Vitrea 33 Oil for Meddings Scvroll Saw

[Jersey Oak]

Please can anyone help - I have purchased a second hand Meddings Scroll saw and it needs Vitrea 33 Oil by Shell. This does not exist anymore and I need to know what's the equivalent. I have googled and it says ISO 68 (please don't google the same, I m looking for someone who actually knows what the answer is, if you have a link on google, or contacts for anyone who may know it would be much appreciated.

 

[martinka]

I didn't actually know the answer and I decided to Google anyway so feel free to ignore the following.

Apparently Shell Vitrea 33 became Shell Vitrea 68 and then Shell Morlina S2 B68. If you don't want to buy 209 litres at a time, an alternative is Smith & Allan LP68 GP Lube Oil

http://www.smithandallan.com/prodpage.aspx?id=2390

 

[bodgerbaz]

Struth . . . . good answer.

 

[CHJ]

Is the oil for a gearbox or just general slide-way/moving parts ?
For something like a scroll saw I can't see anything being subjected to heavy mechanical loading so suspect the high viscosity is just to reduce rapid scavenging and act as a noise dampening factor on vibrating parts.

If this is the case then any ISO68-100 gearbox or differential gear oil should be suitable.

 

[Farmer Giles]

Here's the castrol and BP equivelents

I had a similar dilemna with my milling machines and lathe. If you want the exact match then Caldo of St Helens will mix up a gallon for you.

As CHJ said, any gearbox oil of similar qualities should do except do not use GL5 oils as for example if you have some EP80W-90 GL5 gear oil knocking about in the shed like I do it cover it in terms of viscosity. However may be an issue if you have brass meshing with steel gears where the amount of phosphorous and sulphur could encourage wear on the brass gears. evidently it binds very tightly to the brass to create a sacrificial coating, but actually pulls a bit of brass off when it is scuffed off.

GL4 is similar to GL5 but roughly half as much phosphorus/sulphur so although better may also cause issues.

ISO68, SAE20 engine oil or SAE80 gear oil, should cover Vitrea 33. Maybe better to get an old style SAE 20 engine oil without detergents.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Jersey Oak]

Cheers guys, good answers, will check out the ISO 68 as it easy enough to get hold of. Many thanks. Jersey Oak.

 

[bodgerbaz]

Well, double struth !! I'm impressed with your combined knowledge about such viscous things. I never got beyond 3-in-1.