What oil for babet bearings?

[Charles McKinley]

Hi All,

What weight oil and how much should I add to maintain Babet bearings? It has small fittings like a zerk fitting to put the tip of the oil can. Oilers are out because the gaurd will leave no clearance for them.

This will be for a joiner.

Thanks

[Ray Moser]

I'm not sure oil would do an adequate job of lubing babbitt bearings. When I was a kid on the farm, we had equipment with babbitt bearings and they aways had grease fittings. They were greased before every use and they still would wear out. I can remember helping my Dad cast new bearings. In those days you could buy babbitt metal at the local machine shop. Good luck, Ray

[Glenn Clabo]

Chuck,
I assume you have a old (very?) joiner because it's been a while since they have used babbitt in those applications. Except for the real old machinery the primary use of babbitt became steam turbines because they were excellant for extended use with a constant oil pressure. The Navy uses 2190 TEP for all apps.

I really hesitate to recommend something without knowing a whole lot more about the application. I do wonder what type of babbitt...are you sure grease wasn't intended to lubricate it...shaft size/rpm. How old is the machine and is it a name brand that you can contact. There are old machinary forums online that I'm sure could help you out with OEM lubrication recommendations which is always best. Try http://www.owwm.com/

[Charles McKinley]

Thanks Glenn and Ray,

It is a Cresent 16" joiner. I'll contact Kieth Rucker. He has a complete rebuild of a 12 inch posted on OWWM and was tempted to buy this one. I'm sure he has the info I need but thought I would ask here first.

Thanks

[Steve Clardy]

I have an early 1900 20" star bandsaw, with lower shaft babbitt brgs.
While I was at a machine shop getting a new shaft made for it, [the shaft was wore severily, not the bearings] I asked about a lube other than regular motor oil.
Remember the old 3-wheeled Swisher riding mowers?
The machinist recommened the gear box lube that is used in those mowers. It is black and fairly thick.
I have used it for several years now with no noticable wear on the shaft and bearings.

Steve:)

[George Summers]

Back in the very old days, when I raced sports cars, my first race car had babbitted main bearings and rod bearings. The babbit was on the crankshaft. Regular motor oil was what went into the crankcase. Of course, one day following every race weekend was spent tearing down the engine and taking the crank to the machine shop for new babbit material and regrinding.

George

[Charles McKinley]

Hi All,

The following is the response from OWWM member Kieth Rucker. He has a great tutorial on pouring babbitt bearings and the restoration of his 12" Cresent joiner. Ray this may be why the bearings wore so quickly.

From: "Keith S. Rucker"
>To: "'Charles McKinley'"
>Subject: RE: babet bearing lube?
>Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 17:13:34 -0500
>
>You don't want to use grease - grease will eat up a babbitt bearing.
>
>What you want to use is a very light weight oil. Often sold as "Light
>Machine Oil" or "Spindle Oil", this stuff has the thickness of about like
>3-in-1 oil if you know what I mean. Do not use motor oil.
>
>Hope this helps,
>
>Keith

[Ken Garlock]

Hi Charles. You might want to pop over to wood central and pose your question to Forest Addy. IIRC, Forest is a machinist by trade, and will have the answer and why it is the answer.

[Charles McKinley]

Good Idea Ken,

I trusk Kieth. He has helped me with a lot of information on my jioner. I will post the question for Forest because I enjoy his post a great deal. I wish the format over their was more convienient. I'm stuck with a dial up connection and having to click on each reply in a thread takes forever.

[George Summers]

Charles -

Right Click and open any of the posts in a thread in a New Window. You can then just click on responses and when finished "X" out and close that window. Goes a lot faster.

George