What oil to use for gearboxes and headstock on the Edgwick lathe

[Edgwick one]

Someone suggested hydraulic oil. I thought something like gearbox or diff oil may be better
Any ideas would be most welcome

[mechman48]

FWIW; I would use gearbox oil, it has different additives than hydraulic oil;  pressure additives, antifoaming additives, higher viscosity etc, check out the chemical constituents from the MSDS data sheets for better info. I use car gearbox oil from my local Halfords auto store (usual disclaimer) on my lathe. Some members would offer more informed opinions, but any lubricant is better than none, I have known vegetable oil used in emergency situations 

George.

[appletree]

My Willson lathe uses Hydraulic oil in its gearbox AWS 68 if I recall, I think lots use hydraulic oil.
Hydraulic oil will get flung far and wide in the gearbox, not an EP oil works fine on the gears and lobes in hydraulic pumps.

[awemawson]

Beware that some gear oils will dissolve brass or bronze bushes found in older machinery. I think it's the sulphur content that does it and is there for the extreme pressure characteristics, but someone will correct me if I got that wrong 

[John Rudd]

My new a Chinese lathe uses SAE20 grade for the gearbox......

YMMV.........

[mattinker]

Hi,

AdeV found the original specs for the oil, this conformed with them.

http://www.lubetechshop.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=25_40&products_id=86

I think the splash lubrication plays an important part in this particular case, it is not a hypoid gear drive that requires high pressure characteristics. There is also a lot of it in there! Maybe AdzV can tell us how much, I haven't changed mine yet.

If you do use gear oil, use one that is also for manual gearboxes, as awemason says some can destroy the bronze.

Regards, Matthew.

[doubleboost]

[AdeV]

I've never changed mine, just topped it up periodically. I'd guess there's about 10 litres in there, roughly.

[vintageandclassicrepairs]

Hi All,
THe Colchester Triumph 2000 Lathe I wrote about recently uses hydraulic oil in the main and feed gearboxes
The carriage gearbox uses slightly heavier slideway oil
Of course there are loads of "different" grades of hydraulic oils too??? I was able to get the equivalent to the Shell grade specified in the manual

If the lathe gearbox has an internal clutch heavy oil will make it drag (not free) which is not a good idea

HTH
John

[Edgwick one]

As I live in Australia I will contact the oil company Shell or BP or Mobil to see what they have and suggest

[mattinker]

I put the link (http://www.lubetechshop.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=25_40&products_id=86) in because it has the specifications on it. It looks like pretty ordinary Hydraulic oil!

Regards, Matthew

[PekkaNF]

I put the link (http://www.lubetechshop.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=25_40&products_id=86) in because it has the specifications on it. It looks like pretty ordinary Hydraulic oil!

Regards, Matthew

Well, it is hydraulic oil, but pretty thick. It iso ISO VG 100 and we use in industrial hydraulic unit 32 or in very hot environment 46.

I have seen hydraulic oil used very succesfully on lathe gearbox. That would be my starting point, if the manufacturer hasn't spesified very different oil.

Also normal "straight" spurr/helical gear reducer oil would do nicely on normal gearbox. Some argue that "old" oils did not have additivies and it would allow sediment to settle on bottom of the gearbox, but these nwe oils do best to prevent sedimentation and therefore should be filtered. Anyway hypoid oil should be avoided as mentioned before.

There are some points though. Does tje lathe has wet coupling or brake? If so, then "farm" oil migh be a best choise. It is cheap too and very available.
http://www.penriteoil.com.au/products.php?id_categ=14&id_subcateg=76&id_products=162
The one linked is pretty thin, often they are ISO 46 or SAE 30. Might not stay put on very old machines.

I asked prety many opions for my old milling machine and this was prety much I got told. It has straight gear and a coupling. Farm oil went in and stayed there.

Pekka

[Edgwick one]

Mobil make a Synthetic gear oil which contains no Sulphur or Sulfur for our USA friends it is called Mobil one synthetic gear oil they said it would be perfect and easy to obtain

[dawesy]

I use a standard 80w90 GL-5 in my Churchill. Most transmissions use brass synchros now so should be fine. As always that's what I do but you're free to make your own decisions

[Howder1951]

Hello everyone, oils are one of my favourite topics. when i was dealing with the rep for our steel mill I asked about lathes and he said that is easy, hydraulic oil 68 cst viscosity. Explanation: hydraulic oil  has a mild antiwar additive and lathes are typically lightly loaded. The more additive in an oil the quicker it will degrade from the additives = impurities. Also like someone had mentioned, some EP (extreme pressure) gear additives are not completely compatible. Generally, this information will conform with the original manufacturers recommendations .  Motor oil is an accepted alternative to hydraulic oil where availability is an issue. A higher viscosity will give a thicker oil film and more protection, but the cost is heat generation and resistance, a lathe gearbox is typically over engineered for accuracy reasons, hence the light loading.
Happy machining my friends.