White grease -Lithium?

[Harry Bloomfield]

I picked a can of spray grease marked 'White Grease' last week. It mentions on the can it is good for pivots and linkages.

Will this be Lithium White Grease?

[newshound]

greases have relatively high "melting points" which makes them good for car wheel bearings (which also see heat from the brakes). Calcium greases are a bit better in wet conditions. As the application gets more demanding, the formulations get more exotic and hence expensive. Except for low tech applications or where relubrication is cheap and easy I'd normally be looking for branded products where you can get a specification sheet.

[Harry Bloomfield]

newshound laid this down on his screen :

Lithium is supposedly the stuff to use on lathe threads.

[Bob Eager]

Last lot I wanted - I found the cycle shop a good place!

[Andrew Gabriel]

I have a large tub of white grease from the cycle shop which I use for repacking the bike bearings. However, I don't think it's lithium (although it does claim to be stable to 500F). It's a grease packed with micron sized teflon balls. The whitening is added so you can see how much dirt has got in to it, and judge when to wash it all out and repack fresh.

[Gib Bogle]

It stops machinists from getting depressed.

[Bob Eager]

This was a small tube with 'Lithium' written on it!

[Rod]

Cue for a manic reply. :-)

What form of Lithium is used in the grease?

[PeterC]

Elemental, my dear Watson. Boom Boom!

[T i m]

Same as I have here, believed bought in a bike shop and branded 'Weldtite' (product code 02005).

It now seems it's marketed under the TF2 range.

'Data sheet available' it says. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

p.s. I seem to remember that the high street car spares places used to stock a fairly large range of lubes but now they (or the ones I've been in) don't. They can get anything you want but don't stock much.

Is it because lubes in general much better in quality and application range so one can get away with a smaller range, or is it just that people don't care / know to use the right stuff any more (or summat else).

When I recovered an irreparable washing machine a while back (failed bearings but in a sealed tub) I fitted sealed bearings but took the inner seals out of each bearing and nearly filled the inter-bearing void with a very sticky special waterproof grease designed for boat prop shaft bearings and the like. Seems to be working so far. ;-)

[The Medway Handyman]

Was it from Toolstation Harry? If so, I picked some up as well & would like to know.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:

Or Screwfix Fred?

[The Medway Handyman]

Or Toolbag Ted?

[Duncan Di Saudelli]

Lithium compounds in the form of the carbonate or hydroxide are reacted with stearic acid to form a salt (presumably a Li stearate in that case), according to

[Tim Streater]

Or Timbuctoo (someone mentioned the desert, above).