I'm wanting to clean out and replace the horrible sticky far east grease from my telescope mount gearboxes. Question is, what type of grease would you guys recomend that I could pick up easily from say Halfords. It would need to hold up under winter night cold without getiing too thick. Also whats the best substance to clean the old grease off the mount components.
Thanks :)
The grease is probably essential for damping the movements. See:
Scoop out as much of the original grease as you can, then wipe it all down with a cotton cloth to get out all the little bits. If you can warm it up all the better because the cotton cloth will absorb it better. Kitchen paper is also good for this.
Replace with a synthetic lithium soap grease if you can get it. It's a bit more expensive but is great for small gearboxes. It's also pretty resilient to all the weather conditions we get here.
Good luck with it.
Yes good point John although it seems that most people who use these mounts replace the grease from day one. I hope to fit a motor kit to one axis and I have heard that with this realy sticky grease, the motor has all on breaking the "stick". Have searched around and there are a lot of suggestions of replacement greases on American sites but not any brands that I have heard of here in UK.
Thanks for that :)
After removing what you can mechanically, petrol?
based fluids, thickened to the required consistency.
Eeek ! _Never_ use petrol as a cleaning solvent. Apart from the fire hazard, modern LRP petrol is a nasty chemical soup of goodness-knows-what and you really don't want to be handling it.
Grease is easy to shift, even Cosmoline. So white spirit or paraffin are adequate. Everyone needs a litre or so of acetone in the workshop, if you want it spotless afterwards.
Other good "easily obtained" solvents are car aerosols - carb cleaner or brke cleaner. They vary in composition, but carb cleaner will shift baked-on varnishes and brake cleaner always evaporates cleanly without an oily residue.
For regreasing I'd suggest Halford's white bike grease. It comes in small tubs, so the price isn't huge, and it's a perfectly workable lightweight lithium grease with teflon in it. Good for outdoor stuff as it avoids some of the water problems simpler greases can have. Compatible with pretty much all rubbers and plastics too. It's just the job for windscreen wiper spindles.
Thanks guys.... Thats a great help, will toddle off to Halfords.
When it comes to mechanics I'm as thick as this grease. Woodworks my thing
Merry Christmas :)
You couldn't come here and finish a line of dove tails for me, could you? Please. I have a drawer side to repair, and woodwork ain't my thing. I'm relying on a dove tail bit for the router. :(
(big smile...........in anticipation of a "yes" answer) :-)
Carb cleaner is often cellulose thinners based, which can play havoc with certain plastics and rubbers !
Well, most commonly used solvents are a fire hazard and should be treated appropriately. Meths, for example, has a much lower flash point.
I'm sure you should take precautions when handling any of them too - the days of dipping your hands into solvents willy nilly should be over.
However, I doubt petrol is *that* risky, given the way it can spill at a garage when filling a car normally. ;-)
Loctite Superlube grease
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