What oil for worm drive?

[Stytooner]

The kerosene bath not only cleans and lubes, but gets rid of any metal particles that may be present from normal wear. Metal particles would be an abrasive if left inside.

[brianwelch]

I used to use 80/90 weight gear oil when I maintained Skil 825 wormdrives...if memory serves me correctly.
That being said, I would definitely go with the recommended Skil Brand product...not that expensive, and not something that should need to be done for quite some time...

[A Squared]

It's definitely not a grease. A grease is solid, or semi-solid anyway. The correct lubricant is a heavy gear lube, which is a high viscosity oil. that's what’s in that tube Bosch sells. Heck, that's what Bosch calls it in the manual for their worm-drive saw ... "oil". If you're putting something in a worm drive saw gear-box that resembles grease, you're doing it wrong. I use gear lube in my worm drives, but be advised some formulations of gear lubes are not compatible with phosphor-bronze gears, and guess what skill saws have? Phosphor-bronze gears. If you don't want to do the homework to find out which gear lubes are compatible with phosphor bronze gears, you can just use the Bosch or Skil oil made for worm drive saws. Gear lube is cheaper, but it's not all that much cheaper.

[kurt18947]

A little OT but I bought a metal cutting band saw with frozen up gearbox. Took the gearbox apart and it was full of really thick goo. Got the old out, the shafts freed and cleaned up. I took a small jar to a local automotive shop that did our work. Asked for about a cup of gear lube like he might use in a differential. He gave me some blue-green synthetic. Brought it home, dumped some in the gearbox and turned it on without replacing the coverplate. That lube REALLY stayed with the gears as they rotated.  Interesting stuff and so far so good on the bronze gear and steel worm.

[mike4244]

You can call it oil, or whatever,it's grease to me. If you have to squeeze the tube to get it out it sure ain't oil.
I had at one time eleven 8-1/4" Skilsaws. Each saw was inspected once a month for grease. Usually was greased about twice a year. I used the Skilsaw grease in a tube. I had a carton of grease and another small carton of extra switches. Low to no maintenance saws, besides occasional grease and replacing bad switches these saws ran forever. I kept one for myself when I retired ,the  saw was bought in 1966 and still runs great.
mike

[Eric Commarato]

They sell Skill No. 77 worm drive oil at Lowes.  That will work.

[A Squared]

LOL, yeah, the whole rest of the world, including the manufacturers of the saws in question think it's oil, but you alone know that it's really grease.  
 


Here's a video on changing the oil in a skil saw.  

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8se5MeySZs8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Soooo, I gotta ask, Mike,  when you were changing the oil on all these skil saws you operated,  did you ever happen to notice the words "Oil Level"  cast into the gearbox,  right by the oil filler?   Did you ever stop and wonder about that choice of words?   (You can see it in the video, as he's pouring the old oil out, and squirting new oil in. )  

[daddo]

Why would you need to replace the oil more frequently in dustier conditions if the oil case is basically hermetically sealed?

[johndi]

the saw was an older Craftsman that looks like it was barely used, so I went to Sears parts direct and tried to order the part # listed. Discontinued but listed a replacement.

What showed up today?

A big ol' tube of Skil saw lube!

Thanks again for all the replies.

[JGrout]

well considering that the OEM of that saw is Skil that is no surprise