Turntable Bearing oil

Just wondering what are you guys using for bearing oil? I've been told those oil for sewing machine is good. Any truth in it?

Hi Jazz....

I use Singer Sewing Machine Oil for my Rega TT. Oiled it when i first got my TT.


cheers

Sewing machine oil is not what Rega uses or recommend. You can use ordinary gear oil and it'll be good to go. No need for exotic or expensive synthetic oil either for the Rega, although no-one will deny what you do to your own TT.
Lubricants for TT bearings vary from brand to brand, some specify gear oil or ordinary machine oil. There's a difference between machine oil and car engine oil. Engine oil contain additives designed for hostile combustion engine. I think there's lots of TT owners experimenting with various lube they can get hold of and no complaints. As I said, do what you will with your own rig if you know what you're doing.
I use a 0W30 synthetic for one of my TT, so far so good. Left over from some motorbike lube. (like others I do sometimes experiment with lube that I may find suitable), but never Singer oil, I leave that for wifey's sewing machine or to oil little electric motors at best.

some vinyl addicts have recommended using mobil one synthetic engine oil, but i have not tried it.

sflam wrote:some vinyl addicts have recommended using mobil one synthetic engine oil, but i have not tried it.

I've heard its a success. I'm using a synthetic but not Mobil One.

Get deuthlon f4 lube. Available in most tackle shop

If you're lucky can collect remainder lube oil (macam macam) from near empty oil cans at car or motorbike service places, not that you need lots of it. I think my small bottle of gear lube is sufficient to service my Rega for the next 100 years. All needed for the Rega is 3-4 drops.

sflam wrote:some vinyl addicts have recommended using mobil one synthetic engine oil, but i have not tried it.

I'd guess it would be the Mobil-1 Tri-synthetic 0w20 .
This is a very good Goup-IV & Group-V hybrid blended oil. But with a high fomulation of detergents though which is unneccesary for TT bearings.

But personally i'd go for the Motul 300V High-RPM 0w20 .
Group-V, di-ester based.


Given that there is no positive oil pump mechanism in a turntable bearing system, Group-V oils would be best suited due to its naturally polarised molecular structure hence the oil film will tend to stick to the metal bearing surfaces and not get squeezed out under pressure. Would go for the thinnest weight possible too, for maximum fluidity and wettability. Also don't need the thick viscosity since Extreme-Pressure conditions would be non-existant here, furthermore thicker viscosities would add more parasitic bearing drag anyways..

I myself uses engine oil. At the moment, Honda mineral VTEC-LEV, rated 15W-30. Even with this oil, my turntable turns faster at same setting as with previous oil from Oracle !! I take that to mean less friction which to me is always a good thing. In the future, I will probably use TORCO SR-1 which is around 5W-20 weight, remainder when I service my car uses 3.8litres so I always get 200cc left each service.

WongKN is a Torco guy ..... I'm a Motul guy ....



But we both can agree that such oils would be the absolute best pampering you can give your TT bearings, for the amount of R&D and race-proven technologies that went into formulating automotive oils.
All the anti wear additives, all the anti-oxidation stuff, all the temperature stability, etc etc etc. Absolute overkill when used for TT bearings.

It makes all other oils seem like "Minyak Cap Kapak" in comparison.

I would recommend an engine oil additive with friction modyfier mixed with some engine oil of low viscosity. That Torco with a viscocity of 20 sounds nice. If Kanchil motoroil goes lower than 20, even better. Then add some lubeguard, tuffoil, X1-R additive for a suuuuper smooth spin.

When I remove the belt from my Thorens and give the platter a spin, it goes for a good 7 minutes if I remember correctly.

been told sewing machine oil is good but kinda uncomfortable. as for the fully syn. motor oil, i was also told by a mechanic that syn oil normally have some sort of substance that will stick on the wall of the engine block. that is why they always recommend engine flush on each oil change. any truth in it? anyhow, i think i will be more comfortable with either semi/fully syn. motor oil. think i'll just flip a coin to decide.

If the turntable manual say 'light machine oil', what oil would that be?

jazzman wrote:been told sewing machine oil is good but kinda uncomfortable. as for the fully syn. motor oil, i was also told by a mechanic that syn oil normally have some sort of substance that will stick on the wall of the engine block. that is why they always recommend engine flush on each oil change. any truth in it? anyhow, i think i will be more comfortable with either semi/fully syn. motor oil. think i'll just flip a coin to decide.

If its oil sticking to the wall, its good and thats why you pay RM300+ for 4 litres of 100% synthetic group-V di-ester based oil.

If its sludge that sticks to the wall, that what you get when you buy RM50/4litre cheap ass oil for your motor, by which time damage is already done to the engine bearings etc etc already.

Either case, there is no case for these chemical flushes.
Case 1: you're removing the intended purpose of ester-based oils.

case 2: its an afterthought and pointless since damage is already done due to using cheap oil.

Both cases = wasting money.

BUT, if u wanna go do a "bearing oil flush" on your TT bearings ... go right ahead...

The TORCO I intend to use already has their famous MPZ (Zinc based friction modifier) additive. I can also add the special MPZ concentrate if I want to. I think a few drops less given to the engine should be OK.

Zinc is an extreme-pressure anti wear additive. Not really applicable for TT bearings. What would be more applicable would be Molybdenum additive, which actually "heals" the scruffs, smoothens the gliding surfaces and fills up the micro scratches that occur from metal to metal contact (not necessarily from extreme pressure cases like rear axle gears and transmission gears).

In my opinion, a car's engine oil is too viscous. The original Linn LP12 bearing oil is very-very light and looks to be a little bit graphite based.

Singer sewing oil although light is not good enough. I would suggest that you try valve oil from Selmer or other reputable brass instrument manufacturer which is used to lubricate trumpet valves. You can get this at shops selling musical instruments.

If you play the trumpet, believe me you can instantly tell the difference between singer sewing machine oil and a dedicated trumpet valve oil.

I reckon if its good enough to lubricate trumpet valves for a smooth and slick action, it can only be good for your turntable.

Thanks

Its my opinion never use Singer oil or engine oil with macam macam anti-xxxx additives (designed for extreme operation of combustion engines) for LP12 or Rega. Nevertheless some TT's specify a thin oil, some a thicker oil..it varies. Bearings from different TT's have different tolerances, even among the same model for various reasons where current technology allow. In many cases, ordinary gear lube of SAE70 or 80 can't go wrong. Trouble is, many TT manufacturers do not disclose what oil to use and thats where there's many educated guesses (or research) as to what is what.
LP12 oil is a special formulation by themselves which can be bought online. There are certain batches of bearings with internal liners that are not suitable to some lubricants and can swell up. Nevertheless anyone is entitled to make out some educated guess whatever it is and there's hints to be found from certain resources.
Of course if anyone thinks Torco/Shell/Mobil 1 oil is suitable for TT, so be it...its your baby.
Thorens are said to use turbine oil in some models. Trouble is..where the heck is a DIY'er going to find this is?.......thats all I'll impart.

Hi everyone, after reading all those block it sounds very technical from singer oil, gear oil to engine oil. If i got no choice and were to use engine oil of course i ll use the best ester base engine oil which falls under group 5 like Redline, Royal purple, Torco, Chemlube(entry level group5). Thanks Mugen for explaining what group5 oil were all about. But bear in mind, an engine hav velosity which means our turn table wont reach as high tempreture as an engine oil. Engine oil also hav cleansing detergent to clean which we dont need it for TT. What u need for your TT is using the most slipperst oil you can find. What i can think right now is Tuffoil or Molybdenum. These 2 oils are atcually use as oil additive. You can find or buy them from Eneos center 1 Utama or any ACE hardwear. Even Mr Oh who service my LP12 uses Tuffoil for my bearing. Given a 2nd choice of course i ll use a good Syntectic auto gear oil. Last but not lease, singer oil is better than NO oil at all.... Just my 2 cents opinion. Thanks for reading.

yes, for those with an appreciation for material sciences and tribology, certain engine oils would be ideally suited for TT bearings. Actually more so, would be the transmission oils since they operate under similar conditions , & that is there is no pump to force feed the lubrication.

Perhaps a few useful guidelines here:
1. The anti-wear additives are useful to protect the contact surfaces. Both engine oil and tranny oil would have them. But choose carefully between friction modifiers, and Extreme-Pressure(EP) additives. EP are not really needed for TT lubrication. Molybdenum is an added bonus. It helps to "heal" scruffed surfaces. But highly toxic. Keep away from kids and foodstuffs.

2. Go for the lowest viscosity. This means the more "watery" the better, as TT rpms are but a fraction of the rotations in an automotive scenario, and we'd rather have the oil to have creep-effect instead. But not to the point of Singer Oil lube.

3. If engine oil, Group-5 Ester based stocks are best, they are naturally polarising, and hence will "stick" to the surface in the absence of forced lubrication. 2nd best would be PAO (Group-4). Avoid mineral based crap which contains polymers that tend to gunk up and sludge up over time.

4. The lesser detergents in the oil, the better. But the more anti-oxidisers, the better as well.

5. Go for the oil with the zero sulphur content, in case the TT bearings are brass. Sulphur erodes brass over time.

www.bobistheoilguy.com

I used to use Singer oil and motor oil decades ago but was told not to do so in rega units. It is Bad for regas! I cannot remember what is it all about but maybe it has to do vicousity of oil that might has an effect on the speed of the platter. Or it might has an effect on the bush and spindle. Either way i remember quickly flushing out the bush and spindle and wash it thoroughly with alkohol. I quickly put in hypoid oil that is recommended by Rega.

Anyway for Thorens it is recommended to use motor oil....acording to the service manual

I use Bardahl 1 because it claims to attach to metal. For turntable, I think any low viscosity oil will do.


Bye.