Light Instrument Lubricant

[Bob La Londe]

Do you just send your stuff out to be cleaned and lubed? I get the impression some folks do that.

Yesterday I cleaned up a 1" Starrett micrometer. It was close to calibration (about 2 tenths off), but I noticed it was grungey enough that I could not tighten it through some ranges using the thimble. Just barely, but still. I spun it apart and soaked it in WD40 to remove the hard gunk. Blew that out with brake parts cleaner (mostly acetone). Then I gently dried it wih compressed air and put a drop of Velocite high speed spindle oil on the threads. Its silky smooth from spun out to zero. That being said I'm not sure the Velocite is the best light instrument lubricant. Its just the best light oil I have. I was considering a dry lube, but my experience is that it sometimes binds a little on very tight fitting parts. ie reduces the clearance.

What do you use?

I didn't think of it until right now, but ATF makes a good light oil. I use it in fishing reel bearings and they are quite smooth and fast.

[The Metal Butcher]

Gauge oil wood be right I think. I had a bottle kicking around somewhere.

[J Tiers]

I have the Starrett oil, but light non-gumming oil of many sorts will work.

I've even used the hardware store light oil in the "zoom spout" containers (marketed by SUPCO). It's usually a pretty good light oil for a lot of uses, and it does not seem to gum at all..

ATF might work too, never used it for that.

[BCRider]

It's oiled and back together now. It'll be fine for more than a few years before the oil you used in turn gums up. Or it may never gum up.

Mostly the bigger issue is over oiling on these clockwork like setups that only need precious little oil to run well. A trick that an old camera tech taught me from his work back when timing trains on cameras were mechanical is to make up a soup of fully drying solvent and oil at around 1 oz of solvent and about 4 drops of a light gumming resistant oil. Then apply the solution sparingly to the works. The solvent dries away and leaves just a super light film of oil.

The current folk that are doing wrist watch and pocket watch rebuilds on YT are also sort of pointing the way for our cleaning and lubricating of gauges. Namely the gears are left dry or with some very minimal film from the cleaning process (I'd have to ask on the comments to find out) and for oiling they use what appears like a little jewelers flat blade screw driver. But super small. The flats hold just enough oil from surface tension for oiling the pivots with the smallest of micro drops.

For my needs for light oils I rely on my ancient can of 3in1. The oil that sits out on the top of the can even after 12 to 15 years never did go gummy. It got turned into a paste from dust since it sits near the wood working area. But it has never in that time gotten thick or sticky. So despite it being an old catch all product I rely on it for making my own oil and solvent soup for stuff like this. But I've got no idea if the current 3in1 is as good or if it's been cheapened up.

[darryl]

I have something here called spindle oil. Just a light oil in one of those zoom spout containers. I would never put WD in something like that- you obviously cleaned it right out, so that's good.

[Bob La Londe]

I have something here called spindle oil. Just a light oil in one of those zoom spout containers. I would never put WD in something like that- you obviously cleaned it right out, so that's good.

WD40 will soften and remove gunk that acetone barely touches. I have started using it as a cleaner for anything that has hard or sticky gunk. The brake cleaner does a good job of removing the WD-40.

[Glug]

This is a tricky but interesting topic.

Some oils will fog the lenses. Maybe even discolor printed scales. I think the watch folks know a thing or two about the lubrication of delicate mechanisms in unvented spaces, and how long it lasts, etc.

I have also reached for ATF as a general lube, and used it in oil cans. But I'm not so sure about it. A thing about 'ATF' is the petroleum base varies greatly. Years ago we dipped pistons in it to lubricate the rings for break-in. The idea was that it burned off cleanly. Some ATF smells rancid and stinks. I presume that's some low quality base that is breaking down. Type F ATF has friction modifiers to generate more friction. Some types will damage your transmission if you use the wrong type.

Modern 3 in 1 oil smells terrible. Someone applied some on a storm door and it still reeks after a year. Can't imagine what it is.

The zoom spout oilers are handy. A few years back I was buying one at Ace and I noticed some of them had yellow oil and others were clear. Which to buy??? How do we know what we are getting?

I like CRC 6-56 for general use. It seems to be everything that WD40 is not. Once it dries it leaves a thin film that protects quite well against rust.

What about sewing machine oil?

[john b]

Back in the day I used to use the original Tap Magic to to clean and lube my micrometers and indicators

[Bob La Londe]

This is a tricky but interesting topic.

Some oils will fog the lenses. Maybe even discolor printed scales. I think the watch folks know a thing or two about the lubrication of delicate mechanisms in unvented spaces, and how long it lasts, etc.

I have also reached for ATF as a general lube, and used it in oil cans. But I'm not so sure about it. A thing about 'ATF' is the petroleum base varies greatly. Years ago we dipped pistons in it to lubricate the rings for break-in. The idea was that it burned off cleanly. Some ATF smells rancid and stinks. I presume that's some low quality base that is breaking down. Type F ATF has friction modifiers to generate more friction. Some types will damage your transmission if you use the wrong type.

Modern 3 in 1 oil smells terrible. Someone applied some on a storm door and it still reeks after a year. Can't imagine what it is.

The zoom spout oilers are handy. A few years back I was buying one at Ace and I noticed some of them had yellow oil and others were clear. Which to buy??? How do we know what we are getting?

I like CRC 6-56 for general use. It seems to be everything that WD40 is not. Once it dries it leaves a thin film that protects quite well against rust.

What about sewing machine oil?

Some of the light Velocite spindle oils are sewing machine oil. I don't know about this particular one.

[Glug]

Some of the light Velocite spindle oils are sewing machine oil. I don't know about this particular one.

Selling .35/oz spindle oil as $9/oz sewing machine oil is good work if you can get it.

[darryl]

WD to clean, brake clean to get rid of that, acetone to get rid of brake clean-

[Bob La Londe]

WD to clean, brake clean to get rid of that, acetone to get rid of brake clean-

According to McMaster the brake parts cleaner they sell from Gunk is "Primary Chemical Acetone (90-100%)."

I just like that it comes in the handy spray can. I also buy acetone in gallon jugs for soaking some types of parts.

[ChazzC]

WD40 will soften and remove gunk that acetone barely touches. I have started using it as a cleaner for anything that has hard or sticky gunk. The brake cleaner does a good job of removing the WD-40.

FWIW, Starrett soaks dirty/cruddy/stuck micrometers in Marvel Mystery Oil for up to a week.

[ChazzC]

According to McMaster the brake parts cleaner they sell from Gunk is "Primary Chemical Acetone (90-100%)."

I just like that it comes in the handy spray can. I also buy acetone in gallon jugs for soaking some types of parts.

Dykem Cleaner & Prep comes in an aerosol and doesn’t leave a residue; however, it’s Dykem so $$.

[John MacArthur]

In the clock world it is being recommended on the more heavily loaded pivots (mainspring barrel or cable barrel) to use synthetic air compressor oil. It is quite light. The smaller ones generally use synthetic clock/instrument oil $$$. Synthetic air compressor oil apparently has no additives that can break down over time and become corrosive. This of course has caused endless arguments in the clock world...
Johnny