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machinerylubrication.com 2025 Annual
A N N U A L E D I T I O N
e term "OH, SH#T" (or OS! as I'll
refer to it from now on) usually means
something bad has happened, but this
isn't always true. Sometimes, it can
come from something great happening, like finding a
new, faster, easier, or more efficient way of performing a
lubrication task.
As a Lubrication Specialist for the past 6 years, I have
had several of these moments, both good and bad. Some-
times, if you're lucky, a healthy combination of both will
lead to a new learning experience. If you are not contin-
uously learning and growing (sometimes painfully)
from new experiences, you risk becoming stagnant.
Here are a few of my OS! lubrication moments.
First OS! Lesson
Bullseye sight glasses are a wonderful invention that
provides a window into the interior of a machine to
examine the level of lubricant inside the reservoir. In
one case, however, they led to my first OS! moment.
I installed 12mm bullseye sight glasses on about 24
new gearboxes and filled them to the proper gear oil
level. Although they're not very big, 12mm sight glasses
still give you an appropriate level, or so I thought.
I saw the oil flow into the sight glass for the first
time, so I knew I had the level right. e gearbox was
inspected weekly, including visually inspecting the oil
level in the sight glass. e glass always had oil, even
after nearly five months of taking monthly samples.
LUBRICANT HANDLING
Kevin Keith | Industry Professional
If you are not
continuously
learning
and growing
(sometimes
painfully) from
new experiences,
you risk
becoming
stagnant.
OH, SH#T!
A Lube Tech's Lessons Learned
