10 Weight Oil For Antique Scale Dampener?

[country gent]

Another that might work and not go rancid is brake fluid.

[mdi]

Basically any liquid thinner than maple syrup will work, or no liquid at all, if you're patient. Oil is used because normally it won't rust the scale or evaporate. Ten weight is about a middle of the road viscosity and isn't too "specialized" and not unobtainable to the average guy...

[Jniedbalski]

Air compressor oil I thank is non detergent 10wt oil. Check places that sell air compressor. They will have it in quarts. Also refrigeration oil for ac units and car ac’s have 10 wt and thinner oil . Car ac oil comes in pints or half pints

[DonMountain]

I thank everybody for their suggestions for types of oils to put in an old Pacific oil dampened press that I have. I finally picked up a bottle of sewing machine oil that looked to be about a 10 weight oil and was nice and clear, so I bought it and tried it out tonight with great success. The scale dampened down only seconds after putting the measured powder filled pan on the wire hanger as I weighed 2.6 grains of W-231 for 102 grain cast lead bullets for my 380. But I quickly ran out of sized bullets and have to go back to the sizing press and do a bunch more!

[lightman]

Your choice of oil should work fine. I use my old Herters, (looks like a Redding) without oil but it settles quicker when dampened. My idea was that oil has a way of making a mess and I was trying to avoid that.

[Soundguy]

We use 10W non detergent in the windmill. I get it at the local NAPA which caters to a large farming community.

yup.. 10w nd is commonly available. as mentioned, iso graded hyd oil will get you close.

[jimkim]

Hydraulic jack oil $6.00 for a bottle of Bars Leak.

[fecmech]

+2 on 10W30 oils. The viscosity of 10W30 at room temp is the same as 10wt oil. Actually any kind of oil will dampen movement. The thicker the oil the faster it will dampen movement.

[Soundguy]

Another that might work and not go rancid is brake fluid.

if orings are involved.. be carefull

[DonMountain]

Your choice of oil should work fine. I use my old Herters, (looks like a Redding) without oil but it settles quicker when dampened. My idea was that oil has a way of making a mess and I was trying to avoid that.

This is where I was at too. I used my old Pacific scale for awhile without any oil in it. And always sat down to reload with a cup of coffee or iced tea to drink while I was waiting for the scale to stop moving, or to at least watch it move up and down equal lines on either side of the zero line in the middle. But when I started reloading large blocks of these little 380 pistol rounds I thought I better put something in the press oil reservoir. And I couldn't decide what to use. I went through my ready supply of oils out in the shop, putting a few drips on my fingers to try to guess at the thickness or weight of the oils, and finally decided to use sewing machine oil after borrowing some of that from my wife. The other "best" choices that I had to pick from out in the shop were: compressor oil, hydraulic oil, jack oil, air tool oil, and then on to all the engine and gear oils that were way too "thick". The sewing machine oil seemed to be the thinnest of all of them and was nice and clear. So that is what I picked, and it seems to be running the scale just fine. I got another new container of it at WalMart in the sewing area to replace the bottle I borrowed. But I think the lighter weight oils in my list above would have done fine also, but the heavier ones will probably lose some sensitivity of the scale movement. With the sewing machine thin oil I can see movement in the scale with just a few kernals of powder dropped from the trickler. And when I set the pan of powder measured with a powder measure onto the scale it settles down pretty fast, allowing me to trickle in the last bit of movement for good accuracy.

[DonMountain]

Another that might work and not go rancid is brake fluid.

I was afraid of using brake fluid due to its affinity for water. It has to be used in a closed container so it doesn't absorb water. So I think that would be a bad choice.

[mdi]

My Redding #1 is easy to use and accurate/repeatable, BUT, I have a hard and fast habit to put away all my tools when I'm done using them so removing the oil gets messy...

[DonMountain]

My Redding #1 is easy to use and accurate/repeatable, BUT, I have a hard and fast habit to put away all my tools when I'm done using them so removing the oil gets messy...

I was afraid of this also, but I figured out that I can just take the pan and hanger off the level arm and place it on the middle of the press, and lift the level arm off the bearings and set it to one side so the dampening paddle sits on the bottom of the oil reservoir to one side and the original box I have with the press just fits over the press as a dust cover keeping everything easy to set up again and clean.

[Walks]

I use an old REDDING oil dampening scale. I have an old 4oz eye-dropper bottle that I keep the oil in. I add 1 full dropper of oil when I set up the scale and then use the eye-dropper to remove all the oil I can.
I can't remember what kind of oil it is. I think it's mineral oil as it has no smell.
But this system has worked for me for 30+yrs. I don't use it much these days.

[jimkim]

Too bad the paddle isn't copper or brass. You could add a strong magnet to each side of the reservoir and you'd have a magnetic damped scale.

Sent from my VS880 using Tapatalk

[Treetop]

I started out with a Pacific, oil dampened, powder scale back in the early 60s. The Pacific instruction manual said to use ATF fluid in the oil dampening well. Hope this helps, TreeTop

[DonMountain]

I started out with a Pacific, oil dampened, powder scale back in the early 60s. The Pacific instruction manual said to use ATF fluid in the oil dampening well. Hope this helps, TreeTop

Something doesn't seem right here. I don't remember any cars having automatic transmissions back in the "early 60's"! Our 64 Chevy wagon had a 3-speed on the column, and our 59 Chevy pickup truck had a 4-on-the-floor. I heard of people in the city that had Cadillac cars with an automatic transmission, but no body that lived on the farms and did a lot of shooting could afford one. We bought reloading equipment instead. Ever hear of Hollywood presses? Now that was the Cadillac of reloading presses that all of us kids that shot wanted.

[C.F.Plinker]

Something doesn't seem right here. I don't remember any cars having automatic transmissions back in the "early 60's"! Our 64 Chevy wagon had a 3-speed on the column, and our 59 Chevy pickup truck had a 4-on-the-floor. I heard of people in the city that had Cadillac cars with an automatic transmission, but no body that lived on the farms and did a lot of shooting could afford one. We bought reloading equipment instead. Ever hear of Hollywood presses? Now that was the Cadillac of reloading presses that all of us kids that shot wanted.

The first car my family had with an automatic transmission was a 1956 Plymouth Fury (the white body with the gold tail fin). I remember it because the shift controls weren't on the steering column but were a a four button punch station on the upper left of the dash board.

[TNsailorman]

I had an aunt that 48 Plymouth coup that had a hydromatic transmission in it. My Grandfather bought a new 1952 Chevrolet with the first true automatic transmission I ever saw. james

[DonMountain]

I had an aunt that 48 Plymouth coup that had a hydromatic transmission in it. My Grandfather bought a new 1952 Chevrolet with the first true automatic transmission I ever saw. james

Well now that you mentioned it, my grandfather also had a 1952 Chevy that I learned to drive on the roads in. Of course I had already been driving the tractors around our farm for years already. But his car had a three-speed on the column. Later he got a 1959 Oldmobile that was an absolutely huge car with everything on it. Including an automatic transmission. And it had a really huge engine with duel exhausts. And he had an easier time checking the gap in those spark plugs than I do now on my wife's 4-cylinder car. What happened? But my wife is still mad at me for making her buy it with a manual transmission and clutch. So I still don't need automatic transmission fluid! Except for my Pacific scale?