Vactras might have more additives to help cope with more demanding industrial applications, with lots of aqueous coolant splashing about.
I wouldn't disagree with Tim's advice, and agricultural suppliers are another option. A hydraulic oil of the recommended grade (viscosity) as used in JCBs and tractors would be a more obvious choice than an engine oil which is probably all you will get at Halfords, unless they still stock the hydraulic oil used in the lovely old Citroens (ID/DS/CX); not cheap as I recall.
They are quoted as "equivilent" oils in the manual, but having read peoples comments I'll obviously try and get the Vactra. Would the Vactra be suitable for the auto-lube syatem on a Jones & Shipman 540? I have just bought one today, and it would make sense to run as much as possible in the shop on one oil (actually, if I buy 20L of it everything in the shop WILL run on it ). While on the subject of the 540, what grade should the hydraulic oil on it be? Are there any manuals anywhere on the web.
Regards
Kevin
My book says Vactra 2 for the auto lube, Mobil 1405 for the hydraulics. I've also got DTE 25 and ISO32 rolling oil and Vacuoline
1405 scrawled against that from when I was looking into the same thing myself. My 540 is an old one where the auto lube is fed from the hydraulics, so one oil tank (apart from the wheelhead)HTH Tim Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service
Just found the book for the older models of 540 (single tank), it lists Duckham's Adcol H2 Shell Vitrea 31 Vacuum oil co (Mobil) DTE medium Wakefield (Castrol) Hyspin 100
Cheers Tim Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service
Thanks for that, looks like I need to invest in a barrel of vactra. I'm not sure if the autolube is original or an add-on, it's a 1960's
540 and the autolube is mounted on the side of the wheel head -a small clear reservoir with pipes sprouting from it. Manufactured by a hosiary machine making company, but as Jones & Shipman were in Leicester that would make sense if they had bought them in.Regards
Kevin
The book for the J&S 1400 that I moved from work to my back garden last week indicates Vacuoline 1405 for the (single tank) hydraulics and slideway lubrication, Vacuoline 1409 for the oil nipples and Velocite 6 for the journal spindle bearings. Since mine has the ball bearing spindle I can ignore that (just buy some new bearings if they prove to be bad :-(.
The Vacuoline 1409 seems to be a reasonable compromise ISO68 way oil so I have no problem with getting some and using it on lathes and milling machines as well as the grinder. The 1405 is a bit thin, but since the oil tank takes 12 gallons, I reckon I'll get 50 litres and use it all in the tank.
Mine has the oil nipples fed from an autolube unit mounted on the side of the head as well. I haven't seen any other ones on the grinders at work, but believe that my one originated at another site.
Mark Rand RTFM
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