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

Showing 3 responses by dan_ed

Let me throw out another one to try. Automatic Transmission Fluid, some good stuff like Valvoline. I did this type of experiment in a MMF 7 I used to own and I liked this stuff a bit more than the Mobile One that Music Hall recommends.
I agree. About the only thing you could do to cause harm is to not use any lubrication. Heck, even water is a lubricant.
I judge a spindle lube based on how much extra noise I hear or don't hear from the platter.
"Of course, I know that someone is going to start hearing differences in the sound of the oils"

Yep, I heard a difference. Interestingly it was the lighter stuff that I found to have less bearing noise, but keep in mind the turntable bearing I'm referring to, a Music Hall table. Don't really care why and it was only audible on those quite passages. BTW, just for the record I'm not advocating that anyone use water on their bearing.