Lubrication on a heli; what, why and how?

[anjoi666]

I am using a Dry Teflon Lube for bearings ... Is the Teflon inside this gunna hurt anything? Fly an MCPX so they are fairly small bearings etc.... ive asked other places no one answered... It is ment for bike chains but i thought Dry lube is gunna be good for helping the bearing keep dust free.
Edit: Found a link for the info sheet. Looks to be all synthetic! So i think this stuff is going to be really good > considering if u read this fact sheet you will know why! XD
http://www.finishlineusa.com/downloa...Info_Sheet.pdf

[Bugster]

Hi anjoi, Luke Warmwater is our very own lubrication guru and I'm sure he'll be around soon. If not PM him - he's always ready to help

And BTW welcome to the forum

[Luke Warmwater]

Hi there,

Teflon is PTFE and as such is pretty neutral, so there is nothing there regarding the Teflon that will harm any of the substrates. The only issue would be, what flashes off to allow it to dry; if it is a solvent you need to be a little careful with plastics. I see this is marketed as a bike chain lube, so plastic compatibility of the carrier would not have been a consideration for them in producing it! That said, I have seen high temp chain lubes that simply use water and graphite; the water gets in where it needs to on the cahin, then flashes off above 100 degs C and leaves the graphite behind.

Dry film lubes don't do a bad job, but they will never do a job quite as well as a wet lube. They rely purely on the residual solids to burnish intot he surface and make them smooth, rather than actually keeping the surfaces apart in the first place.

They are used normally for one of 3 reasons:
i) Where heat is so high that the oil in a grease would simply flash off.
ii) Where pressure is so high that all lubricant gets forced out of the space and the two surfaces will always be in contact.
iii) Where there is an extremely high amount of contamination that would make a grinding paste out of any oil or grease before you cold clean and re-apply.

The last example is rare. You can find dry lubes being used in certain places in coal mines / quarries etc....but only in extreme circumstances.

[anjoi666]

Originally Posted by Luke Warmwater

Hi there,

Teflon is PTFE and as such is pretty neutral, so there is nothing there regarding the Teflon that will harm any of the substrates. The only issue would be, what flashes off to allow it to dry; if it is a solvent you need to be a little careful with plastics. I see this is marketed as a bike chain lube, so plastic compatibility of the carrier would not have been a consideration for them in producing it! That said, I have seen high temp chain lubes that simply use water and graphite; the water gets in where it needs to on the cahin, then flashes off above 100 degs C and leaves the graphite behind.

Dry film lubes don't do a bad job, but they will never do a job quite as well as a wet lube. They rely purely on the residual solids to burnish intot he surface and make them smooth, rather than actually keeping the surfaces apart in the first place.

They are used normally for one of 3 reasons:
i) Where heat is so high that the oil in a grease would simply flash off.
ii) Where pressure is so high that all lubricant gets forced out of the space and the two surfaces will always be in contact.
iii) Where there is an extremely high amount of contamination that would make a grinding paste out of any oil or grease before you cold clean and re-apply.

The last example is rare. You can find dry lubes being used in certain places in coal mines / quarries etc....but only in extreme circumstances.

Re-read the whole thread and found what you were using... What would be a safe alternative for me or is there sourcing of the synth grease to canada ? otherwise i need to find an alternative ! Thanks for the many info's... The lube im using is SAFE then just best not to use it too often without cleaning i assume? Let me know any more thoughts..
-Andy

[Luke Warmwater]

I use Molykote PG65. Molykote is a Dow Corning brand and as such it should be pretty freely available in the US and Canada....even more so maybe than in Europe!

But really, any synthetic oil based grease is fine. Don't worry about the lithium or calcium or various "complex soaps"....you only need to worry about them for REALLY harsh conditions.....just pick a synthetic oil based grease and you would be good to go.

I'm not sure about that dry lube....it has flammable VOCs in it....which to me says solvent based low flash point....which is a basic hydrocarbon which will eat plastic....

[Steemo]

I use Tri-Flow synthetic grease for pretty much everything on my helis except for OWB and shafts with sliding parts, for those I use scorpion motor bearing oil which I believe is just a knock off of Tri-Flow bearing oil.
Most of the guys at my club all use synthetic oils and greases with PTFE in them.

[GunnyGlow]

I have been using Super Web grease on various heli parts for a short while. It has PTFE in it.
http://www.rocklube.com/super_web.htm

Someone mentioned that PTFE was BAD in bearings b/c it caused the balls to 'skid' in the races. I'm not sure I buy that.......

So far it seems to be working pretty well. It is definitely stringy/sticky like the description says.

[ehernan3]

This thread has been dead useful! I thought I would contribute this(regarding furniture polish):

http://www.whatsinsidescjohnson.com/...re-polish.aspx