SAE 10 & 20 Machine oils.

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I got a 1947 South Bend Lathe from my grand uncle and it states that the gear cases use SAE 10 and SAE 20 machine oil. I am having a hard time finding these oils on the internet. Have they been graded differently and what are the new grades and does anyone know where I can get a quart of each? I would like to replace the oils in the lathe for I suspest they still have the original oil in the gear cases.

Thank you, Don
 
I've been using light gear oil in our lathes at work. I've also used EP hydraulic oils. Lathe gearboxes usually aren't terribly complex and they don't typically have heat problems, so really you just want some EP additives to help reduce wear and enough viscosity to protect against any shock loading (ya I know, there shouldn't be any shock loads here, but what should be and what happens are two different things).
 
Thanks for the link Tom. The chart shows engine oil and I have been told not to use engine oil. I dont know why not but I was looking for machine oil equivelants. Are they the same?

Thanks for the info WreckerMan and Wavin. I will check them out.
 
The reason for the recommendation against engine oil is all about the additive package. All you need is a bit of EP and anti-oxidizer additives and not much else. You aren't dealing with a lot of moisture or combustion byproducts.

If you can't find any lightweight gear oil I'd just run something along the lines of an AWE15, 20, 25 hydraulic oil.
 
Prolly get away with ATF, or one of those 10W tractor oils (That's more of a maybe than the former).
 
The proper way to read the chart is that SAE 10W roughly equivelent to ISO 22 to 32 and SAE 75W gear oil. SAE 20W is roughly equivelent to ISO 46 to 68 and SAE 75w to 85w.
confused yet? if we would only use the ISO system vis ratings would actually make sense.

my lathe at work calls for mobil vactra #2 in the gearbox and waylube. I have also had milling machines call out mobil DTE 797. both are proper viscosities for your requirement.
 
just go buy a AW hydrualic oil
ISO 22 is a 10 wt
ISO 46 or 68 is a 20wt
basicily AW and Ocidation protection only.
ISO 22 will also work well in spindles.
bruce
 
Grainger carries Mobil Velocite lathe spindle oils in both ISO 10 and 22 grades. I think MSC carries the Chevron line of synthetic ashless spindle oils.

Easy to find and cheap, I think Velocite goes for about 10 bucks a gallon, more or less
 
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