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9A cone pulley lube

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animal12

Stainless
Joined
Apr 9, 2009
Location
CA USA
I have read some of the older post's about Cone pulley lube , the book calls out for teflon grease , the older post say no grease , so what is the recent thought's on lubing the cone pulley & what ever is calling for teflon grease . I live in a small town & neither of my options have teflon grease , so what are my options . I am starting to reassemble my 9A after a much needed cleaning & some fresh paint.
tks
animal
 
FWIW, here's my experience. My 10K has "grease" stamped on the cone pulley, so I got some teflon grease and tried it. Bad idea - it may have been the wrong teflon grease, but it bound up the pulley. I had to force the grease out with pressurized spindle oil to free it up. Since then have been using way oil like iwanna suggests, and it works great. So if there's any doubt about the grease available to you, save yourself a hassle and use oil.
 
I have tried way oil, and various other types of oil on my cone pulley. I've had problems with each. Mainly every time I go to use the back gears, the cone pulley is stuck to the spindle. I have to break it free and Re-lubricate it. Several years ago I started using "Super lube". And I have not had a problem. The key is using the right lubricant. And making sure you get it into the pulley bearing. Make an adapter for a small grease gun. And make sure it comes out of the ends of the pulley.

Also the thrust bearing is the most neglected bearing on the machine. Make sure you lube it periodically. This may mean taking the guard off to get to it.

Stay safe and have fun.

Joe.
 
Back in '83 when I bought my 197 10K I also purchased some South Bend teflon grease specifically for the cone pulley. Well, soon the thing was too stiff to turn well and was heating up. The SB dealer didn't know what was going on, but when I was in there another machine owner came in with the same complaint! So it was plain to me that teflon wasn't the right stuff.

I took it apart and cleaned it all out. Since then I"ve used Mobile ISO 68 oil, the same as the apron, gear box, etc.

When I stripped it all down about 8 years ago those surfaces looked new.

So that's my experience.

Pete
 
The older lathes have "OIL" stamped on that screw hole I think. In any event a quick shot of
ATF in there once in a while works for me.

I *do* know however if you pump that fitting full of long fiber wheel bearing grease, it will lock that damn thing
up HARD. I know because Dave Sobel's helper did that to my 10L before I bought it. Took me about of month
of injecting ATF in there to get it to free up.
 
I use the Roy Dean grease that was made for south Bends. Have been using it for for several years. This fall I picked up a nice 10K and used the bottle of Roy Dean I've had, It was just as fresh and good as new. It is closer to a #0 grease in consistency.
 
I used Sil-Glide from Napa. its a silicone grease, basically the same as the SuperLube. Its probably a #1 grease. I don't use the back gear very often but I have never had trouble with the cone being stuck to the spindle. Its not packed full or anything, I gave a generous wipe of grease on the surfaces when I put it together.

at the end of the day I don't know that it matters a whole lot so long as you've got some lubricant in there that will flow.
 
Mine is stamped "Oil," so I use oil, and have been running the machine (a 1952 10k) for ~30 years. It works great this way, and I'd never use grease in it.
 
I've been running South Bend lathes of one sort or another for 65 odd years now and have always used whatever oil was going into the spindle bearings in the cone pulley "oil" hole. My sense is that what you put in there is somewhat less critical than the fact that you did put something in.
 
Makes Sense To Me

Dobermann said:
I've been running South Bend lathes of one sort or another for 65 odd years now and have always used whatever oil was going into the spindle bearings in the cone pulley "oil" hole. My sense is that what you put in there is somewhat less critical than the fact that you did put something in.
Click to expand...

Makes perfect sense to me. My 9" Model A gets very little use these days, almost to the point that I go out and run it for about 30 minutes a week just to circulate oil thru its old bones. After reading all these posts, I prefer to NOT use grease in the spindle cone.
I have the spindle oil and the next grade heavier on the list, and either are fine just to keep her lubed up. I also have way oil, though wish it weren't dark.
I also sometimes cover the polished parts with Starret M1 oil to help keep rust away. Probably some good anti-rust cloths in the gun maintenance world come to think of it. (I do not use motor oil or WD40 on the lathe though.) But again, using something is better than nothing at all.

View attachment 279907
 
Back when my 10L was new (1954), the recommended lubricant for the back gear ports in the cone pulleys was "Type C" oil. That's what I use today. Type C is the same weight as WAY OIL, but without the tackifiers.
 
Stuff like this ends up being a judgment call IMO. On the one hand you can oil it the same as the factory recommended when it was new, on the other hand you can oil it like the newer built machines.

I've used the Roy Dean lube ever since I had the back gear seize, but to be fair, I changed our practices with how we oil our Heavy 10 after that happened. We used to just oil it with whatever can of machine oil was nearby and seemed appropriate and it got oiled whenever the operator thought it needed it. After the stuck gear, I went back to the manual we had and looked up which oils were recommended for which part of the machine, how often it needed it, and got it it's own set of oil cans. Heavy way oil for the ways, Light spindle oil for the spindle bearings, Roy Dean grease for the back-gear, and Medium way oil for everything else. The operators are in charge of the "daily" lube tasks, and the weekly/monthly/yearly tasks are scheduled with the rest of the shops maintenance routine so they don't get forgotten.
 
promacjoe said:
I have tried way oil, and various other types of oil on my cone pulley. I've had problems with each. Mainly every time I go to use the back gears, the cone pulley is stuck to the spindle. I have to break it free and Re-lubricate it. Several years ago I started using "Super lube". And I have not had a problem. The key is using the right lubricant. And making sure you get it into the pulley bearing. Make an adapter for a small grease gun. And make sure it comes out of the ends of the pulley.

Also the thrust bearing is the most neglected bearing on the machine. Make sure you lube it periodically. This may mean taking the guard off to get to it.

Stay safe and have fun.

Joe.
Click to expand...


Ditto.
Been using Super Lube (injected with syringe)for 3 years since I acquired/rebuilt mine with zero issues.
I use backgears frequently and rarely need to "top off".
 
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