Lubrication for aluminum against aluminum?

WD-40 is *no* lubricant. It is junk that *can* be used to clean parts. It comes in a nice can and they do have a good adverticing department.

Use PTFE (Teflon) lube.

Nick

I think telescoping aluminum shafts are a bad idea, and that you want one of them to be a harder and different material. Two moving parts of the same material and hardness may gall themselves together, regardless of the lubricant used. You should experiment, though.

John Martin

Smear a bit of silver anti-sieze on the moving parts.

Telescoping aluminum sections are likely to wear rapidly, no matter what lube you use. You can try the Syntec synthetic lube gel with Teflon that True Value sells, but I'd redesign it so the telescoping part ran in some kind of bearing like Delrin. Aluminum against aluminum is going to fret, no matter what you put on it. You're going to have black greasy gunk coming out whatever you use.

Stan

Here we go again. First off let me concede that WD40 may very well not be as good a lubricant as other choices, however it does lubricate, (as does plain water) therefore it is a lubricant.

It is basically a light oil in a solvent, when the solvent evaporates the light oil remains. It is a good choice where you need a little bit of lube in places where you need capillary action to carry the lubricant to do its job.

It has some very redeeming qualities. First it is cheap. Second it is in almost everyone's house or shop. Third it is not likely to do any damage to any mechanism unless you are flushing out a grease like in a bearing.

Teflon, silicone, molly, graphite, etc all have applications where they are superior, but good old WD40 is often the only lubricant some things ever see, so I would suggest that it definitely has it's place.

I think that says it all. WD-40 -and whatever other name they have- all fail for long time lubrication. They wash off any real oil/grease, lubricate for 10 minutes then are evaporated and the part seizes and rusts. Is that what is meant by "multipurpose"?

Nick

Exception to this general rule is iron on iron, such as piston rings and cylinder sleeves. All else is a no-no I'm told.

Jordan

Even that is not as simple as it sounds. In the case of piston rings and cylinders, for instance, the Rings are normally much harder than the cylinder. That is the important point. For good sliding bearings, one normally runs soft and hard materials together. Materials that have similar properties don't usually make good bearings.

Extruded aluminium doesn't tend to make very good bearings against anything :-(

Mark Rand RTFM

Mutipurpose because it has 2 uses- cleaner and flamethrower.

Its my favorite degreaser.

Dave

LOL! Another use for WD-40. :-))

Nick

WD-40 is very good for disolving gummed up WD-40 deposits.

Wes

Cast iron rings are about the same hardness as cast iron cylinders, but cast has little or no galling tendencies. It glazes very well. An exception might be the really hard cast iron used in older Mopar engines, or the cast steel cylinders I encountered on some English compressors. Hard stuff to machine. Aluminum on aluminum is a bad one. It might work for a little while if Never-Seize or Copper-Coat were used on it.

Dan

I really appreciate the discussion. I will use some suggested lubricant now, and probably provide a bearing in a later design or rebuilding. The stainless steel spring must be attached to both halves of the telescoping aluminum, so the spring will be slightly unwound where it meets the wooden block and tacked together, then the wooden block will be trimmed with a burr. The bottom end of the spring is experimentally attached simply with a stainless steel hose clamp. I posted some pictures of the current progress (about 7 MB). Thanks again.

Newsgroups: alt.binaries.pictures Subject: spring-loaded rollerski poles 01

Of course your Aluminum door and awning are anodized putting a very hard skin on them.