beeswax as grease?

I don't know anything about blending a grease from beeswax.

Have you tried silicone grease? I don't think it has much of a smell.

From my personal archives of this NG (i.e. not from me) - GWE:

"My choice (for lubricat> AAvK wrote:

should it

There are several possibilities, one is the paste lubricant sold in tubes for use with automotive disc brake calipers, Wagner is one brand I have seen. Another is a special semi-fluid oil that is runny right out of the can but soon stiffens to a grease, though at the moment I don't recall who makes it. Whenever I have wanted a soft but not liquid lube for portable tool gear boxes and such, I just thin out a good grease such as Lubriplate with a little STP or a 50-50 mix of STP and gear oil, and this has very little if any smell. Mike

PJ1 is a motorcycle chain lube, and it comes out like WD-40 and turns into a thick grease, which is exactly what roller chains need, as there needs to be a way to get the lubricant inside the roller and not fly off. Motorcycle shops have it. The black can is much thicker than the blue can, but is my favorite grease for best spreading abilities as it wicks wherever you need it and sticks to surfaces most excellently. I think less than ten bucks, and is my favorite all around stuff. I use it on my battery terminals, machine lubricants, bike chains, and other places I also want some anticorrosion properties because it's thick enough to keep the water out. There is a bit of an odor when you spray it on (comes out of the nozzle like a foam) but I don't recall ever smelling it after that. LPS-3 is a wax-based anticorrosion spray you can get at better auto parts stores. Usually serves as a corrosion inhibiting compound, but it never hardens, so it has some possibilities as a heavy and sticky grease. Used to be used on airplanes, but was replaced with stuff that isn't so affected by heat, and actually hardens, which LPS didn't do. Good thing, I really hated rattlecanning airplane sections by hand!

"AAvK" wrote in message news:LeDDd.52057$Cl3.40257@fed1read03... | I was looking all over, auto parts stores, online sites, searches for | "petroleum based grease" among other terms... point being is a need | for a thick, semi stiff yet soft lube for the screws in vises and whatever | other basic needs like that, which do not "stink" to H-H like anything I | could find. It seems petroleum/oil is at a premium so there is every | other engineered chemical replacement, and they all stink profusely. | | So searches like "wax as grease" turned up a recipe for 50-50 beeswax | and motor oil, doesn't stink. But, leary of the wax flaking anyway if it's | too much in the ratio, anyone think this is a correct ratio, or should it | be a 60 oil / 40 wax, what should be proper? Is there a better recipe that | can be used for the same purpose? | | -- | Alex | cravdraa - at - yahoo - dot - comment |

I have several tubes of generic axle grease, for a grease gun. There may be some slight odor to them, but I really don't notice. I use some of the tubes for dabbing grease on various things around the shop. This stuff is what you use to lube a car chassis (ball joints, steering knuckles, etc.) I have some gear oils that REALLY do stink! But, I've never noticed this with these heavier greases in the tubes. I would think these would be idea for a vise, C clamp or similar tool.

Jon

Beeswax tends to be softer than the hard parafin that candles are made of, and I've heard of it being used successfully as a lubricant before, so I'd say that sounds right... --Glenn Lyford

I don't think motor oil will smell much better than white lithium grease, which I have for general use around the shop. I agree that axle grease smells pretty awful, but that's not the right stuff for you anyway. For a beeswax mix, I would go with 60/40 oil/wax. My experience is with walnut oil, for finishing wood, but a 50/50 mix was too hard. You want more oil than wax, I'd think. Worthy of experimentation, just add more of one or the other if needed.

Ken Grunke

A 1 lb can of white lithium grease is about $3 at the auto parts store. It has very little odor, is petroleum based, and is a good all purpose grease.

Ned Simmons

Ever thought about using food grade grease see url

I want to thank everyone here for helping and making all good suggestions, I learned that graphite powder and grease are the way to go. It can be homemade with the homemade paste wax and graphite powder, lightly but fully applied. Sawdust will fall right off of it. Anything else will attract sawdust and sandpaper abrasives.

Point being is the 1/2-nut that the screw works in is a super soft brass alloy from the 1800's, maybe tin in it, DK, carvable with a blade. But there can't be any single iota of abrasive, the rust on the lead screw is bad enough, before I scrub it. Just maybe I should have a mold taken from the 1/2-nut!

On some old engines there was a "beeswax injector", this shot beeswax into the cylinder where it put a nice glaze on the bore. Doubt this would work on a modern engine. Mike in BC

FWIW this was on steam engines. Mike in BC