Ceramically Reinforced lube - best thing evar?

[Zoea]

Hi all

My brother pulled out this bottle of chain lube the other day. What do you think for RC use? Drivetrain or CVDs maybe? Is this the best thing since sliced bread because it has ceramic in it? I don't think it's one of those ones that dries completely to prevent dirt sticking to it though.

I have a choice between this stuff, standard lithium grease, associated greases/lubes/green slime, or graphite+teflon powdered lubricant (which they use for pan car racing). Or I can leave it bare like the last owner did.

Which is best?

Cheers

PS if anyone wants to know where to get this stuff I can probably find out!

[Stu]

I use this stuff as MTB chain lube & R/C bearing oil, it's good shit.

[bender]

Tamiya has had this kind of stuff available since the 90's - Tamiya Ceramic grease

It even says on the bottle shown that it has one of the same major ingredients - boron nitride.

I've used the Tamiya stuff on every RC car i've owned that used meshing gears (not including the spur/pinion) since about 1993... never had a gear fail from chipped teeth or excessive wear in all that time.

The stuff is bloody fantastic

Not sure if the stuff shown might be too messy to use in CVD's but i'd certainly give it a go on any car with a gearbox.

[Getpip]

In the cycle world lubricants dont get much better than those offered by finish line.
It is distributed by a well known cycle wholesaler and is therefore available from most good bike shops.

[SlowOne]

Boron nitride is effectively a man-made substitute for carbon when used in lubricants. It's low co-efficient of friction, high temperature and chemical stability and high thermal conductivity make it good in applications where there are high pressure sliding loads.

Bicycle chains and gears would be just such applications, hence the successes posted above. Zoea, you don't say what it is you are trying to lubricate, so it's difficult to give advice. Tribology, the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in motion (it says on Wiki!) is all about having the right lubricant for the right situation. Sometimes that might mean no separate lubricant!

As Getpip says, if you are after the right lubricants for any RC application, you cannot go wrong with Finish Line. Their Cross Country Synthetic for bearings, this stuff for gears, dry wax for ball joints, they've got it all. If you're not sure which one to use where, you can always ask on here!! HTH

[Zoea]

Sorry, should have said, I'm using it in a RC10B4 transmission. I tried it and it seems smooth. Maybe it was the wrong application though... there was no lube before though!

[SlowOne]

Spot on, use this stuff for the gears (light smear on the flank of a couple of teeth, then rotate the gearbox so it gets to all the teeth) and the Finish Line Cross Country synthetic on the rolling element (ball) bearings (a couple of small drops per bearing). Use an Associated diff grease on the diff balls (only enough to coat the ball, no more!) and a black graphite grease on the thrust race.

Make sure that you only use enough to lubricate the direct area. This is a small space, so if the lubes migrate from one area to the other, you don't get the proper performance from the lube you've chosen. Common mistakes are to drown the ball bearings, slap diff grease all over the place and have a whole pot of ceramic grease (I exaggerate for effect!) in the gearbox. Little in the right place, and check often, is the best policy.

Lots of people are fans of Royal Oil. Think of it this way - would you put 3-in-1 oil, or sewing machine oil, in your car engine? No, so stick to a proper synthetic oil in your RC bearings. HTH