Gage Lube or Gage Oil

Gage Lube or Gage Oil.

Lubrication for your gages is important. Lubrication will protect your screw thread gages from wear, gauling and rust.

Lubrication will help your screw thread gage last longer by reducing friction. Apply oil frequently and liberally. Excess oil will drip off, it will not cause a problem.

Using oil will not affect your measurement in any significant way. If your screw thread part is so close to the edge of the product tolerance that a layer of oil will cause the part to fail inspection, it is too close and deserves to fail. Usually the oil will just move out of the way of the steel as clearance is reduced. Because of the complexity of the screw thread form there are many places where the oil can move.

Screw thread gages may gaul when applied against specific "gummy" materials like stainless steel or aluminum. To avoid gauling, keep the part free of cutting scraps/chips/burrs and keep your screw thread gage well oiled.

What is oil, or rather what is not? Cutting coolant is not oil. It may be water soluble oil but it is designed for cooling the part and the cutting tool and for carrying away machining debris/chips, not for lubrication. Remove as much of the coolant before gaging the part. Also WD-40 is not oil. Yes it does have some lubrication properties, but mostly it is a penetrate. It is also more expensive than oil so do your company a favor and use real oil for lubricant.

What kind of oil to use? Use any machine oil that you already have in your plant and are using for lubrication of your machinery. If you must purchase something, get a basic 3-in-1 light machine oil.

If you are using plastic sleeves for storage, be sure to apply oil to all steel surfaces of your screw thread gages to help protect them from rust while not being used. If you are using strippable seal peal coating it is oil impregnated and thus application of additional oil is unnecessary.

Initial Posting: May 27, 2009
Revised:
Comments about this page may be sent to Wayne at:office@gagecrib.com