In article , says...

Note that many machines have what looks like grease fittings,
but which are in reality oil fittings for a pressure oil gun. People
have made the mistake of injecting grease into the way lube fittings on
a milling machine and discovered that they then had to take the machine
apart to clean all vestiges of grease out of the channels, and replace
it with Vactra No. 2 or similar.

Umm. That would be *me*. Dumb move. Won't do
*that* again!

As an aside, one should recognize that most lube fittings
are 1/4 NPT in the castings. And that oil cups, being
the pointy bits on a machine tool, tend to get busted
off first.

And folks who mean well, sometimes remove the busted oil
cups and replace them with grease fittings. Because most
shops have a selection of 1/4 NPT grease fittings on hand,
but almost none have wick fed or drip feed oilers laying
around.

So one should look at grease fittings on older lathes
with a tiny bit of suspicion, until a proper lube chart
or a vintage photo can be found, or until an expert at
that particular machine can be consulted.

Jim

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