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Mobil dte heavy medium substitute

akajun

Stainless
Joined
Jul 1, 2011
Location
Brusly, LA
Replacing a few bearings and a damaged gear in my victor lathe. Old oil in it is some thick dark green mix That smells like mint. I’m draining it and going to flush it some with kerosene as best I can but you can never get it all out.
Manual calls for heavy medium which is iso 68 star 20 but everywhere is out. What’s the opinion of using a iso 68 tractor or gearbox oil for a few weeks or months to help flush it then drain it when I can find Mobil ?
 
I'm no oil expert, but as long as your substitute has no additives that can attack "red metal" (brass, bronze, etc.) then it's likely safe to use.

Which has me thinking about your "dark green" removed oil - some of the sulfides of copper are that color, which makes me wonder if you've already had damage due to the wrong oil being used.

There are companies that do reasonably cheap detailed analysis of used oil, I'd go and send off a sample if I was you.
 
I can’t see any brass or bronze metal in the gearbox, it’s all iron, steel, and ball bearings, even the shift forks. I think the color is that color, whatever it is. Tge damage was from a crash and the bearings feel a little sluggish and are only 8$ each so why not. Spindle bearings are good looks like someone either adjusted them or replaced them years ago bc the spanner nut is buggered a bit.
Just making sure there’s no “ secret ingredient in dte oil I’d be missing
 
I run 68 weight compressor oil in my air compressors and every manual machine gearbox in the shop.

DTE heavy medium is just 68 hydraulic fluid. I buy compressor oil by the 55 gallon drum for $5 to $50 a drum at auctions because nobody else wants it.
 
I just bought a few 5 gal pails of Mobil DTE Heavy Medium. I guess they were in stock cause they showed up pretty quickly. I am running low on Vactra and am hearing that one is out of stock most places. With no date set on when they will be in.

I should be putting orders in now so I have them when I actually need them.

Bearing oil is very popular. I am sure you can find a substitute for it. Garwood seems to know the trick.
 
The DTE named series are all "rust and oxidation protected (RO), circulating, turbine oils". Any good brand (ie. Shell, Chevron, Mobil, and not Joe's Home-Mixed Remnant Oils) of RO circulating turbine oil of the same viscosity will work fine. Read the words in the oil companies' brochures to see which obscurely labeled brand names fall into that category.
 
there are many replacements for that oil, sure hydraulic oil might be ok but not the best to have in there. find your local oil supplier and they can probably get you anything you need. there are additives in the proper oil to do like said above for oxidation and resisting foaming which is important in a gear box. id wait and find the correct stuff, even my local tooling supplier can get Vactra #2 or equivalent
 
Replacing a few bearings and a damaged gear in my victor lathe. Old oil in it is some thick dark green mix That smells like mint. I’m draining it and going to flush it some with kerosene as best I can but you can never get it all out.
Manual calls for heavy medium which is iso 68 star 20 but everywhere is out. What’s the opinion of using a iso 68 tractor or gearbox oil for a few weeks or months to help flush it then drain it when I can find Mobil ?

Miguez Fuel & Lubricants cant get you anything similar, the website has some on it for compressor oils.
 
I’m sure they do
But every time I’ve gone there they make me feel like I’m bothering them because I’m not Exxon or another big company. I’ll use them as a last resort
 








 
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