Specto grease please!

[Camille Brooks]

Good morning nine-point-fivers.

I recently undertook the daunting (for me) task of getting inside a Specto gearbox to try and work out why I was permanently in rewind… another story (sliding sprocket had seized, needed working loose, fixed).

I cleaned out all of the aromatic old grease, and my question to you all is what should I replace it with?

It seems the grease game has changed a lot since the 1950s. The Specto manual states the gearbox was filled at the factory with a mixture of grease and oil, and as we all know, a few drops of oil are supposed to be added regularly thru the hole that the rewind lever lives in. But what grease to use?

Could there be a new synthetic grease that works better than whatever they had in Windsor?

Please give me your greasy suggestions!

[Ken Finch]

I am rather surprised that no one has responded so far to your request. The original grease was probably of mineral origin and worked well with the oil which most of us use, being “Three in 1”. This was used for most small mechanical devices including sewing machines. It may be worth your while to find out what grease and oil is used on these today. Also enquire what is used in the cam tanks of Eiki/ Elf 16 mm projectors. Good luck with your search.

[Camille Brooks]

Really helpful pointers Ken, I’ll search along those lines and post any revelations up here. Much appreciate your reply in the meantime.