Teflon based lubricants?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I spent the better part of an hour last night cleaning grit out of the gear drive mechanism on one of my Walthers turntables. It seems Walthers used some sort of lithium or white grease on the gears. All well and good but my pit seems to be a magnet for dirt, dust and loose pieces of ballast, the least bit of girt in the gears and it binds up. So I was thinking about using something like motor cycle chain lube on the gears. Teflon based lubricants have been used on motorcycle chains for decades with great success. So I was wondering it anyone knows of a good Teflon lube for model railroading?

Thanks

2

Dry, powdered Teflon such as Hob-E-Lube Dry White Lube with Teflon, or powdered graphite, may be a better choice because neither would attract or hold dirt.

3

I tried the powdered graphie but it seemed to be messy and after using it I recalled that graphite is an electrical conductor so I didn’t think it wise to have it spriinkled on the pit rail. It would be just my luck that a few particles of it get inside the center hole and mess things up in a big way. I’ll give that Hob-E-Lube a try though thanks

4

LaBelle No. 106 is a plastic compatible teflon white grease, (commonly used for loco gears).

But I would also recommend trying one of the teflon powder lubes from LaBelle or Hobb-e-lube.

5

one word- NEOLUBE !!!

grizlump

6

You do not want anything ‘electrical conductive’ like Neolube or graphite. And if you are looking at a teflon lube, make sure it is ‘plastic’ compatible. Labelle has a very nice teflon lube that will not harm the plastic parts in your $300 turntable.

I vacuum out my turntable on a regular basis, and keep it covered if doing any scenery work near by…

Jim

7

I use LaBelle 106 on all my locomotives and slot cars. It’s a great grease that will work on your turntable. Your gears shouldn’t get as dirty as you described, I would look at a way to eliminate all the crap getting stuck to your gears.

8

I use Slick 50 after recommendation from NWSL.

9

You do not want anything ‘electrical conductive’ like Neolube or graphite. And if you are looking at a teflon lube, make sure it is ‘plastic’ compatible. Labelle has a very nice teflon lube that will not harm the plastic parts in your $300 turntable.

no sense in starting a war over this but i have never had a problem like that with neolube. in a recent post Andy Sperandeo confirms that it is not conductive.

grizlump