Home Spindle Lube Test

Sean,

About "too heavy a lubricant being detrimental and increasing drag". The short answer is Yes! If the lubricant is too heavy and not pumpable, i.e. grease, it might not be possible for it to penetrate into the surfaces interface. Depending on the load on the bearing, however, a lighter lubricant might not be capable of supporting that load and we are back to direct contact of surfaces. I think, however, that grease would also be perfectly alright for lubrication in a turntable, but the drag on the drive system might be compromised.

As to the "goal of a lubricant", the main reason for lubricants is to SAVE the mating surfaces from WEAR, not to necessarily save the energy necessary to turn the spindle in the bearing. The best way to reduce the wear on the bearing is to reduce the friction between the surfaces, either by introducing a substance that fills the small microscopic bumps and ridges in both surfaces, effectively "smoothing" the surfaces, or by introducing an intermediate substance between the surfaces, thus protecting the surfaces from wear. In the first case greases, solids (graphite) and oils can be used. In the second case, various fluids are used, including air.

I am not sure about your other query about making the slipperiest substance "known" to man more slippery?

Once two bearing surfaces are protected from wear, the job of lubrication is done. The increased drag etc. is not relevant to the lubrication, but might be important for other reasons.

Back to the original arguement. First, The fact that a turntable turns longer with a particular lubricant in it is no indicator of lubricating "goodness". Second, for the purposes of lubricating our turntables, any motor oil is overkill. As I facetiously said, olive oil might very well serve the purpose of reducing wear in the spindle bearing. You might want, however, to use motor oils because there are many different viscosities available and you might want to play with those to determine if some "sound" better than others.

I shall stick to light "sewing machine" oil for my Oracle Alex III, (13 yrs old) but I am tempted to add graphite to the oil, just to see if I can "hear" the difference. It might even make a long term difference to the life of the bearing.!

Regards, Bob P.

Rockvirgo, your results reflect what I found too.

I was having a bearing noise issue with my VPI scout and I tried about 6 different types of lubricants. The one that worked best for me, was a lightweight mobile one synthetic oil.

Best for me was meaning least friction and least noise mesured by using a stethoscope on the plinth. Went with Mobile One about 9 months ago and have not had any bearing noise issues since.

Sean - I would imagine the slipperiest substance would have a tough time adhering to anything.

Bob - Seems to me the duration of spin following shut off is at least one indicator of the amount of friction involved, and thus some measure of the enhancement the lube imparts to the surfaces.

Any maintenance is surely better than none at all, no matter the lube du jour. As such, overkill is all gravy.

Tbabb,

Scout, like many modern TT, has inverted bearing which requires grease instead of oil for proper lubrication. Are you sure engine oil can support the load without being drained out by gravity? I have a Clearaudio which has an inverted bearing as well. Top of the bearing shaft is flat, similar to Scout if I remember correctly (used to own one), and will not hold much oil at all. When I talked with Musical Surroundings and VPI, they both recommended grease instead of oil for longevity. I chose Super Lube Teflon based grease, I found it best among all grease and better than OEM grease and white lithium grease.

With inverted bearing, it's near impossible to conduct an experiment like Rockvirgo did since platter will come to stop after a few turns.

Any input on inverted bearing TT is welcome.

Inpep: By reducing wear on the mating surfaces as you described, the lubricant reduces friction that could be transferred into the platter. It also mimizes the associated the loss of energy due to the reduction of mechanical binding and / or thermal considerations.

This allows the bearing / platter stem to last longer without having to be replaced, the motor driving the platter lasts longer due to having to do less work and there is less need for error correction of the speed because the rotational mass of the platter remains more consistent due to less drag and energy loss.

Given that a good lubricant that is well chosen for the intended use achieves all of these inter-related factors simultaneously, i stand by my original statements and suggestion. The use of the slipperiest substance known to man will reduce wear, will minimize frictional and thermal losses, won't introduce its' own drag into the equation and is temperature stable beyond that of any oil based product that i'm aware of. On top of that, any "friction" or "wear" that is generated within the bearing / platter stem cavity itself that could be passed onto the platter will be somewhat better damped by this lubricant due to its' thicker nature.

The fact that this stuff can be bought for less than $15 per 8 oz bottle is WAY less than any other "audio related" or "snake oil" type lubricant that you'll ever find. Yes, it may be "overkill", but what aspect of "high end audio" isn't in most regards??? Sean
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