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For owners of 61 Series Monarchs... What oils and lubricants are you running?

Rakker16mm

Aluminum
Joined
May 25, 2010
Location
Palo Alto
The subject says it all... almost....
I recently acquired 61 Series lathe in excellent condition complete with tooling and operators manual. The manual calls for Vactra heavy medium oil for the headstock reservoir and several other places. I thought this would be an easy one for my tool supplier but not so much. His reference chart only shows Vactra oils #1-4, and the only heavy medium that comes up is dte.

Searches here and elsewhere have yielded much information most of it conflicting :confused: I'll settle instead for the collective wisdom of fellow owners.
 
The subject says it all... almost....
I recently acquired 61 Series lathe in excellent condition complete with tooling and operators manual. The manual calls for Vactra heavy medium oil for the headstock reservoir and several other places. I thought this would be an easy one for my tool supplier but not so much. His reference chart only shows Vactra oils #1-4, and the only heavy medium that comes up is dte.

Searches here and elsewhere have yielded much information most of it conflicting :confused: I'll settle instead for the collective wisdom of fellow owners.

Search deeper in the forum.

Any cross-ref for 10EE, of which there are 3 or 4 goods ones at least, will ID the modern equivalents to older lube branding. Whether the 61 uses any given lube in the same place or not, you'll have your 'table' info.

And yes, there are 'discussions'. Not always of differences that actually matter.

Ex: I used what was finally agreed was the 'not quite right' one in my 10EE spindle.

It was 2d choice anyway, it only holds about 3 ounces out of the two gallons purchased. The lube has another use in the shop. So I'll just do an early drain, flush, refill with the 'more correct' one.

BFD.


Now don't ASK what a six-speed ZF transmission wants in the way of fluid ounces of liquid money - just for MULTIPLE flushings - when used in an XJ8-L... 'of mature years'.

Bill
 
The subject says it all... almost....
I recently acquired 61 Series lathe in excellent condition complete with tooling and operators manual. The manual calls for Vactra heavy medium oil for the headstock reservoir and several other places. I thought this would be an easy one for my tool supplier but not so much. His reference chart only shows Vactra oils #1-4, and the only heavy medium that comes up is dte.

Searches here and elsewhere have yielded much information most of it conflicting :confused: I'll settle instead for the collective wisdom of fellow owners.

I found the same when I searched as well. I got a gallon of DTE but I'm not sure if I'm gonna use it.
 
Vactra 2 for the ways (way lube). Fill the carriage with this stuff.

The headstock and gearbox both take an ISO 68 that I can't remember the proper cross reference to.

I'm sure searching here turned up the proper oil equivalents...I just need to go check them again. I have been using tractor hydraulic fluid that is ISO 68, but I think it is not the best idea (again, if I'm remembering correctly).
 
The subject says it all... almost....
I recently acquired 61 Series lathe in excellent condition complete with tooling and operators manual. The manual calls for Vactra heavy medium oil for the headstock reservoir and several other places. I thought this would be an easy one for my tool supplier but not so much. His reference chart only shows Vactra oils #1-4, and the only heavy medium that comes up is dte.
Yes, but.. Not one of the "numbered" 'turbine' oils on the DTE menu, this one has a name.

I am looking right at a gallon from usenco.

Sez, line by line:

Mobil
DTE Oil Heavy Medium
Premium R&O
Circulating Oil
Heavy Medium
ISO 68

Then lapses into Spanish for the American market and French for the Canadian market...

Bill
 
Yes, but.. Not one of the "numbered" 'turbine' oils on the DTE menu, this one has a name.

I am looking right at a gallon from usenco.

Sez, line by line:

Mobil
DTE Oil Heavy Medium
Premium R&O
Circulating Oil
Heavy Medium
ISO 68

Then lapses into Spanish for the American market and French for the Canadian market...

Bill

Bill, I'm not sure what you are trying to say. Are you saying that dte heavy medium is the right oil?
 
Not Bill here.

The text he related to you off his container is correct and it is a recommended formulation for your application.

The Mobil dealer in San Jose has it in five gallon pails if you just want a little bit. That's how I bought it when I was running my shop.

What seems to be the hurdle for hobby sorts is a source for gallon size. Sources come and go over the years. You just have to do the research to find the available best provider of what you seek.

At times both McMasterCarr and ENCO were sources, your mileage might take another path. Pay attention to price on the net, there are lots of ripoffs available.

I did some posts awhile back on the then current best source, good luck.
 
Dave, what dealer do you use in San Jose? I was located in Menlo Park and just move the shop to Oakland. I've been buying my oil from Western Tool and Supply. They get their oil from Flyers formerly Redwood Petroleum. Flyers doesn't seem to stock the lubricants I need, and it takes a long time to get what I need.

It does appear that DTE Heavy Medium is the correct option. I try to get a manual with every time I acquire a pice of machinery for the shop. Of course all my equipment is at least 30 years old, and the petroleum industry seems to like swapping and changing names quite a bit.

Buying in small quantities is a problem for me since at least two of my machines, the Monarch in particular take about five gallons to fill up. Since I hate waiting on oil I'm thinking of purchasing in 55 gallon quantities.
 
Buying in small quantities is a problem for me since at least two of my machines, the Monarch in particular take about five gallons to fill up. Since I hate waiting on oil I'm thinking of purchasing in 55 gallon quantities.

LOL! Well there yah go. There are Monarchs and.... there are OTHER Monarchs.

Figured TWO one-gallon jugs of DTE Heavy Medium was overkill for a 10EE's needs. But that I might have one get punctured and leak away, plastic as they are. Or get contaminated.

So.. Good to have a spare.

Bring a 55 gal drum into MY shop, I'd have to have long enough arms to work from outdoors for lack of space. Or hire Bubba. Y'know .. the guy whose knuckles drag on the ground when he walks.

:)

Meanwhile.. the usual story from suppliers;

We have two sizes!
Too big.
And not small enough.

A pallet of 5-gal pails might be less risk than a single 55 drum. Lybarger's Corollary 'sez soon as you have plenty of lube, the machine tool as uses it will be traded-away. And then you have a disposal issue.


Bill
 
The subject says it all... almost....
I recently acquired 61 Series lathe in excellent condition complete with tooling and operators manual. The manual calls for Vactra heavy medium oil for the headstock reservoir and several other places. I thought this would be an easy one for my tool supplier but not so much. His reference chart only shows Vactra oils #1-4, and the only heavy medium that comes up is dte.

Searches here and elsewhere have yielded much information most of it conflicting :confused: I'll settle instead for the collective wisdom of fellow owners.


I'm running Mobil Vactra 2 way oil and Mobil DTE26 hydraulic oil in the headstock Rakker
 
"I'm running Mobil Vactra 2 way oil and Mobil DTE26 hydraulic oil in the headstock Rakker"

You can do that of course but do you know that is not what should be in a Monarch headstock? Do you know why it shouldn't be there?
 
"I'm running Mobil Vactra 2 way oil and Mobil DTE26 hydraulic oil in the headstock Rakker"

You can do that of course but do you know that is not what should be in a Monarch headstock? Do you know why it shouldn't be there?

Not only would I like to know why it shouldn't be there but what should be there.
 
Not only would I like to know why it shouldn't be there but what should be there.

Start at post number one, roll forward.

"Vactra Heavy Medium" is now labeled as "DTE Heavy Medium". Same intended use.
Formula may have changed. Or not.

'Improved' or otherwise, that wudda been done by experts mindful of the needs.

"Why NOT <any of several incorrect choices>" and WHY they are incorrect?

Covered on PM also. Wants more reading. If it is worth it to a body.

Too many possible flavours of 'wrong' for me to overmuch care.

Unless they are wickedly good FUN, anyway.

:)

Bill
 
Pos #1 you say? That'd be my post ;) Yep so I'm going with DTE Heavy Medium. Vactra 2 for the saddle and ways.

Soitenly... You opened the thread by saying "the manual calls for...".

Good move, that.

All after was but 'recall' of prior investigation and vetting of cross-ref to present-day Exxon/Mobil nomenclature.

:)

Bill
 
I want to know the answer!

Is it the particles-kept-in-suspension issue?

Like, does the DTE numbered series work for filtered oil systems, whereas the letter series DTE oils don't have the detergents that carry particles...just lets them fall to the bottom?
 








 
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