Atlas gear lubrication?

[littlejack]

Hey fellas, I finally got the Atlas 10" lathe in my man cave yesterday. The previous owner had cleaned all of the gears up exceptionally well. The only lube on the gears was a small thread around the perimeter in the center of each gear.
As you can imagine, the gear noise was almost unbearable. I have read in the Atlas manual (reprint), that the 122 grease was originally recommended. I ain't got any! I have also read on other sights that Moly-lube/grease is very good for this application. How much should I use? I have read to use enough lube to quiet the noise down is sufficient.
What do you fellas use on your "babies"? Will the Moly-lube be sufficient/better/worse?
Regards
Jack

[Reg]

Have had the little brother to your 10 inch lathe, the 6 inch, since about 1975 or so. Got it as new and would say it still is as new. Have always kept it covered to prevent dust from settling on it. Kept the ways and bed clean and free of chips. Have always kept all gears very clean and oiled with a good quality 40 wt. oil. The big trick with these lathes are the gears and of course the lead screw.
The gears are a zink or zink alloy casting and don't take to dirt, fine chips or a lot of use. In short, they are not a good cut steel or cast gear set up but with care can be made to last a good long time. I never do any cuts under power but rather, hand feed. Have always tried to save the precision of the gears and lead screw for threading. While you can get away with it somewhat, these lighter machine don't really preform with carbide tools. Razor sharp high speed steel and gentile cuts, they will produce as fine a part as the best tool room lathe, just takes a bit more time is all. The threading is excellent.
Through the years I have gone on to many other and bigger lathes( currently have a 16" Monarch )but the little Atlas was number one and within it's capability , it does fine work.
In short, don't use grease on any of the gears. You want any washing effect you can get from oil to help keep swarf from building up. It will act like valve grinding compound. 40 wt. seems to be about right and apply it often in small amounts if you are using the gearing. The head of your lathe is called a open geared head so you must apply small amounts of oil often when the gearing is turning. Don't forget the rotating points.
Keep those gears clean and don't engage any gearing at high speed. They will not stand up and it will put you in the poor house to replace them.

[bangerjim]

Had one of those for years. The gears are very delicate! Oil is best (40 or 60wt). You can mix moly in the oil. When I got mine, the previous owner had used heavy axel grease which was the consistency of lapping compound due to the zinc and dirt in there!

If you use it a lot for power feeds, you will want to watch the dirt build-up.

Also remember many of the parts on that lathe are cast zinc, including the half nuts in the apron. The lead screw is the most vulnerable area for building up "stuff". Keep it clean! If your half nuts get damages, you will loose all your power feed. I don't know if parts are still available for that lathe. You should check and get the basic "wear-out" items just to be safe.

I now have a SouthBend engineering toolroom lathe with cut steel gears and use lith grease. I needed to cut metric, so I cut a set of metric gears out of hard aircraft aluminum bar/plate and they work perfectly. But I use them rarely!

But you will have to survive the slightly higher noise level of the zinc cast gears to prevent long-term wear. Just watch the gunk buildup.And keep that door closed on the headstock that covers the gears! Do most of your cross-feeding by hand. Even with steel gears, I still do! I only use power feed when doing final finish ultra-fine cuts. I built a hand crank to go in the headstock for driving the lathe when threading.....much more accurate and controllable that power cutting. PM me if you would like some more info on that.

You will enjoy your lathe! It is the only tool that can make parts for itself! I have done it many times. Even cut a new lead screw for an old 6" Atlas I acquired......on itself!

banger