Question about greasing gears...
#12
Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 200
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not sure about stocking up as per industry standard the shelf life of grease is 1 year. Maybe 2-5 years is really pushing it. I just keep mine 1-2 years max and I buy new ones. I hope someone can contradict or has experience in using grease that has more years shelf life on them. I've gotten so many vintage grease in metal tube and I just toast them as I think it's lost its lubricating properties. Imagine a grease that's been sitting for 50 years. I will never use them on my machines. That's just me. Some members swear by using them and it's working great.
#13
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 4,837
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Pat,
The oil to use for sewing machines is the one on this page:
{ http://www.shop.sew-classic.com/4-Oil-Grease-Tools
My local bicycle shop sells the same oil for the bicycles.
Joe
The oil to use for sewing machines is the one on this page:
{ http://www.shop.sew-classic.com/4-Oil-Grease-Tools
My local bicycle shop sells the same oil for the bicycles.
Joe
Leslie
#14
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I'm just repeating Joe's info from the other thread.
not sure about stocking up as per industry standard the shelf life of grease is 1 year. Maybe 2-5 years is really pushing it. I just keep mine 1-2 years max and I buy new ones. I hope someone can contradict or has experience in using grease that has more years shelf life on them. I've gotten so many vintage grease in metal tube and I just toast them as I think it's lost its lubricating properties. Imagine a grease that's been sitting for 50 years. I will never use them on my machines. That's just me. Some members swear by using them and it's working great.
#16
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 609
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not sure about stocking up as per industry standard the shelf life of grease is 1 year. Maybe 2-5 years is really pushing it. I just keep mine 1-2 years max and I buy new ones. I hope someone can contradict or has experience in using grease that has more years shelf life on them. I've gotten so many vintage grease in metal tube and I just toast them as I think it's lost its lubricating properties. Imagine a grease that's been sitting for 50 years. I will never use them on my machines. That's just me. Some members swear by using them and it's working great.
#17
Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 200
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Why and how would grease go bad? I can understand if it was used previously or contained contaminates or in an open container. Standard grease from what I can find out is a specialized mix or oil and soap, synthetics is another story. If the container had been kept closed what would make it go bad?
#18
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 8,091
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Regards the Singer Motor Lube going bad:
As I have said I have many tubes of the old stuff. Mostly partial tubes. I have used much of it on my 15-91 motor gears and found that once it was out of the tube the consistency was unchanged. The grease closest to the spout was somewhat dried out, but that inside was OK. Once mixed up I couldn't see any difference between the old stuff and the new stuff.
I'm not a chemist, nor an industry rep, but I have greases that I bought when I was a teenager for use in my bicycle bearings that is still good.
Other grease such as the white lithium grease tend to separate but once stirred back up they've worked find.
So, that's just my experience with grease. I'm not telling anyone else what to do, nor am I an industry trying to sell products.
Joe
As I have said I have many tubes of the old stuff. Mostly partial tubes. I have used much of it on my 15-91 motor gears and found that once it was out of the tube the consistency was unchanged. The grease closest to the spout was somewhat dried out, but that inside was OK. Once mixed up I couldn't see any difference between the old stuff and the new stuff.
I'm not a chemist, nor an industry rep, but I have greases that I bought when I was a teenager for use in my bicycle bearings that is still good.
Other grease such as the white lithium grease tend to separate but once stirred back up they've worked find.
So, that's just my experience with grease. I'm not telling anyone else what to do, nor am I an industry trying to sell products.
Joe
#19
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 609
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OK thank you both for the explanations. Now how do you know grease is bad other than being dried out? Does it smell bad/rancid like cooking oil does?
In my opinion I would think the older greases would be a lot better than what we have today because it didn't contain additives. It was just plain old grease and it did the job for many, many years. I think it was when we started adding stuff to it to make it supposedly more effective and go further it started not lasting. Many times the old would be scooped back up and placed back where it was supposed to be. Back in the day most things followed the K.I.S.S. rule. Now we have things so complicated to cover up the fact that it doesn't last and isn't as good as the original stuff. When we clean these old machines we find that the old grease isn't so much bad as it is dried out. If it could be reconstituted I believe it would still perform like it did when it was new.
In my opinion I would think the older greases would be a lot better than what we have today because it didn't contain additives. It was just plain old grease and it did the job for many, many years. I think it was when we started adding stuff to it to make it supposedly more effective and go further it started not lasting. Many times the old would be scooped back up and placed back where it was supposed to be. Back in the day most things followed the K.I.S.S. rule. Now we have things so complicated to cover up the fact that it doesn't last and isn't as good as the original stuff. When we clean these old machines we find that the old grease isn't so much bad as it is dried out. If it could be reconstituted I believe it would still perform like it did when it was new.
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