Anyone interested in a group buy of Kluber IsoFlex TEL 50mg tubes?

CORRECTION: 50 GRAM tubes, not 50mg!

So.... Kluber Isoflex TEL hasn't been available for a while in the United States. According to the Kluber rep, it isn't manufactured anymore, but that doesn't seem to be absolutely correct. There are some locations in Europe that seem to still sell it. However, *getting* the stuff shipped over here is somewhere between ridiculous and laughable! We should all be in shipping now, apparently!

Anyhow, this has me thinking that perhaps we can aggregate an order of TEL and buy some before it is truly not available anywhere. Once in the States, it can be shipped pretty inexpensively, so the key is to aggregate the international side of things. I'm guessing that a 50g tube will end up being about $50 +/- probably $5. It is all very difficult to say exactly, until I get a feel of how many (if any) people are interested in buying TEL.

This is not a profit motive. In fact, I am probably foolish for even considering the whole thing. But, if you are interested in pursuing a group buy, please let me know either in this post or via email: [email protected] Please do not use the practical machinist messaging. I find that PM fills up so quickly that it really isn't very useful.

Please note that there is no commitment that I'll even pursue this. I'm only trying to gauge interest. And because I don't want to get stuck with 20 tubes of Kluber grease, there would definitely need to be either a deposit or a full payment before I bought the tubes

Curious -- I thought KLÜBER ISOFLEX NBU 15 was the stuff of choice for Deckel spindle bearing lubrication.

Well, that certainly is something to straighten out! In the past, we've mentioned TEL as the desired grease, but NBU would be far easier for us all around. *That* is a current production item for Kluber, and *is* available from several locations in the United States (yes, I recognize that you are in Germany).

So, perhaps it would be appropriate to open that up for discussion then too. If I can avoid being a distribution party, that is good news to me. I really don't want to do that, to tell you the truth!

While on the topic of bearing grease, I guess we should also establish *which* bearings. Perhaps the high speed head and/or the grinding spindles (which are upwards of 40K, as I recall) use a different grease. I can certainly see that for the latter.

From what I recall, the normal grease for the horizontal and vertical spindles (few thousand RPM max) is Isoflex NBU 15. FWIW, in Germany Franz Singer sells two types of spindle grease (NBU 15 and LDS 18)

Spindellager Fett NBU15 z.B. fur Deckel Frasmaschine | eBay

Spindellager Fett LDS18 z.B. fur Deckel Frasmaschine | eBay

I think the LDS is for high-speed GL1 and GL2 engraving spindles.

My take is that for a "fresh" machine the "Super Tel" is for sure what the factory called for.....
Nobody has a fresh Deckel anymore...all have time on them, some more than others.
Believe for machines with mileage, the NBU 15 is the way to go.
My belief is that the NUB 15 is a bit thicker than the Super Tel...making it (NBU 15) a better choice where it will help offset any micron level wear on the rotating parts.
Pretty sure its what Singer recommends....

Been awhile since i have done any spindles for a Deckel , when i did my last you could still get the Super Tel so that is what i used.
Today faced with a spindle rebuild, i would go with the NUB 15 ......Think it will actually be better for these aging machines.

Cheers Ross

NBU 15 has higher speed and temperature rating than Super Tel, so the only reason to use Super Tel is if you are into concours restoration and operation.

In other words, why pay more money for a lesser grease?

To respond to the original inquiry, I would be interested in participating in a group buy if it ended up being a net savings on buying a tube or two at "retail".

At this point, I am terminating this query.... It seems like the Super TEL is *not* the preferred choice, although I have do have some grinding spindles that are new and might benefit from the thinner product (TBD if that is what was originally used). That said, I probably won't use those for another 10 years, so it is probably academic.

sfriedberg... Retail is something that is hard to establish, frankly. The TEL is simply not available in the US and I only found one place in Europe that would sell it. The price wasn't too bad, but the shipping was two times the price of the product. That is why I was trying to bulk buy it. I never expected the per item cost to go down, just the shipping component of the total. My goal was never to become a dealer of the grease or to make money on it. I'd still buy a tube or two if I could get it for a reasonable price, but given that you are the only person that has expressed an interest, it isn't worth pursing. So, unless so strong interest creeps up, I think we can consider this a "won't happen" type of bulk buy. NBU15 is available from a multitude of source in the US, so if the consensus is that we should be using that now, well, it makes things a whole lot easier.