Thread: Lathe Way Oil

What are you using for Lathe Way Oil?

Just hydraulic 60 weight on everything except vertical ways where I use an actual way oil with a tackifier, I think it's a vactra?

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Is chainsaw bar oil a bad idea?

I recently went to buy way oil and couldn't get it in a 5 ltr, I came home with a 20 ltr of Mobil Vactra No 2. $145.00

cheers, shed

Bar oil will probably trap garbage and grit pretty good it's very very sticky.

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Thanks guys, I don't want 20L of oil.

What about just 30W mineral oil?

My lathe is a Chinese Sieg C6 10x22

What have you been using over the previous years?

Originally Posted by Jim Ferrous

Thanks guys, I don't want 20L of oil.

What about just 30W mineral oil?

My lathe is a Chinese Sieg C6 10x22

One of my sons gave me this full 2-3 years ago, its just about empty.

Chain oil comes in a variety fo tackiness. High performance oil is very tacky - too tacky for machinery. The thinner stuff from bunnings would be OK on vertical ways but I don't see the point on having two types of way oil around (just put a bit more of the regular stuff on when needed)

Here's a recipe for WAY oil from Guy Lautard.
//metalworkforums.com/f65/t2031...ts#post1948256

Easy to make and works well.

If you head to any auto store and buy a small bottle of hydraulic jack oil it works beautifully! For your size lathe it's perfect! And pretty cheap!
It's really just ISO32 - IS40. I find it very good on smaller machines that I use for delicate work as it really gives that machine a nice feel with great sensitivity!

I bought a 20lt drum of proper way oil from these guys: https://www.oilstore.com.au/ for like $120. This stuff: Slideway Oil | PEAK OIL. I kept 5 litres and passed on the rest at cost to forum members here. I worked well price wise and the oil is great. Much better than the iso 68 hydraulic oil I had been using. But, on a lathe maybe it doesn't matter so much - I wanted oil with the tackifiers for vertical ways.

To boot, they are open on Saturday mornings. Nice.

I got mine from here, I can't remember how much I paid for 5L.

Probably a fair bit.

As it happens, I needed some iso 68 hydraulic oil so today I went to the guys I mentioned above (no affiliation btw). A 20lt drum of said oil was the princely sum of $80. 5lt was $25. Repco wanted $65 for 5 lt ...