Open Gear Lube?

Moly does tend to get everywhere and I mean everywhere. I still use it for a lot of applications but wouldn't use it for open gears, very very messy.
 
I went with Tri-Flow since my local hw store had it. Seems to be working fine. I spray it onto the gears and give it about 5-10mins to dry. I have noticed ... I think..a reduction in gear noise. Visited local hw store today and found they have bar/chain oil. I may try that next. I've already used about half of the Tri-Flow hitting stuff with it around the house and garage.
 
The choice of what to use varies on the application and the machine. The 1340GT open gear train for some reason is fairly loud and the gears sing at speed no matter how you adjust the clearance. Myself and several other machine owner tried numerous lubricants and each came up with a different variant as to the solution. One hobbyist ended up spraying a rubberized material to the non meshing surfaces of the gears. An EP lubricant forms a sacrificial bonding interface on the metal surfaces, the lubrication provides a sliding interface. Greases are specificity designed for this purpose for slow speed gears, higher speeds use splash and beyond that pressurized oil feed. If you have open gears that are exposed to chips, then that is a separate issue. Oils on these types of open gears would need to be replenished frequently, a high tach oil or some form of dry bonding lubricant might work for a while. My dad did a lot work developing different lubricants for different industries, and different applications had different mix of properties. The Tri-flow spray is not really designed for gear pressure , but more of a penetrating lubricant with a dry lubricant. Chain type lubricants usually remain very tacky. Any lubrication is better than none, and the machine will probably outlast the user as long as some lubricant is used. I just like to point out that grease is the usual choice for open gears, but there are different lubricants that will also work.
http://khkgears.net/gear-knowledge/gear-technical-reference/lubrication-of-gears/
http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/910/open-gearing-lubrication
 
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mksj said:
The choice of what to use varies on the application and the machine. The 1340GT open gear train for some reason is fairly loud and the gears sing at speed no matter how you adjust the clearance. Myself and several other machine owner tried numerous lubricants and each came up with a different variant as to the solution. One hobbyist ended up spraying a rubberized material to the non meshing surfaces of the gears. An EP lubricant forms a sacrificial bonding interface on the metal surfaces, the lubrication provides a sliding interface. Greases are specificity designed for this purpose for slow speed gears, higher speeds use splash and beyond that pressurized oil feed. If you have open gears that are exposed to chips, then that is a separate issue. Oils on these types of open gears would need to be replenished frequently, a high tach oil or some form of dry bonding lubricant might work for a while. My dad did a lot work developing different lubricants for different industries, and different applications had different mix of properties. The Tri-flow spray is not really designed for gear pressure , but more of a penetrating lubricant with a dry lubricant. Chain type lubricants usually remain very tacky. Any lubrication is better than none, and the machine will probably outlast the user as long as some lubricant is used. I just like to point out that grease is the usual choice for open gears, but there are different lubricants that will also work.
http://khkgears.net/gear-knowledge/gear-technical-reference/lubrication-of-gears/
http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/910/open-gearing-lubrication
Click to expand...


I tend to agree, any lube is better than none, If chips are a problem make a guard and keep them out of there.

The lathe I worked for much of my apprenticeship was at least 25 years old and well worn, The most important thing with open change gears is to have them properly adjusted, too much or too little clearance will cause rapid wear and create noise. This machine had a little drip oilier that was fitted to slowly drip onto the top most change gear and then work it way down to the bottom to drip off. It was set to use about 30ml of oil per day, just plain SAE 30. Not much, and the gears were always clean and in top shape.The cover collected all the oil that was flung off and it all drained down to end up floating on top of the soluble cutting oil. this along with other surplus oil from the ways etc was skimmed of once a week.

Also worn bushes or pins will cause the gear wheels to wobble also creating more problems. I still think a chain saw bar oil is as good as any for what we are trying to achieve here, and I'm sure most of us already have some in the shop.

I think that any type of dry lube or penetrating product is missing the point. Yes it's probably better than nothing, but only just. And don't forget to oil the gear bushes, plain machine oil here please.

It's almost inevitable that some oil will splash about, do yourself and your machine a favour, put the cover back on, if you don't have one get one, or make one. It will keep the chips out and collect all the splashed about oil which can then drain down into the chip tray, or even a little can to collect it.

having a little oil being splashed about will also help to flush out any stray chips that do get in there.
 
bobshobby said:
I tend to agree, any lube is better than none, If chips are a problem make a guard and keep them out of there.

The lathe I worked for much of my apprenticeship was at least 25 years old and well worn, The most important thing with open change gears is to have them properly adjusted, too much or too little clearance will cause rapid wear and create noise. This machine had a little drip oilier that was fitted to slowly drip onto the top most change gear and then work it way down to the bottom to drip off. It was set to use about 30ml of oil per day, just plain SAE 30. Not much, and the gears were always clean and in top shape.The cover collected all the oil that was flung off and it all drained down to end up floating on top of the soluble cutting oil. this along with other surplus oil from the ways etc was skimmed of once a week.

Also worn bushes or pins will cause the gear wheels to wobble also creating more problems. I still think a chain saw bar oil is as good as any for what we are trying to achieve here, and I'm sure most of us already have some in the shop.

I think that any type of dry lube or penetrating product is missing the point. Yes it's probably better than nothing, but only just. And don't forget to oil the gear bushes, plain machine oil here please.

It's almost inevitable that some oil will splash about, do yourself and your machine a favour, put the cover back on, if you don't have one get one, or make one. It will keep the chips out and collect all the splashed about oil which can then drain down into the chip tray, or even a little can to collect it.

having a little oil being splashed about will also help to flush out any stray chips that do get in there.
Click to expand...

One lathe I worked on that was quite new and had rather noisy change gears. I cleaned all the gunk off that others had put on, the gears looked fairly roughly cut, the small pinion gears were steel not hardened, the larger ones were cast iron.

I adjusted them to be slightly tight, applied some fine lapping paste, ran the machine for about 10 -15 min. It started to get quieter.

I cleaned the gears up again and reset them to be as firm as thought they should be, and put plain SAE 30 oil (no additives) on them, it was much quieter after that, and we never had a problem with it after that. So I set up a drip feeder, used about 1/4 cup of oil a day.

We always had plenty of SAE 30 oil on the ships I worked on, It is the most commonly used oil for the big 2 stroke marine diesels. so they use it as a general machine oil, only using other oils for special applications.
 
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