Originally Posted by
Flyboy771
OK, well, that's sort of my point... I never said and don't believe that oil breakdown happens "by itself." Un-written was the understanding that shops and storage areas are dirty, contamination is inevitable, humidity and condensation are a fact of life to be dealt with, and perfect maintenance isn't always practical or possible. So regardless of the exact / specific reason it happens, it still happens, and it's a real problem. This is especially true if you don't want to fully drain the oil, flush the passages, and coat the whole machine in cosmoline every time you're done using it "just in case" it ends up sitting for the next year or two.
I need a solution for a machine that IS well maintained when in use, and gets "put away" clean, but sits for months in an environment of large swings in humidity and temperature, machines in storage, or "that old one over there in the corner we don't use very often but still need for special jobs every third blue moon". I'm looking for a solution that is more resilient in those environments. Something that works OK (even if not "the best") for day-to-day clean and well-maintained use, but which will NOT cause problems when left to sit for extended periods of time. Does your experience provide any helpful knowledge in that realm? Virtually any compatible (chemically) oil or grease will perform adequately when well maintained, kept clean and cycled regularly. Some better than others, of course. But that's not the subject here. I'm explicitly asking if anyone has ideas or advice on selecting a grease / oil which does NOT REQUIRE constant maintenance or a nuclear certified clean room storage environment to avoid trouble.
The ester based oil I'm currently using is somewhat more susceptible to gumming up with condensation, that's absolutely true. It is water miscible, and intended for use on machines where the way oil drips into the coolant. This oil just makes more coolant instead of becoming tramp oil and growing nasty stuff. Excellent product under the intended conditions. I'll wholeheartedly agree that it's not ideal for my application. But it's what I have, and what I'm needing to replace. I know from my own past experience in several machine shops (including re-building a few machines myself) that Vactra #2 and (as far as I know) most equivalent "Way Lube" oils all ultimately have the same problem. Whether the means of the breakdown is moisture absorption or VOC evaporation or UV breakdown from the shop fluorescent lights, the end result is the same. Most way lubes, when not cycled regularly and refreshed, eventually turn first into glue, then tar, then varnish, depending on how long the machine has been sitting, and the environment. This happens both on the ways, and in the oil passages. Not usually the distribution tubes, but the flaking in the surfaces and grooves in the ways and gibs and such, where cleaning is nearly impossible (and, by the way, where the contaminants tend to accumulate).