Worm drive lubrication.

[warpout]

Just inspected worm drives on my EQ5 mount and they look as if they need lubrication because they are bone dry. Can someone please suggest what type of grease I should use. I have looked on SGL and other sites and there are many suggestions, people can't seem to agree on what's good and what's not. Can someone recommend a suitable lubricant?

 

[DRT]

I think the only thing everyone does agree on is that the grease Synta use when assembling their mounts is just about the worst of them all

others will chime in with better recommendations than I could give you. 

[D33P]

I did a little research some time ago about the best grease to use. From what I could gather lots of people seem to use Super Lube.

I ordered a tube but have not used it yet so can't comment on how good it is.

Hope this helps a little.

 

[tonylumley]

dont know if its good or bad, however I used a silicone grease, I use this at work for gas taps and it sems to work Ok, not sure who makes it but if you know a heating/gas engineer they usually have a tube lying around in their vans, 

[glowjet]

TF2 Lithium white grease, tub or tube. Have a look on the Bay for best price. Excellent to use as a lubricant on moving parts

[Grierson]

You have prompted me to look at the drive shafts of my EQ5!!

Dion, from Astronomy Shed, in one of his videos discussing improvements to the Skywatcher ST80 focuser, recommended Lithium Grease. You can get it from your local bike shop. Worked fine for me. - John  

[blinky]

I used Lithium Grease but recently saw somewhere that somebody asked Synta and they said the 'Super lube' was what they recommended

[Peter Drew]

I would always favour a thick sticky grease that has good load bearing qualities and remains sticking to the bearing surfaces, Super Llube seems a good candidate.

[Peter Drew]

Edit. Welsh version. 

[Dave Lloyd]

Should that be llwb?

[Alien 13]

The best sticky grease that stays put is the Skywatcher one I haven't found anything else that gets close.

Alan

[mikeyscope]

Here's a choice of grease for various operating temperatures in traditional brown but also white grease...

http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/baader-teflon-white-machine-grease-from-25c-up-to-40c.html

[Skipper Billy]

I used white Lithium based grease - its what we use on boat winches - big loads - slow speed - ideal for a mount and it doesnt go hard in time.

£10 for a kilo tub.

 

[Jonk]

I used CV (constant velocity) grease after churning through the various options last year. Seems to be ok.

[Waldemar]

The type of grease that really works  the best is PTFE based, Like FIN 25 (Interflon) , Slick 50 or any other brand with a high amount of PTFE (Teflon) in it.

Lithium grease separates in hot circumstances, the thin, oily part evaporates and leaves a hard chalky residu... I believe SuperLube is teflon based as well.

[glowjet]

1 hour ago, Waldemar said:

The type of grease that really works  the best is PTFE based, Like FIN 25 (Interflon) , Slick 50 or any other brand with a high amount of PTFE (Teflon) in it.

Lithium grease separates in hot circumstances, the thin, oily part evaporates and leaves a hard chalky residu... I believe SuperLube is teflon based as well.

All the times I have been observing, the temperature has been anything but hot. However, that is interesting to know, TF2 I believe is recommended for slow moving parts, so it seems it may not worth using on anything that could generate a lot of heat

[Waldemar]

2 hours ago, glowjet said:

All the times I have been observing, the temperature has been anything but hot. However, that is interesting to know, TF2 I believe is recommended for slow moving parts, so it seems it may not worth using on anything that could generate a lot of heat

Hi John, most of the time while observing it is not hot outside, true... but during daytime, when the mount is not used (except for solar) it can get very hot, and the grease is still in there... and gets hot as well!

PTFE is a very modern lubricant and can handle basically all circumstances, but the real magic is in the fact that it consists of microscopic little balls of different sizes, which fill the microscopic imperfections in all surfaces, how ever smooth they look for the eye.
On top of that it has a negative coefficient of friction, which means the higher the pressure between two surfaces, the smoother it works.

In my opinion these are features you would want for your precious mount. In any case..I do!

Waldemar

[Peter Drew]

The bottom line is, the cheaper the mount the heavier the grease needed.  

[Waldemar]

Or bigger teflon balls 

[glowjet]

Hi Waldemar, Thanks for the information,  TF2 Lithium would obviously not any good if you are using your mount for Solar obs or imaging, especially when you take into account what the temperature went up to when Summer arrived a few days back

[libraryman]

I'll second Teflon greases, high damping qualities too, I'm using Finish line extreme fluoro.

very expensive but looks very good

 

Ray