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Turbine oil: products and vendors?

J

jimjam

New Member
While researching which oil to use for rehabing a reel to reel, I see a lot of people recommend to use turbine oil. Sometimes, there are specific recommendations for 'Zoom Spout turbine oil', and that it can be purchased from Ace Hardware.

The closest product I've found is this:

https://www.acehardware.com/departm...vaporative-cooler-parts-and-accessories/49614

who's MSDS form does specify it is turbine oil:

https://ace.infotrac.net/getmsds.aspx?sku=49614

but there's nothing on the bottle to indicate that. Can people verify whether this is correct? Also, what are some other products or vendors for turbine oil? Most of what I've found come in very large quantities.
 
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From my recollection Turbin oil is old school name we just call it ISO 32 hydraulic oil now.

It's the middle of the night someone can correct me if I am wrong but pretty sure I have been down this road a long time ago.
 
For what you're doing with it in a tape deck, frankly I don't think its going to make a lot of difference whether its hydro or turbine oil.

I use a lot of ISO-46 hydraulic oil, mostly because its what my fork lifts at work run and I was able to bring home a 1 pint bottle out of the 5 gallon bucket we keep on hand. Also its what my turntable specifies.

That Zoom Spout oil will work just fine. Its a lightweight high quality oil that won't turn gummy. Anything that fits that description will get it done.

Sewing machine oil will also do the job.
 
Thanks for the replies. I have seen a lot of proselytizing on the dangers of emulsifiers, detergents, or other additives. Much deeper rabbit hole than I was expecting. I'll probably pick up some Super Lube synthetic oil and the Zoom Spout stuff.
 
If mineral, Mobil DTE medium (Mechlabor) or medium-hard (Teac if I remember right). Mobil DTE medium, for example, is exact substitute for Caltex Regal 46 (Thorens etc. turntables), Teresso 47 (Mechlabor sintered bearing oil). Do not mix with synthetic. If mineral, always mineral. If synthetic you will spoil nothing with Klüber Isoflex PDP-65 instead of Anderol 456 (Nakamichi, Otari etc).

My drugstore:

Oils.jpg
 
Hydraulic oil and turbine oil are pretty much the same thing. For our purposes it really doesn't matter. Both have an additive package that is perfect for turntable spindles and small electric motors, unlike engine oils that should never be used.

BillWojo
 
Thanks for the feedback radiokom, and welcome back ;)

My use case is pretty low-fi -- just a moderately good condition Sony TC-106A. The manual specifies servicing with a "light machine oil' every 6 months or so. No idea on the oil used or the device materials.

If anyone knows anything about the TC-106A I'd love to hear it.
 
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