# Suitable Grease for lathe bearings?



## Mark-One (Jan 27, 2009)

G'day all

First post, so be gentle 

The other day my uncle brought over a Unimat DB200 for me to try out. I've no previous lathe experience, and everything I know currently is contained in whatever manuals he had.

This machine has probably not seen use for some years.
Since I broke one of the dry old rubber belts in short order, I feel I should give this thing its 1000 hour service, as specified in the manual, which involves repacking the headstock bearings, amoung other things, while I wait for replacement belts.

My question for you folks is what is the preferred sort of grease to be using for such things these days? I've got a tub of plain old axle/wheel bearing grease in the garage, but I'm not sure if what is good for automotive use is also suitable for a little machine like this.

I did a quick search, but did not find another post on this topic.


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## applescotty (Jan 27, 2009)

There's a Yahoo group for unimats. A quick search of the messages showed that a 'good bearing grease' was recommended. Probably worth joining and doing a more thorough search.
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/UNIMAT/

Scott


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## rleete (Jan 27, 2009)

I would find it hard to believe that the bearings in a small lathe take more abuse than those in the front wheels of a vehicle. If it's good enough for your car (ATV, trailer, whatever), it ought to be good enough for this as well.


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## jack404 (Jan 27, 2009)

G'day Mark

Unimat Oz has a slip that recommends unimoll grease

its a shell product that is used in motorcycle bearings, trailer wheel bearings, etc

but has the same ID number as "general light bearing grease" here

this is very old info ( late 70's) dunno what its equivalent is today

hope this helps

cheers

jack


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## Maryak (Jan 27, 2009)

A lithium based No. 2 Grease - Such as Shell Alvania EP2.

If we are talking about ball/roller bearings the repacking grease should fill about 1/3 of the space available in the bearing.

Best Regards
Bob


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## Mark-One (Jan 27, 2009)

Thanks all.

My main concern with the automotive grease was that it might be too heavy for a smaller machine in the same way that I wouldn't use it to lube a ball bearing computer fan.

I just wasn't sure if it mattered.

Thanks for the links and info. I'll check out that yahoo group.


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## Mark-One (Jan 30, 2009)

I found the answer in the form of a helpful ebay merchant who sells Unimat parts.

He's also helping me to troubleshoot my motor, which suffered a sudden death yesterday 

Anyway, a #1 grease is the one to use, as #2 is too heavy and will lead to excessive heat buildup. I had no idea what #1 grease was until I went looking around a few auto stores and talking to people who knew less than I did (no one had ever heard of a #1 grease).

There's an NLGI rating on the tubs. I found 2, 1.5 and 1. Opening them up and having a look I could see that the grade 1 stuff was less stiff than a grade 2, so I made a logical leap and bought some grade 1 moly based stuff.

There's a wiki here explaining the grades of grease and their relative viscosity, if anyone is interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLGI_Grade

Now if I can fix this dead motor, I'll be back in business :/


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## greenie (Jan 30, 2009)

For the belts, DO NOT spend big bucks on some of the stuff from e-bay, because all they are is " O " rings. Yep, these sellers buy the O rings by the box full, for cents each and then flog each of them for lots of dollars.

Go take the busted O ring belt to someone who sells O rings and you to can have plenty of them CHEAP.

You will here about another belt that can be joined with heat, OK, it's a lot dearer than the O rings as well.

A word of warning with ANY belt you may have fitted to ANY little Unimat, be it a DB/SL or U 3, DO NOT leave the belts on overnight, or, for a fortnight, they do stretch and then they crack and they are stuffed, just take them off after each use and they will last for a year or more.

regards greenie


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## Maryak (Jan 30, 2009)

Mark,

SKF Bearing grease recommendations:

Bearings with O/D < 62mm = lithium soap grease with NGLI 2 consistency (MT 47) and a temperature range of -30 to +110 deg. C.
Bearings with O/D > 62mm = lithium based grease with NGLI 3 consistency (MT 33) and a temperature range of -30 to +120 deg. C.

Hope this helps ???

Best Regards
Bob


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