Open ball bearing lubrication

That is a great tutorial. The first time I saw that done was by a lady pilot for an aircraft wheel bearing. and she did it just about that way. That was a LOOOng time ago. :-) ...lew...

If you like all that grease on your hand thats the way to do it, otherwise use a clean metal plate and put the grease toward the edge of it and apply the same action as in the tutorial. You won't mess up your camera. :)

John

Mine were all sealed bearings and sounded dry. I just replaced them with new sealed bearings. McMaster can supply them.

Wes

That is an excellent tip!

Wes

On Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:04:10 -0500, the infamous Wes scrawled the following:

Icing on the cake, as it were.

-- "Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt." -- Clarence Darrow

I recall seeing a lot of white lithium-like greases used inside car doors, on window regulators/mechanisms, rods and linkages for door latches and locking parts.

I don't remember what the particular advantage/beneficial feature of white lithium grease is, and I'm too lazy to look it up, but I think it had one particular feature.

It gets used a lot, almost anywhere on cars.. door hinges, battery connectors, sheathed cables etc.

It doesn't seem to present any problems when it's used in enclosed spaces (light duty gear cases), but I've found lots of dried out white lithium inside vented equipment.. dried enough that it can't be wiped away for cleaning, it needs to be attacked with solvents or scraped away. It gets semi-solid like wax as it gets dried out.

Like I said earlier, I used to use it (fairly frequently) but I prefer many other types of greases over white lithium anymore.

One grease that I started using for certain applications like machine rack & pinion, drill press quill sliding surfaces and other gear-type applications, is a thick, non-silicone, synthetic gel-looking grease for brake caliper pins. It's really sticky, and continues to pull itself back into the pressure areas really well, whereas some greases just squish out to the sides of where they're needed.

WB, I will use the red synthetic Mobil-1 grease, I think that it will work just fine. This is essentially light duty operation as these gears only transfer moderate forces.

On Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:27:54 -0500, the infamous "Wild_Bill" scrawled the following:

It's fairly inert and is a decent lubricant for slow movement.

I like the white spray lithium because it goes into tight holes as a liquid, foams up, then hardens where it it. It really penetrates and you can put it anywhere.

Whoa! You don't want _any_ excess grease anywhere near the brakes, Bill. I rub some on my fingers and pull the pin or slider plate through it so there is only a very thin coating on it. It doesn't take much at all.

-- "Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt." -- Clarence Darrow

Good tip, but remember that especially with higher speed bearings, you must have space when they are installed for excess grease to escape. For faster bearings in closed spaces you shouldn't fill to more than 30% otherwise the churning losses will cause them to overheat and die in no time.

I find it, the white spray Lithium grease makes a fine rust preventive if sprayed in hard to reach areas, such as door side & bottoms, fender seams etc.

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Never ever under estimate the incompetent.

Well ... it is nice where clothing can come in contact with it, such as car door latches and hinges. It doesn't stain as much.

Enjoy, DoN.