amcatanzaro

"especially prepared" sewing oil. That gives me a giggle.

singerguy

not to be giggled at as there are so many kinds of oil - oil for cars are different formula and some industrial machines. so they might be true in saying it's specially prepared/made for sewing machines. you don't want to put car oil in your sewing machine same thing with sewing machine oil not to use on cars. they are made differently.

manicmike

Well how did we all miss this? It's on all Singer literature. Non-flowing, yet people have tested it and it flows at the same temp as petroleum jelly? That other thread was interesting (I hadn't read all of it at the time but have now).
There are some contradictions that need to be ironed out by experimentation.

mlmack

Not all of us missed it. It's even printed on the lubricant tubes.

I'm not sure why people think that grease in the grease cups becomes "free-flowing", nor why they think it would have to be. The only thing that is being lubricated is the commutator shaft. It isn't like there are gears and such inside the motor that need a constant lubrication bath. Quite the contrary. You don't want any lubricant getting inside the body of the motor.

If it was supposed to be free-flowing, you might as well use oil.

amcatanzaro

I giggled anyways. Sounds like a fancy restaurant making a salad sound swank.

manicmike

It's what the Yahoo groups expert (you know him, right?) said it should do. I've been greasing the ends directly (not via the tubes) with the non-flow stuff so it's probably the right thing.
Well, we know that oil is definitely not right for a motor so I guess the non-flowing stuff is right for both gears and motors, like Singerguy's doing.
I'd suggest that in answer to the thread title, do we all agree on a grease for the 401 gears for piepatch? It wasn't specified which gears, but I'd assume the drive gear. Tri-flow grease suitable for gears but not motors?

mlmack

Tri-Flow grease is suitable for the 401 gears. I use Super Lube, which is similar to Tri-Flow.

As I noted earlier, some motors do use a drop or two of oil instead of grease, but the 401 isn't one of them.

manicmike

Any of the 400s in fact:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]476600[/ATTACH]

Mrs. SewNSew

Good information but a tough read. I admit it has been confusing for me at times understanding what to use and where. I was worried I had to re-do some of my machines but I have been fortunate enough to find the old red packaged Singer Lubricant and used it on both the gears and the motors. Phew.

I made notes though for the future should I not be able to find the OLD kind. (Think I still have a couple tubes around that came with supplies but now I know to hoard it!)

piepatch

Thanks for the input. This is some good feedback, and I will definitely save this thread!