Lubrication for VPI tables

I did this on my scout before I upgraded to the Scoutmaster. Why, any concerns?

well, i was just wondering the specifics, like how much grease to put on the bearing, and if you just put the grease on the very top ball bearing, and then how much oil you used to lubricate the motor, just stuff like that, to make sure i'm doing it right.

i used the white lithium grease as recommended. i put about a pea sized drop on my finger and then touched it to the top of the spindle ball bearing. i'm glad i did this too, did not appear to be too much grease remaining.

on the motor i put the same oil i use on my car, castrol syntec. found a old quart, squeezed a drop or two out then layed the motor on its side and put two drops on the shaft just below the belt pulley.

thanks, i really appreciate it.

If you own an older VPI with the bearing at the bottom of the shaft like an older '19 or a TNT you need to remove the bearing once a year and unscew the bottom of the shaft. That would be the tungsten your bearing rides on. Clean all parts and DON"T loose the bearing. You can get bearing oil through Elilusive Disc allthough I heard sewing maching and Moble 1 synthetic car oil will do. Lubricate everything as you put it back together. Mount the bearing to the plinth. Now it gets tricky. You want to add just enough oil that it barely spews out when the shaft is at the bottom of the well. If you have a bottle of VPI oil you'll want to add about half the bottle. Add too much and the shaft won't go down and oil will come back up. I find it'd easier to add too little and slowly add more. Somethimes it can take the shaft 5 or 10 minutes to settle down to the bottom. You want to get it to where the oil barley comes out of the top of the well. Setting your platter on the shaft can help push down into the well. If you need to remove oil you can scoop it out with cotton swabs. It seems like a pain, but once you.ve done it once the second time will be much eaiser. Besides, you only have to do it once a year!

Now I'm confused. One recommendation says use white lithium grease, the other says to use oil for lubrication.

Does anyone know for sure which it is, or is it best to just contact VPI for this information?

John

for the scout its both actually. white lithium grease on the platter bearing and oil on the motor spindle as recommended per vpi in the owners manual.

feel free to drop vpi a note if you wish to confirm, they are good about responding to emails.

Does the Scout have the inverted bearing?
I have a HW-19 mk IV, pre-inverted bearing design platter.
So I guess mine should be done like Alephman says, lubricated with oil, not grease.
I probably should still shoot off an e-mail to VPI.

Thanks,
John