10 Weight Oil For Antique Scale Dampener?

[DonMountain]

I have a couple of Pre-Magnetic Dampened powder scales that require the use of 10 Weight Motor Oil according to the instructions. I went to the place I usually buy all my Engine oils for the cars, truck, tractors and lawn mowers, and haven't come across any "10 Weight" motor oil. All of it seems to be multi-grade 5w-20, 5w-30, 10w-50 and so on. So, does anybody have any suggestions for a 10 Weight motor oil substitution? I have lots of hydraulic oil, jack oil, automatic transmission fluid, power steering fluid, brake fluid and on around the shop, but don't know if any of this would be proper for a reloading scale paddle type dampening reservoir. Anybody tried something else that seems to work well in one of these? Thanks for any responses.

[jimkim]

Hydraulic jack oil or ATF should work.

https://www.mobil.com/english-us/com...-hydraulic-10w

Sent from my VS880 using Tapatalk

[troyboy]

10w hydraulic or Iso 36

[NyFirefighter357]

I did some searching you can find SAE 10. Not cheap but you can find it. search SAE 10W Diesel Oil or 10w tractor oil. From what I read 10W was used for transmissions, I also found people substituting Caterpillar TO-2 oil which is 10W transmission. Any 10w hydraulic oil should work too. Also SAE 10W roughly equivelent to ISO 22 to 32 and SAE 75W gear oil.
Check this link http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/o...aulic-oil.html

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2GAL-SAE-10...+10w+oil&rt=nc

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-UNI...+10w+oil&rt=nc

[jsizemore]

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

[retread]

Dash pot oil is the name of the stuff you are looking for but it is hard to find. I use "3 in 1" oil and it seems to work just fine.

[DonMountain]

10w hydraulic or Iso 36

The only hydraulic oil I happen to have in stock is from Orscheln and is marked as "Premium 303", "Tractor Hydraulic & Transmission Fluid". I have been using it in my older Farmall tractors' hydraulic systems and for a gas engine powered 25 ton log splitter that I rebuilt the hydraulic piston on a few years ago. I couldn't find on it anywhere anything that gives a "10W" or "ISO 36" designation though. But I hate to buy another 5 gallon bucket of hydraulic oil though to fill up my two old Pacific powder scales with the oil reservoir paddle dampeners? Or can I buy a quart of the listed stuff somewhere?

[smokeywolf]

I've been using mineral oil for many years. Always have it around for honing and treating butcher blocks and cutting boards. Good viscosity, doesn't go rancid and I like the fact that it has little to no odor.

[eric123]

5, 7.5, and 10 weight can be found in motorcycle shops used in the fork tubes...

[EDG]

The viscosity numbers for multiweight oil give the equivalent viscosity when cold as the lower number. The high number is the viscosity when hot.
So just pick a cheap 10W-20 or 10W-30.

[Hardcast416taylor]

I used 3 in 1 oil when I put oil in my Redding scales reservoir. Be prepared for just about any oil to `wick` out of the cavity and down to the scale base.Robert

[1066]

I have several oil damped scales, they work very well. The quality of the knife edges and beam engraving is usually of a much higher quality than many newer scales, another plus point is that many of the old oil damped scales only read 0-300 or 350 grains.

I've found that almost any oil will do the job and you can vary the amount of damping to suit your preference - I certainly wouldn't search round for a particular grade. Remember when these scale were in common use, up to the 1960's multi grade oils were cutting edge, if they were produced now they would probably say something like 5w-30 motor oil.

It depends on what degree of damping is your preference, the garage might produce two stroke chainsaw oil, or motor oil, if it gives too much damping cut it with some lamp oil. If you leave the oil in the scale it may tend to wick up the sides, and unless the scales is kept covered they will trap the dust.

[country gent]

The instructions with my old Redding recommend non detergent oil in 10 wt. It can be found still. any oil will work thinner will take longer to settle and thicker will settle faster and may lose a little sensitivity. Canola or olive oil should work also.#3n1 oil, marvels mystery oil, most insterment, sewing machine oils will also work here

[Tatume]

Non detergent motor oil is less common these days. As several people have indicated, grades of oil other than 10W will work. Consider the "whiskey" compass in my antique airplane. The dampening liquid is ethanol.

[DonMountain]

5, 7.5, and 10 weight can be found in motorcycle shops used in the fork tubes...

Well Nuts. My wife just cleaned all of my old motorcycle parts and several bottles of fork tube oil out of her new "Chicken Palace" storage room at the end of her chicken coop. Since it had been 20 years since I had a motorcycle I told her to ditch it all. But maybe there is still a bottle left hidden on a ledge in my shop somewhere! I assumed that the fork oil is just a graded hydraulic oil in small quantities. I will look into this too. Besides all of the other suggestions presented. Thanks folks!

[mdi]

I believe the easiest to find oil will be mineral oil, any market or drugstore will have it. I use mineral oil in my Redding #1 and another "off brand" oil dampened scale and IIRC mineral oil was recommended. When my scales were manufactured, 10 weight or multi-grade motor oil wasn't used much (I remember only plain old 30 weight was used in 99% of all automobile engines).

[Drm50]

Trying to get to technical. Any 3 : 1 , sewing machine , gun oil will work fine. Most big turbines
at power plants use 10w non detergent. Oil in this case is not used for lubracation, just as a
dampener. So all the various properties of the different multi grades and their chemical formulas
is not necessary to delve into for such a simple problem.

[ulav8r]

I have one oil dampened scale. I helped my brother select it sometime in the early Eighties and inherited it from him a few years later. We never put oil in it. A careful touch of the edge of the pan will stop swinging quickly and totally avoids having to clean for storage.

[William Yanda]

The viscosity numbers for multiweight oil give the equivalent viscosity when cold as the lower number. The high number is the viscosity when hot.
So just pick a cheap 10W-20 or 10W-30.

What he said!!!!!

[lightman]

I don't use oil in my scale either. No doubt it would settle faster if I did but it works without it ok. Any 3 in 1 oil, gun oil or thread cutting oil should work. I don't see any reason that transmission fluid, power steering fluid or similar would not work.