Gear lube option for Hendey

[skipd1]

Now I have this lathe up and operating I am wondering what is the best option for lubricating the spur gears on the Hendey 12x30 Gearhead lathe.
My old South Bend lathe was lubricated with a gear grease (Lubriplate) which worked well and as the gears were enclosed from any swarf and they show little wear in the 12 years I have has it.
Now with this Hendey the gears are also enclosed and I don't really see any automatic oiling, except for some of the gear shafts. What would be a good choice for these gears?

Thanks

Skipd1

 

[johnoder]

Sticky spray on "grease" is what I would use

Aerosol lubricant for open gears - Google Search

have fun

 

[Doozer]

Scientifically Treated Petroleum.

-D

 

[Peroni]

Best thing I have found for open gears is Lubrication Engineers Pyroshield 5180. This is the aerosol version, they also have it in tubes, buckets and barrels. My dad used it on his Bucyrus Erie cable hoe and front shovel with great success. I've been using it on the open gearing on my hit miss engines and machine tools, has also worked great on the trailer gooseneck ball. Stays where you put it, will not run or melt. There are a lot of open gear greases/oils but this stuff if by far the best I've ever used.

 

[skipd1]

Scientifically Treated Petroleum.

-D

That was a big help!

 

[ramsay1]

Best thing I have found for open gears is Lubrication Engineers Pyroshield 5180. This is the aerosol version, they also have it in tubes, buckets and barrels. My dad used it on his Bucyrus Erie cable hoe and front shovel with great success. I've been using it on the open gearing on my hit miss engines and machine tools, has also worked great on the trailer gooseneck ball. Stays where you put it, will not run or melt. There are a lot of open gear greases/oils but this stuff if by far the best I've ever used.

A good replacement for "crater compound" sounds like.......

 

[Doozer]

That was a big help!

STP for those who are stuck on using acronyms
to impress themselves with their own speech.

-Doozer

 

[jdleach]

I have been around so damn many open geared machines over the decades, and seen so many products slathered on them. From regular motor oil to this thick tar stuff we used on the gears of cranes, saws, and planers in the stone mills I once worked in. When I bought the family machine Shop (thirty years ago this past April), I began to carefully consider what to put on the gears in the South Bend, Cincinnati, Logan, and other machines. We had always used just motor oil, but it was obviously too thin. There were a lot of specially compounded lubricants available, but they had the unfortunate habit of sharing the same characteristic: high cost.

What I needed was something that wouldn't sling off readily, had great lubricating properties, low cost, readily available, and would work well in moderate duty/pressure applications. In some shops I have worked in they would just slime the gears, chucks, whatever with some type of grease. I didn't want to use that as it is horribly messy and attracts all manner of grit, shavings, and what ever else that weighs less than an anvil. It had to be an oil. Then it hit me (as I was oiling the ways on my freshly re-ground South Bend lathe):

Way oil.

That was around 28 years ago. Been using way oil since. It holds nicely to relatively slowly rotating gears such as found in headstocks and aprons, good pressure characteristics, and doesn't attract much contamination other than the smallest particles.

 

[jdleach]

And to John Oder, Doozer, Ramsay, nice to see you folks are still around. I haven't posted in forever it seems. With all the change in the world, it is nice to see some familiar names still around.

 

[jdleach]

And you too Jim Christie. Hadn't gotten around to you yet.