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Author Topic: Types of grease for Century gears Dan Lyons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 698 From: Seal Beach, CA Registered: Sep 2002 posted 03-25-2005 01:12 PM                     Ok, so there are a few different types of grease out there for use on Century machines. Superlube, which Wolk sells as Century Grease. Old Century Grease, which i assume is no longer made, it was clear; I found a metal tube of it in the booth supply cabinet. Strong Proj grease which they currently send out, when you peel the label off you find you have a tube of something called Rheolube, shown below. I've used the Strong orange grease on my Century C's at work for some time now with no problems. Some oil separates out of it in the tube though, looks nasty. This week I decided to try out Superlube on my Century here at home. After cleaning all the old grease off and applying the Superlube, I let the machine run for 3 minutes then turned it off and checked the gears. The damn stuff had totally migrated off of the contact points on all my fibre gears!!! I applied more and ran for 2 mins, then looked again. SAME THING!! The contact points on my fibre gears were DRY!!! They had light orange "scuff" marks on them from running dry for a minute! If I had used this stuff and then run a show, my gears would have been chewed up into red dust!! Why have I seen good reviews for Superlube on here, when obviously it doesn't work?? Should I scrape off the Superlube and use the orange stuff? Or dig out that 50 year old metal tube of Century Grease, which surprisingly has not turned to a rock.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 03-25-2005 01:29 PM                     Wow, I live 10 minutes from AST Bearings, and never knew they existed. http://www.astbearings.com/p-lubes-greases.php  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 03-25-2005 01:47 PM                     Okey..here'sa good one: I've seen operators use Vaseline for their Century gears. Any reports on this one? - thx Monte  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 03-25-2005 01:55 PM                     I've seen operators use Vaseline I've seen that one too, on Century "C"s. I've also seen run of the mill white grease from a hardware store. The projectors did not seem to mind either, although I would be concerned about vaseline breaking down too quickly.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 03-25-2005 02:03 PM                        Rheolube 716B Data Sheet [PDF file]  |  IP: Logged Richard May Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1057 From: Floral Park, NY USA Registered: Aug 2004 posted 03-25-2005 03:10 PM                     A lot of theaters around here use vaseline on Century projectors. I don't like it because it does break down quickly. Then it ends up in the bottom of the machine in a big puddle.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-25-2005 10:29 PM                     quote: Dan Lyons Why have I seen good reviews for Superlube on here, when obviously it doesn't work?? Actually I used it for many years on all my rental machines and never had a problem with it. I also use it on all the Centurys in the field that I service as well and on my VistaVision projector and VV camera gear train. If you had alot of dust generate then you may have another problem occurng, or dry grease is flaking off,or mismatched main drive set, etc, etc, etc! A serious inspection/cleaning of your gear train may be needed to determine what is up. Also, note that I do not reccomend using synthetic grease on machines that have seen other greases with out a proper cleaning of the gear train. Synthetics may not adhere to gears that alreafy have a coating of another type or types of greases on them . To properly clean the gear train involves a tear down to do correctly! Also note that Superlube contains TFE which penetrates into the weave of the phenolic and actually prevents wear....aside from the lubrication actionafforded by the grease itself. Its interesting to note that the old C manual had you lube each gear pair with a few drops of Century oil at the start of the day and I can assure you that method also does work. From my experience the best lube for Century gears has been Super-Lube. This has been discussed many tmes in this forum. The use of Lubriplate, wheel bearing grease or anything else is the surest route to death for the gearing in this type of mechanism. The best thing about Superlube, or most synthetics is that they never dry out and are thick enough to stay on the gears for the most part and not fly off. While you're at it also use LaVezzi synthetic oil in the movement. My experience with the use of this oil has proven to double the life of the movements critical parts. Both are available from Wolk(or from foreword thinking cinema equipment dealers) under the part number TU-235 Century Gear Grease, and the LaVezzi HPO series Synthetic oils. BTW: you won't find much of anything that will stay on the main drive gear set in Centurys, especially the fine tooth direct frive gears. Very frequent lubing is necessary for the mian drive gear set to achieve maximum life span. The main drive gears which are carrying the full load of the running machine will normally get slightly warm under normal conditions of operation!! http://www.super-lube.com/ Mark @ CLACO  |  IP: Logged Aaron Sisemore Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day! Posts: 3061 From: Rockwall TX USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 03-25-2005 11:58 PM                     I will also vouch for the SuperLube. In my travels I found that I need to use less of the SL on each gear compared to the other greases. Vaseline: I have seen it used on Centurys, it seemed to work fine, but I believe that the SuperLube and Century greases have additives that enhance lubrication quality. White Grease should NEVER be used on projectors- I have had to chip off petrified white grease from many a gear on some projectors I have rebuilt. 'Wheel Bearing' Grease: Use for platter disc bearings ONLY. Keep it far far away from a Century gear train!! (mainly because it is SOOOO messy!) -Aaron  |  IP: Logged Dan Lyons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 698 From: Seal Beach, CA Registered: Sep 2002 posted 03-26-2005 05:19 AM                     These are pics of what Superlube did to my JJ. These were taken after 60 SECONDS of running. The parts circled in blue have NO lube left on them and have started to scuff from friction. I tried to wipe that Superlube stuff off and put some regular grease back on, but the gears won't accept it now. How do I get Superlube off my gears? The company site doesn't say how to remove the product. I want to get this junk off so I can put some "old fashioned" grease on and have a machine that I can actually run! (and no, nothing is mechanically the matter. This machine has run perfectly for the past 30 years; the problem only occured after i cleaned off the old grease and put Superlube on)  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-26-2005 06:26 AM                     quote: Dan Lyons These are pics of what Superlube did to my JJ. These were taken after 60 SECONDS of running. The parts circled in blue have NO lube left on them and have started to scuff from friction. Dan, You're beginning to sound like me moaning about Strong! BUT...... You have something else going on there and that scuff pattern is not something new to your gears from just 60 seconds of running with a different lube.... it appears that the Super-Lube has made the normal wear pattern on your gears very visible. This is the wear pattern one would expect to see on an old Century and is VERY visible on properly cleaned gears during a teardown before they are re-lubed. That sort of problem is not the fault of Super-Lube but a fault inherent in the design of the projector itelf! It could also be the result of having 30 years worth of old grease inpregnated into the phenolic gears.... or there may also be excessive wear on your steel gears..... not all techs replace a steel gear when they replace a fibre gear..... always replace both. I can clearly see that some of those scuff marks are indeed covered with shiny superlube. That is clear as day and on close examination the photos speak a thousand words so to say! When the manufacturer of the gears themeslves reccomend the use of it and sell it(both LaVezzi and Wolk) its effectiveness is really not a question and my experience has confirmed that. To properly get rid of it a full tear down and cleaning is in order but I wouldn't switch to something else anyway. I've used Super-Lube on all my repaors/rebuilds for almost as long as I've been in this buisness with only positive results. Really, you're barking up a tree in the wrong place, send Super-Lube's technical folks the photos and see what they have to say. Mark P.S. Also that machine is filthy and should receive a tear down and good cleaning! Also here is your photo re-marked to show the superlube on the gears that you say is not there. Note at bottom center circled in white the shiny teeth! I also circled the dirty parts just in that close up.....  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-26-2005 07:29 AM                     When we switched to SuperLube we did thermal tests with previous forms of Century grease and with SuperLube. The SuperLube resulted in lower temperatures when means less friction which means less wear. SuperLube is not the cure all for everything but it is better than other forms of TU-235 we have found for Century gears.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 03-26-2005 02:04 PM                        1. Super Lube is good. 2. Factory grease is good. 3. Lubriplate, in any form, is bad (Where do people get this stuff??) BTW: the old Century TU-235 went away under ORC. They thought they had an "excess wear poblem" which only just turned out to be metal gears that were not hardened. There is considerable customer demand for "original" TU-235.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-26-2005 06:33 PM                     Original century lube was vasoline or as was stated on the data sheet white petrolium jelly I use Moly based black greese and find it sticks well at even on hot machines  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 03-26-2005 08:22 PM                       LOUIS!! 'bout time you showed up here, boss. Welcome to the 21st Century! Glad to have you with us. Now, if we can only get James and Eddie on...  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-26-2005 09:12 PM                     quote: Louis Bornwasser 3. Lubriplate, in any form, is bad (Where do people get this stuff??) I'm pretty sure its made from dead animals...... I found a whole case of the stuff at work in the parts room and imediately put it down in the dungeon next to the pile of ole E-7's. Gord, That black moly grease also dries up because it is animal fat based. Mark  |  IP: Logged

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