amcatanzaro

Recent conversations reveal that Singer grease might be going the way of the dodo. If you find some, stock up.

singerguy

not sure about stocking up as per industry standard the shelf life of grease is 1 year. Maybe 2-5 years is really pushing it. I just keep mine 1-2 years max and I buy new ones. I hope someone can contradict or has experience in using grease that has more years shelf life on them. I've gotten so many vintage grease in metal tube and I just toast them as I think it's lost its lubricating properties. Imagine a grease that's been sitting for 50 years. I will never use them on my machines. That's just me. Some members swear by using them and it's working great.

audsgirl

Thanks for the link,Joe. I haven't used it yet, but I think it's time to try it.

Leslie

amcatanzaro

I'm just repeating Joe's info from the other thread.

mlmack

The only reason I would hoard Singer grease is for use in motors, though at some point, an alternative will need to be found, since the newest stuff won't work.

crocee

Why and how would grease go bad? I can understand if it was used previously or contained contaminates or in an open container. Standard grease from what I can find out is a specialized mix or oil and soap, synthetics is another story. If the container had been kept closed what would make it go bad?

singerguy

oxidation and temperature and containers may play a part. also if it's not sealed well enough, who know's what happened with the container between the 50 + years that it's been kept. increasing the temp by 10degress will double the rate of oxidation. also if there's a slight gap in the cover or if cover is not tight enough, that's another factor for oxidation. singer grease/lubricant can be had for less than $4/container. others might do it differently but for me i wouldn't use a grease that's been sitting in a container for 50+ years - again, that's just me. if others have been using stored grease on their machines and it's working OK then that's well and good. thanks.

J Miller

Regards the Singer Motor Lube going bad:

As I have said I have many tubes of the old stuff. Mostly partial tubes. I have used much of it on my 15-91 motor gears and found that once it was out of the tube the consistency was unchanged. The grease closest to the spout was somewhat dried out, but that inside was OK. Once mixed up I couldn't see any difference between the old stuff and the new stuff.

I'm not a chemist, nor an industry rep, but I have greases that I bought when I was a teenager for use in my bicycle bearings that is still good.
Other grease such as the white lithium grease tend to separate but once stirred back up they've worked find.
So, that's just my experience with grease. I'm not telling anyone else what to do, nor am I an industry trying to sell products.

Joe

crocee

OK thank you both for the explanations. Now how do you know grease is bad other than being dried out? Does it smell bad/rancid like cooking oil does?

In my opinion I would think the older greases would be a lot better than what we have today because it didn't contain additives. It was just plain old grease and it did the job for many, many years. I think it was when we started adding stuff to it to make it supposedly more effective and go further it started not lasting. Many times the old would be scooped back up and placed back where it was supposed to be. Back in the day most things followed the K.I.S.S. rule. Now we have things so complicated to cover up the fact that it doesn't last and isn't as good as the original stuff. When we clean these old machines we find that the old grease isn't so much bad as it is dried out. If it could be reconstituted I believe it would still perform like it did when it was new.

Bobquilts

I agree.... I was a locksmith for 30 years and we used tri-flow to clean/lube the locks. I will never use it on my sewing machines, only sewing machine oil ( Singer ) and Singer grease.