What grease to use

[J. Hoover]

What grease is preferred to lubricate the bearings on your grinder motor? I have a 2 1/2 hp Baldor on mine with 2 zerk fittings.
Thanks

 

[scottickes]

Go to a bearing distributor and get electric motor grease. In your area, you'll find Motion Industries and Applied Industrial Technologies. Timken has a brand of electric motor grease that is of very high quality.

Don't overgrease. One shot in each zerk fitting once per month is plenty, and might be too much, depending on how much you run the motor!!!! If you put more than that it will leak into the windings and short out the motor.

I actually only put one shot of grease in every six months in my grinder motor.

I'm a field service representative for Timken service engineering, so this kind of advice is what I do for a living. Good luck.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

I can't add much to that...

I will warn, in general, one should be careful about mixing grease types. Some break others down.

But yeah, electric motor bearing grease, there ya go.

 

[J. Hoover]

Thanks, i appreciate the info, all of it, I certainly do. I bought this grinder used from Andy Blackton's estate sale. I'm pretty sure it had been sitting for while due to his illness, but I have run it quite a bit, and those two zerks keep staring at me.

 

[Al Polkowski]

I have a Bader with a 2HP Baldor. It has 2 grease fitting on top of the motor, 1 fore and 1 aft.

After I greased it 2-3 times the motor started acting weird, not stopping properly, etc.

I took it to my local Baldor repair shop. It cost me $60 for them to tell me the motor had sealed bearings and couldn't be greased and the grease I pumped in fouled some internal motor switches causing the problems.

I would first check with Baldor about your motor.

Al P.

www.polkowskiknives.com

 

[scottickes]

I can't add much to that...

I will warn, in general, one should be careful about mixing grease types. Some break others down.

But yeah, electric motor bearing grease, there ya go.

Good point. Here are two grease compatibility charts for those of you that need it. If you don't know what grease is in your motor, that makes it really tough. The choices are put grease in and take your chance, but it's a good bet that you'll be ok with an electric motor grease, or.........take the motor apart and clean out all the old grease and repack the bearings (not usually an easy job).

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

Good chart.

The lithium greases are probably the most common and also have some of the better compatibility odds, so when in doubt that is what I use unless it is going to get wet. But you do need to keep an eye on it afterward. One of two things will happen if it isn't going to work, the grease will loose its capacity to hold its oil and it will run, or less frequently, it will harden (the lubricating properties otherwise will not be effected). So it is a good idea to look at it after a few days to be sure your grease is still working.