table saw gear lube that can hold up to MDF dust?

[benjunk]

I'm cutting lots of MDF on my contractor table saw right now. I don't have a dust collection system. I cleaned and lubed everything before starting this project, but I'm not even a third of the way through and the gears for raising/lowering/tilting the blade are so gummed up I can't turn them.

Anyone have suggestions for a lube that can hold up to this unbelievably dusty environment?

I've tried:

hard beeswax -- didn't really work as a lube paste wax -- worked very briefly but dried out before I even started cutting lithium grease -- worked well as a lube but attracts dust like mad white lithium spray - this worked so-so as a lube, but also attracts dust like crazy

Thanks for any suggestions!!

[CC]

you might want to try dri slide

[Leon]

I clean the gears with brake cleaner to get all the grease out. I have sprayed the gears with Top Cote. I would imagine any dry lube would work well, graphite dust should work well, the stuff you inject into lock cylinders. Laguna Tools recommends a Teflon type lube. I have used Triflon with good success.

[Bored Borg]

Graphite grease, definitely.

On Thu, 5 Mar 2009 05:12:46 +0000, [e-mail] wrote (in article ):

[Leon]

Yeah, the grease is the problem, graphite or not it attracts dust.

[Nova]

Dry graphite lubes are available such as Krylon Sprayon Dry Graphite Lube.

[Lew Hodgett]

Clean out gears, then spray with open chain gear lube which is basically graphite which dries on gears.

Lew

[beecrofter]

bar and chain oil

[whit3rd]

...

It's like a bicycle chain, more important to keep clean than to actually make a dynamic film on the moving parts. So, I just painted some melted paraffin (candle wax) onto the gears and screws, then warmed it with a hot air gun (propane torch would work) to get it to liquefy and penetrate. Work the motions a few times through the full range, and it should last quite a while.