She was talking about gears. I can see the feather weight has gears when you open the bottom and my longarm has gears. I guess It depends on what machine you have.. as to whether it has gears or not. I use lithium grease on my longarm. It doesn't get hard. You just take it off where it was flung and respread it on the gears. If you need more I have a tube that I can add to it. The singer gives you a lubricant that comes in a tube. If that is what you are supposed to use i would use it and not the lithium. Its what works for the machine.