Thread: Lithium grease

This is a two part question

Part 1

I still have not reassembled my Hercus 9" lathe. Most of it sits in storage in a spare room wrapped in tissue paper. If it's the last thing I do, it's build a shed.
The lathe bed sits outside on the balcony under cover. Would lithium grease in a spray can be a good medium to ward off rust? Will it damage the new paint?

Part 2

For the last month, my electric roller door has been stalling half way up, and half way down. When it stalls, the motor trips out and the door has to be disconnected and pushed up or down manually.
This is a total pain in the left one..........

Mr Sheen did nothing, so today I smeared grease in the U shaped track and whallah, no more stalling.
I know grease in a roller door track is a no no, but I just had to see if the track was the problem, and it seems it was.

Question, if I wipe the grease out with kero and apply lithium based grease, will that be ok. If not, what do you suggest?

Ken

Hi Ken,
I build my shed in winter, and i put the 5m wide door in and adjusted it too run freely without much play. Come summer and a few hot days i could not move the door. The only thing i could come up with was that the door was getting direct sunlight and expanding far more than the lintel and certainly the concrete slab. Sure enough by moving the tracks a touch the door is now trouble free all year round. Could this be the problem since it has been so hot?
If you really want to lube it i would try some wax before going to anything that will attract dust.

Ew

Originally Posted by Ueee

Hi Ken,
I build my shed in winter, and i put the 5m wide door in and adjusted it too run freely without much play. Come summer and a few hot days i could not move the door. The only thing i could come up with was that the door was getting direct sunlight and expanding far more than the lintel and certainly the concrete slab. Sure enough by moving the tracks a touch the door is now trouble free all year round. Could this be the problem since it has been so hot?
If you really want to lube it i would try some wax before going to anything that will attract dust.

Ew

We had a number of sliding doors that were past their use by date replaced last year at work. One of them screeches so badly, I cannot stand being near it when it is operating. Up is ok. Hit the button and run away. To close these doors you have to hold the button down. Another bigger one makes very little noise. Either bad design or installation I think. An open fermenter building that was built in 2008 has 4 similar doors. These have a form of cloth lining inside the track. Almost silent.

Dean

I am a bit of a fan of lanolin based compounds now for rust proofing....

Ken,

The garage door track lube I use is: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Blaster-9...1?N=5yc1vZc24p
Not sticky after the solvent flashes off and is safe for plastic parts. I have also used Lubriplate 130A but it remains gooey and will capture airborne dust.

For corrosion inhibition this is the best product I have ever used. Good tenacity, low smell and I have hand no rust issues since taking it up. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleu...4284/202058526

Cheers,
Rob

+1 for the lanolin.
I keep a spray can of Lanotec handy which gets sprayed liberally onto anything metal that I'm not likely to use for a while.

I use Selleys Ezy-Glide on doors and windows. It is a dry lube that does not attract dust etc.
Good stuff!

Roger

Ken maybe check the slides the door runs in haven't moved mine did . i undid them and reset them with a bit more clearance and fixed the problem
rust prevention Lanotec is my way just spray on and let set then cover with material that will still breathe like old canvass just to keep the dust off
john

j

G'day Ken,
As recommended by a few others, I'd go with a dry lube rather than grease on your roller door.
As for your lathe bits, I can get heaps of Tropagel desiccant dry packs from work, they are big 1.25kg bags and do a great job of warding off moisture.
I keep a couple on each of my machines.
Let me know if you want some and I can probably drop a few off on my way home from work.
Cheers,
Greg.

Hang on, there's a discrepancy here .... In part one, you don't have a shed.... and in part 2 the shed roller door is sticking... ?

Just kidding Ken, go build that shed, and get the Arboga running..

I'm a fan of lanotec for rust prevention.. I'm also a fan of adjusting the guides on the roller door so that it's doesn't jam. I'd be thinking it's hot weather causing the expansion ( like Ewans )..

Wait for a 45 degree day, with sun directly beating down on the roller door, and then spend hours out in the hot sun tweaking it till it slides nice and smoothly...

Ray

To add to the chorus, I'd only ever use dry lube on roller door tracks. I have seen stickers on roller doors that declare "Do not use Grease on the Tracks".

If your roller has the cloth like strips on each end that run in the guides, graphite powder is the go.

Hooroo.

John.

I think " a large local roller door maker" recommends silicone spray as the correct and only lubrication for door tracks!

That and an adjustment of about 10 degrees fixed mine.

James


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RayG

Well spotted, but there is no discrepancy. The roller door I was referring to is my garage door, it's for the car only and tonnes of junk. Don't have a shed as yet.

I thought by greasing the door tracks I'd solve the problem, and it did work for a few days, but alas, it's stalling again.

Taking advice from this forum, I moved one of the tracks away from the edge of the door, about 2mm. Sticking still occurs so tomorrow I'll move the other track and see what happens.

If I can't solve the sticking problem, I'll smash the car into the door, that should fix it! It's not going to beat me.

Thanks for all the advice

Zwitter hit the nail on the head, silicone spray is recommended for roller doors and works very well, too well in fact, you have to be careful of uneducated garage door nuffies as they nearly throw the bloody door through the concrete slab