Bearings and Lubricant

[BobZilla]

Hello group,

I wanted to see what others are using for their drive systems these days, bearings, lube or shafts & mounting hardware, these types of things. A few years ago everyone was raving about Tri-flow and that is still what I use actually. I don't ask because I am unhappy with Tri-flow but I think everyone could benefit from a little cross talk on what they prefer.

I have 1/2 inch axle's on my machines so I use big mounted bearings ( link below) These come packed with lithium grease and pressed on covers so the first thing I do is pull those off and clean all the grease out. Sometimes I use kerosene and other times I have used brake cleaner to get the grease out and then I lube them with Tri-Flow.



Link:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#5913k71/=112lyw6

[Aaron Murakami]

For the bearings themselves, you can have them treated with dicronite - you will have as close to friction free as possible. I don't know how much that costs - I think they disassemble the bearings and treat them. I have not done this myself but a friend who has since passed owned a bearing distribution company in California and he told me about that.

http://www.dicronite.com/

For external lube, I always used vacclaisocryptene - sold in Canada as Champion QX as an oil additive, but you can put drops on any moving surfaces like door hinges, etc... it is the only undersurface lubricant know to science.

[BobZilla]

Thanks for the Information Aaron. That champion QX is exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. I ordered a bottle, kind of pricey with the shipping but I bet it will last me years.

[Aaron Murakami]

Thanks for the Information Aaron. That champion QX is exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. I ordered a bottle, kind of pricey with the shipping but I bet it will last me years.

I bought a gallon of it many years ago for many hundreds of dollars. It is the oil additive one. They have greases, etc... and other products with it embedded and they have one for automatic transmissions.

The gray liquid meant for the oil additive, I have used that for hinges, bearings, etc... and it has worked great. I haven't tried their grease product yet but the grease with the qx in it is what was used for lubricating the lunar rover on the moon.

http://vacclaisocryptene.com that is an ancient site of mine, you can see some studies on there with 0% transverse cylinder wear over many hours on very controlled tests, etc.

[Brian McNece]

Thanks for the Information Aaron. That champion QX is exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. I ordered a bottle, kind of pricey with the shipping but I bet it will last me years.

Can you list the site where you ordered it from?
Thanks

[BobZilla]

Hi Brian,

I ordered from here:
http://www.championq-x.com/index.php


To Aaron,
I did see the other products but when reading the descriptions it seemed like the oil additive would be the best, plus you said that was what you had used. Thanks again.

[Pastor Gordon]

Call me simple... or stupid lol, but all I do is clean out the bearings with an ether based Carburetor Cleaner, dry it with my air compressor, then I lube with simple WD-40 and then blow all that out with my air compressor... seems to work great. Of course, I haven't had anything running for days on end either, so I dunno if heat may build up over time or not... but I haven't had a problem yet.