Perton Lathe

[wingman]

Last week at the NAWCC NW Regional I purchased a nice Perton watchmakers lathe. I wanted to clean it up and make sure it was properly cleaned and lubricated. During disassembly I noticed that the shaft ran on two bronze or brass split bushings that were full of what appeared to be gunk and dirt. Later while removing this material the thought occurred to me that the material/gunk might be some sort of fiber or leather wicking, as I discovered the split bushings matched up with drilled oil galleries that went down to the oil cups (see photos). Do you know if this material is supposed to be there and what it is? Any idea what weight oil to use?

Steve

[Bob Tascione]

Nice lathe Steve!
I think you're probable right about the wicking material. I'm not sure but it seems like something probably needs to be in there to absorb and transfer oil to the bearing.
I know lots of people use different lubricants. I use automatic transmission fluid. In fact I use it on almost all my machine tools. Its excellent as a penetrating oil too and works well breaking up rust on tools. You can thin it down if necessary with acetone which makes it penetrate that much better. I actually have my seized up diesel boat engine completely filled with 50% ATF and 50% acetone right now in hopes that it will break things loose. Worked before. Got salt water in it...again. It works as well as marvel mystery oil and is MUCH cheaper.
Hope this helps Steve,
Bob

[Townhallclock1947]

Hi, Steve,What a brilliant looking lathe, It would be hard to find something like that in the U.K. Good luck with it. I use a small engineers lathe which is o.k. for most clock Jobs. Bob I do remember you talking about transmission fluid in one of the videos it seem its still working for you. Cheers everyone . Oh I think our Summer arrived today we are expecting temp. 20 plus. yipee....Clive in Cornwall U.K.