doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Mobil 1 oil

There are more than a few Mobil 1 oils!

Which one is the best to use for hinge pin lubrication?

Winter or Summer?

New gun or high mileage?

I use a moly grease lube on my hinge pins, although I have used a freebee Krieghoff oil that was fairly thick on several hinge pins. Some worthies on the Practical Machinist South Bend Lathe BBS have switched to Mobil 1 0W-20 for their headstock spindle oil, as I have. This Mobil 1 oil has gained a reputation among that crowd for being extremely slippery and reducing friction and resultant heat.
If I was FORCED TO use oil instead of grease on my hinge pins I would find a Mobil 1 oil approaching the 80W-90 gear oil I use in my 1950s Johnnyrude outboard motor gear cases.
Just my $0.02 - your mileage might vary.

Don,
Certainly, the Mobil 1 oil will work, but I'm using the Mobil 1 grease.

I like Rig +P Stainless Lube but Mobil 1 Bearing grease is certainly a lot less expensive on a quantity/dollar basis. In my mind the important thing is to change it often as any grease will pick up powder residue, dirt, etc and act like a lapping compund.

I have always used oil but after reading Ian's post I think he's right and I'm going to use grease because the weight of the barrels is swinging on the hinge pin. I recently saw a rather nice Elsie hammer gun and was thinking of purchasing it until I opened it up and saw the hinge pin/barrel under lug were clobbered out. Ian you might want to look at Chevron grease. They make a knockoff of the old Amoco Rykotac grease. It's a long fibre grease that I use in driveshaft knuckles. Like Brylcream, "A little dab will do ya."
I belong to Practical Machinist too Ian, and I use straight 20 weight non-detergent in the headstock of my Monarch.

Because of the high pressures, a grease is preferred - I use Sta-Plex ultra high pressure grease. It has the highest "Timken-OK" rating that I could conveniently find and has very high "stickiness". Bought a tube about 10 years ago and still have 90% of it.

Re headstock spindle oil - why not just use headstock spindle oil? I bought a gallon of it years ago from MSC for my South Bend and it does what it's supposed to. The bearings don't run hot.

J.R.B. - thanks for the kind words. And I'll certainly have a look at your recommended Chevron grease. My ethnicity, frugality, and common sense totally agrees with your Brylcream comment.
Unmentioned in my original post, but picked up by Philbert, is that after each shooting session, the shooter should wipe off or otherwise remove the hinge pin grease which is usually contaminated to some degree after shooting. Prior to next shooting session, re-lube with the grease and you are good to go.
For the amount of time each hinge pin grease application is used, I really don't think the brand or type of grease much matters. The actual "stress" the grease is put to during firing and reloading is most likely at the EXTREME low end of the capability of these modern greases. We are truly living in the Golden Age of technology-chemistry.
edit: - Gnomon. If I had the volume of the recommended spindle oil you have, I MOST CERTAINLY would have kept using it until finished. However, my light useage SB Heavy 10 from AD1941 has cast iron bearings and needs all the "slip & slide" they can get, - so I opted for the Mobil 1 very light oil, based on its high repute on the South Bend Lathe BBS.

Lubriplate Aero is what Purdey recommends, and it seems to do the job pretty well