Home Spindle Lube Test


In anticipation of an phono preamp switch I gave my 30+ year old Dual 1219 turntable a lube job. It's rim drive so the platter spins freely with the drive disengaged. The test involved only common household lubricants that have other uses.

Procedure: clean the mating surfaces with 99% isopropyl alcohol; lightly lube all sufaces using Q-tip; spin platter by hand at high speed for a few minutes.

The test (taken at 58F degrees room temperature): Engage drive at 33 1/3 then disengage it, noting how long it takes the platter to come to complete rest. I repeated each test once to verify the result. The results in the order tested:

Light machine oil - Gunk Household oil: 105 seconds
Bicycle bearing grease - Castrol Synthetic: 65 seconds
Automotive motor oil - Mobil 1 grade 0W40: 160 seconds

Note: when mounting the platter on the spindle, with Gunk the platter seemed catch as it slid down. On dissasembly, the Castrol had coated the surfaces reassuringly. I left the Mobil 1 undisturbed!
rockvirgo
Thanks for clarifying where you were coming from Bob. Given the similar content and people participating in other threads, i ended up tying them all together as one. Your response was definitely on target to this specific thread but was lacking in scope compared to how i was viewing / responding to things. I guess this all boils down to a lack of communications / seeing & responding to things from a different point of view. As mentioned above, my comments lacked forethought in terms of longevity and i'm glad that you pointed that out. It made me re-think the situation / wording that i chose and may have saved others a LOT of time, grief and cost. For that, you are to be commended and i want to say "THANK YOU" for doing so.

In effect, your comments and pointing this out covered my lack in-depth analysis of the subject at the time. Then again, i was never contemplating someone using something along the lines of an easily evaporated ( water based ) substance or "vegetable oil", etc... for something like this. Then again, i know that this is possible because i get to "clean up" such messes when dealing with customers at work. You should see the mess that it makes when people try to clean out potentiometers or flush off circuit boards using something like carburator cleaner or WD-40!!! Sean
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Well, I finally got some personel time to listen to my system. The Mobil 1 as a spindle lube has not improved nor diminished the quality of my vinyl recordings. The bearing functions properly, so my conclusion is that Mobil 1 can be used as an equal to or better than replacement oil in a Michell Gyro SE.
Regards,