Running dry gears?

[warhawk]

Is there any consensus regarding the best kind of lube on the rack and pinion sets? Is running dry (to reduce crud accumulation) out of the question ?

[Brady Watson]

If you like replacing pinions every 3 weeks and want to kill your racks in a short time, you can run it dry...

ShopBot supplies a black lithium type grease with each new tool, although I have graduated to Cyclo brand white spray lithium grease. It comes out liquid and hardens to a grease. It's less likely to mark your shirts up with gear tracks and it does a nice job of lubing the racks by spraying insead of 'buttering' the grease on upside down.

-B

[harryball]

I find motorcycle chain oil in a spray can (Gunk is one brand name) does well also. It goes on as a spray, semi dries and doesn't collect dust that badly. However, it will mark up your shirt with those horizontal "bot stripes" accross the belly so wear black.

Robert

[warhawk]

I did a search for the Cyclo and couldn't find it except on one site where they had several Cyclo white grease sprays. Do you know the product number?

[Brady Watson]

This one:


652

http://www.cyclo.com/ind_lubricants.asp

[myxpykalix]

Dyna-Glide. Any advice on whether this stuff is any good for the shopbot? It is a dry lubricant.
http://legacywoodworking.com/products.cfm?product=12
I use this on my legacy ornamental mill to keep the carriage running on the extruded aluminum tracks.


653

[warhawk]

You are too cool Brady. Thanks. The dry lubricant also looks VERY interesting. The idea of friction reduction without "wetness" is intriguing.