Denford Software & Machines

Hello All,

I'm new to this forum and would like to start by saying what a great source of information it is! Having looked at Myfords and Boxfords, I ended up buying a Viceroy because of it's overall specification and although I haven't really used it in anger yet, it seems like a very well designed lathe.

Anyhow, having recently purchased the aforementioned machine, I would like to know what lubricants everyone is using?

The lathe still has the small plaque detailing Firmax 3 grease and Coray 65 oil, but I e-mailed Esso (Exxon) today and got the following reply:

Hello,

Esso Firmax 3 has been discontinued without direct replacement. It was NLGI 3, calcium thickened and low base oil viscosity grease. There is unfortunately no current product we can consider as a suitable alternative. Esso Coray 65 was an uninhibited straight mineral oil with viscosity of 164cSt at 40C. We do not have uninhibited straight mineral oil with this viscosity.

In both cases - please contact equipment builder for their recommendation as we do not have products that fulfill their requirements from 1950.

Kind regards
Marta Botros
Technical Help Desk Engineer
ExxonMobil Business Support Center Czechia s.r.o., Vinohradská 2828/151,
130 00 Praha 3, Czech Republic

So with that in mind, are there any particular products possibly from other oil manufacturers, which have proved suitable?

Many thanks,

Paul.

Hi Paul,

I use a hydraulic oil for the headstock in my 280VS - Shell Tellus or similar.
And a thicker, coolant-resistant oil for the slides.

I can recommend Hallett Oils for excellent personal advice and sales in small quantities.
https://www.hallettoil.co.uk/index.html
01902 745800 or 01744 813535

Possible Hallett products for your machine: - SL68 slideway oil, MO22 Mineral oil, or a variety of hydraulic oils.

Andy

I use ISO32 hydraulic oil in my headstock, gearbox and apron. In the headstock I use ordinary LM grease, and way oil on the ways.

I got a litre of Castrol Magna Bd 68 off Ebay which seems to be Ok as slideway oil.
Les.T.

Thank you for the responses, I will be on to Hallett in due course!

All the best,

Paul.

Appreciate this is an old thread but just wondered what you settled on in the end. I just drained the oil out of the gearbox on my TDS 1/1GBL, with a view to replacing it with ISO 32 Hydraulic oil as others have suggested but was supprised by the viscosity of the oil that came out. It is much thicker than any gear oil I have ever come across, more akin to ISO 68 way oil, certainly much much thicker than ISO 32 oil. Looking at the response from ESSO, cSt164 is equivalent to ISO 150 which again is much thicker than any gear oil I have ever used. I have a load of Shell Spirax G80 API GL-4 “modern extreme pressure gear oil” but have (minor) concerns about EP additives corroding yellow metal parts. Would this be an issue on the viceroy gear box? I fear I am looking too deeply into this as recently I contacted the manufacturer of a milling machine about the same obsolete lubricant issue and their response was…….”anything is better than nothing”

The Denford gearboxes run on cast iron bearings. I don't recall seeing any yellow metal in mine so you should be good.

Hi
I fretted about oil selection when I first got my lathe.
Basically any oil or grease available today is far superior to what was available last century.
I use standard automotive non-EP gear oil in the gearbox, but basically any relatively high viscosity oil will do the job.

The same with grease.

For the head stock gears, I use motorcycle chain lube. This sprays on with a light solvent that runs the lube into all the corners. When the solvent evaporates, it leaves behind a thick sticky grease that resists throw-off.

The best thing you can do for the lathe is service it. I stripped my lathes down when first purchased and simply cleaned out years of crud. A clean lathe with any modern lubrication will last a long time.