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Lubrication, oils and oil equivalency table

Dabbler

Dabbler

ersatz engineer
There has been a lot of discussion here on lubrication and oils. Some of the disagreements about oil were unnecessary because of a general lack of understanding of ISO and SAE viscosities.

One general thing that is true across the board: avoid sulfated oils for lubrication - your bronze bits will thank you.

Here is a useful chart of viscosities - note that ISO 32 hydraulic oil has similar viscosity to 75W gear oil. I hope this helps with choosing your next oil to lube that gear box:


OilViscosities.webp
 
I stopped using bronze bits as I found they dulled really quickly ;)
They were a step up from stone though :p

Seriously though, thanks John :D
 
I agree, @Dabbler - I've emailed a few times with Andrew from Evolvent and he even sent me a used Jacobs chuck as well as the plans and materials for his chuck disassembly tools. Very cool guy. Once my shop is going again that chuck project is on the to do list.

It is very handy that he has done the research on which lubricants are compatible or equivalent across brands and decades, especially for those of us with older machines.
 
My lathe manual recommends Mobil DTE Heavy Medium Bearing and Circulating oil in the headstock, gearbox and apron. I had been using the same Pro Point brand ISO 68 hydraulic oil as I used in my old lathe but at the most recent oil change I decided to try and find some Mobil DTE. A quick google search for Mobil suppliers turned up the Blue Water Group in Edmonton. I thought since they are a huge commercial lubricant supplier that they would want nothing to do with a guy wanting to buy 1 five gallon pail but the order desk guy said "come on down, we have lots in stock". I had been paying about $60 for 5 gallons of the Pro Point oil and the Mobil was $90 but I wanted to give it a try and see if I could tell the difference. I finally got around to doing my once yearly oil change last week. First thing I noticed is that the old oil must be doing it's job as there was virtually no wear metal on the magnet in my sump. Second the Mobil oil is as clear as water where the old oil had a brownish tint. It's hard to get a straight answer when asking about the difference between regular hydraulic oil and "Bearing and Circulating" oil. Most people say there is no difference but I'm not so sure. I will keep track of any thing I notice over the next year and post my observations here.



 
Dabbler said:
One general thing that is true across the board: avoid sulfated oils for lubrication - your bronze bits will thank you.
Click to expand...

One of my favorite topics! Not sure it's a good idea to even get me started! LOL

My question is how can I tell if it's a sulphated oil or not? My understanding is that many if not all so called "EP" oils will be sulphated oils.
My lathe calls for "Shell Vitrea oil 41" which apparently has an ISO name "Shell Vitrea oil 100" which isn't made anymore but whose equivalent is apparently "Mobil DTE oil Heavy" for which I have not yet found a good source in my area of Hamilton ON.
 
Sulphated oils almost always have an EP suffix, and when you check the WHMIS data sheets and/or the manufacturer's data sheet it will tell you it is sulphated.

Hydraulic oils tend not to be sulphated, unless they explicitly say so. It is partly why I use hydraulic oil in my lathes.

I like John Conroy's post about circulating oil, as this was what I used before switching to hydraulic oil. I used a Shell product, but I can't remember which.
 
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