doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Rubbing Oil

Near as I know Sal it was a fairly viscous grease placed the the grease "cups" on machinery (shafting) with sleeve-type bearings. The headstock of my old screw machine (metal lathe) has them. Usually have flat threaded and knurled caps to keep contaminants out. Not to be confused with the oilers on babbit bearings. Miller Fulks' description of the Lefever rubdown procedure was posted on the Lefever Arms collectors site recently.

jack

Rabbit has pretty well defined the cup grease. Much old equipment had these types of lubricators including a lot of farm equipment, farm engines & even early tractors etc. The cup was filled with the grease & at regular intervals the cap screwed down to force grease into the bearing. The carrier for the grease (heavy oil) was of a somewhat fibrous nature, have no idea as to what it actually consisted of. Also have no idea if anything similar is still available.

Most finishers seem to prefer anything but tru oil. Why? Is tru oil not a good product to use?

Miller, I had forgotten about the pressure aspect of screwing the cap down. The stuff they used years ago was black I think. I don't know where you get it now. However, it's amazing the stuff you can still get--like flat belt connectors for instance.

jack

What's to be made of the cup grease cutdown? Was there a chemical reaction (hardening of finish as suggested by Salopian) or was the grease just a carrier for the pumice like linseed or water?

I'm going to order that tree-bleed stuff (balsam gum or Venice turps or whatever) from Hansli's vet supply tomorrow and do the "simmering" infusion as per Dig's instructions (probably outdoors over an electric hotplate. Anybody go with strait beeswax rather than carnauba?

jack

Rabbit; Meant to as what kind of old lathe you have. I have an old South Bend engine lathe with "War Production Board" tag on it (WWII). Spindle on it has oil cups with felt wick feeders though rather than the grease cups. I got the 2" flat leather belt for it from McMaster Carr, but did a scarfed & glued joint rather than the connectors. Many old flat belts were joined by leather lacing also, have seen lots of these on old farm equipment run off a flat belt pulley on a tractor.

No name on it, Miller. Maybe a raised letter on the headstock casting. 4' bed which is pretty anemic and flexy. Completely flat ways. Double cone pulleys for reduction and a narrow flat belt. Probably painted and had a paper sticker originally. I gave a 100 bucks for it (75 more than it was worth) and made a jackshaft for it in the eighties as all I had was the second cone but it was never good for much. Have one of those little Chicom minis which is at least veratile speedwise. I've seen a fellow scarf belting together but only experience I have is doing the same to small boat planking.

Been Googling cupgrease and getting discussions which suggest that the oil suspension is a soap. Anything there chemically which would "harden" a BL finish or is it rather just a lube for the pumice in the Lefever schedule?

jack

Jack;
As I understand it many greases use a soap as base. I believe Grease is not a natural product in the refinement process of the crude, but is in fact a heavy oil combined with a carrier. Modern day Lithium Chassis grease for instance use a Lithium Soap as it's base. As to exactly what type was in the old cup grease I have no idea but as I recall, it was of stringy fibrous nature, unlike modern greases. As to it's effect in the stock finishing process, I just don't know. This was discussed on this board some time back as I recall, & seems as if someone here with a chemical background did address that. Don't think I saved it though & may have been too far back to find now. The post referred to that I have on the Lefever board was sent to me by another member here & was made here first. Don't recall the circumstances now, but he couldn't figure out how to get it poasted or something & I did it for him. Don't recall the name but pretty sure I listed it in the post itself, as he was the one who found the info.

Just went over to the lefever board & looked up the post, here is the lead-in;

Thinking back I believe he wasn't set up to post pics at the time & I told him if he would e-mail it to me I would type it in & post as text, so all the credit for the post goes to MDC.

MD's complete post is here, along with some nice pics
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=17541668

Sorry, all due credit to Mel. Yes it was a very stiff grease which held its peaks. I somehow missed the "trail" of attribution and the hint as to it's mysterious efficacy.

jack