Best grease for taper roller lathe spindle?

You can get 'normal grease' with teflon.

It has increased resistance to shear, so less likely to allow the bearings to slip instead of roll.

Neil

This may be useful:

www.klueber.com/ecomaXL/files/Lubrication_of_rolling_bearings_tips_and_advice.pdf

The main advantage of teflon is extended life, especially if temperatures vary a lot.

Neil

An interesting read but this company is selling lubricant, not bearings. The OP has decided to use ordinary Lithium grease, which has been recommended by bearing manufactures for decades. When I was in the industry we had our own tribology lab and tested any new lubricants that appeared on the market. The default was always the same.

I had the following experience with my chinese BLE330 like lathe gearbox.

The manual say grease the spindle bearings. The lathe came with grease in spindle bearings(Tapered) and a paper thin gasket that block the oil holes on top of the spindle bearings when lid is on, but that is half the story.

I then noticed that after some long runs the bearing holders leaks oil to the outside through the greased bearings.
Removing the lid, I found that even if the spindle bearings are greased, the bearings are open towards the inside of the gearbox, which means that over time in higher speeds the oil get splashed into the bearings from the inside and systematically wash out the grease, however the grease left blocked the natural lower holes letting oil through back in the gearbox, which results in it leaking to the outsides.

I then phoned the dealer and explanied the situation. Dealer said its better to get it oil lubed with the splash.
From that and the glass lid I made led to my oil mods, now the bearings gets oil at all speeds and although theres a good flow of oil, after all the grease washed out, the holes work top and lower, so it stopped leaking to the outside. The original gasket was tossed away(Looked like newspaper thin) and a new one made to accomodate this.

So after all the lathe gearbox was engineered with oil in mind, the holes and flow system was there.

Not sure the situation in other lathes...

Edited By Chris Mate on 13/11/2021 08:05:10

Edited By Chris Mate on 13/11/2021 08:08:28