Mizkaki

Christy,

My experience with the white Lithium lube has been that it turns to concrete after a long time. Once hard, chipping it out is the only way to remove it. I personally refuse to use it in any sewing machine.

In the volunteer work I do, I have had to spend hours chipping white lithium grease out of a bunch of Singer "6000 somethings" from the 1980s. They were old school machines that during their life had been serviced with this grease. YUCK!

ThayerRags

Not only to you Rodney, but everyone else too, do you know at what point did the old grease dry up? What was the age of the lithium (or other) grease that dried up and turned hard? And at what point did it stop lubricating?

I use Tri-flow Grease, only because I have it, and I add it in on top of the existing grease, against the gears where the old grease has formed a cavity. I don’t clean the old grease out when I add the Tri-flow. The existing grease that looks dormant simply reduces the volume of new grease that needs to be added in contact with the gears, and what if the Tri-flow grease turns out to be less of a lubricant than we think? The vintage grease won’t mix with the Tri-flow grease, but is that ok? What is it going to hurt that the majority of the cavity is filled with vintage grease, as long as the new fresh grease is making contact with the gears?

CD in Oklahoma

Mrs. SewNSew

Good question CD. I can only find lithium greases in town today. When I read the directions they all say to remove all previous grease and clean well before using it. I have plenty of other machines to monkey around with so I plan to order the Tri-flow grease to have on hand but then can I just add like you are? Hmmm.

manicmike

I fill the whole case if it's filled at the start or just grease around every bit of gear I see if it's not. HTB is very cheap so if you choose to fill 'er up it's not going to break the bank and couldn't hurt.
Oh, and if you Google for "Gear Grease" you get a lot of results from well known blogs and sites recommending tri-flow grease for gears.

Mrs. SewNSew

OK I am especially dense because it didn't make sense once I opened it up. Mine doesn't seem to be thick grease..it's this bright orange color and leaks and there seems to be a plastic film over the box once I remove the cover.

Part of me says leave it alone if it's been fine all this time and appears to be somewhat sealed. Then again perhaps the grease has been overused and has thinned and this barrier is only a dried film?

So what would you advise? Leave it? Or peel away the film, clean it and fill with Tri-flow grease?

Mrs. SewNSew

Sheesh! I forgot to add the picture!

Mrs. SewNSew

It wasn't dried film after all. It was a thin plastic sheet as added protection from leaking. It's stained orange from whatever type grease was inside but the grease was a little chunky so I cleaned it out and filled with the Tri-Flow grease after all. I wiped off the plastic sheet and put it back in place and tightened down the lid. Hopefully that takes care of it for a good long time!

sdhaevrsi

That is so interesting to me...

amcatanzaro

I've cleaned orange grease out of gears. It's probably the same stuff. I figure if it's ew it needs to go.