Thread: What sort of lubricant?

Threaded parts should be coated lightly with an anti seize paste.
Something like this LOCTITE Heavy Duty Anti-Seize - Loctite

I always use anti seize on bolts that are going to be exposed to the elements but to assemble the head of a drill press onto its column I would just use a layer of grease as I think anti seize is not required. Anti seize is usually just a heavy oil (or grease) with a metal powder like nickel or copper added to stop the two surfaces from galling together under extreme pressure.

A really neat trick to stop parts rusting together and not get grease everywhere is to clean the mating surfaces back to pare metal and paint them with a copper sulphate solution. The copper deposits out as copper metal. An old car mechanic taught me that trick for brake drums and disc brake.

Originally Posted by BobL

A really neat trick to stop parts rusting together and not get grease everywhere is to clean the mating surfaces back to pare metal and paint them with a copper sulphate solution. The copper deposits out as copper metal. An old car mechanic taught me that trick for brake drums and disc brake.

I recall that in my younger days we used to soak metal parts in copper sulphate for several days to give them a very thin coat of copper. You could see the greenish tinge after a couple of days.

However just painting them may get a few molecules onto the steel but would not provide sufficient copper to do much against rust.

I would simply use a GP grease on any moving parts. As others have suggested nothing on the screws. If you want them to stay in place you could use a Loctite screw lock.

John

As for the copper sulphate you could speed the process by using a battery charger and applying the negative electrode to the part you wanted to coat in copper and then the positive electrode to a sacrificial copper anode(say some copper tubing for instance) placed in the solution but electrically isolated from the part you are trying to coat. That would get you a good coat after several hours.

It would not be particularly durable since copper is quite soft and would wear quite easily.

John

Originally Posted by Yanis

I recall that in my younger days we used to soak metal parts in copper sulphate for several days to give them a very thin coat of copper. You could see the greenish tinge after a couple of days.

However just painting them may get a few molecules onto the steel but would not provide sufficient copper to do much against rust.

You only need a very thin layer to prevent the rust connecting and yes it does need several coats and it depends on having very clean surfaces and a saturated solution of CuSO4 - you can see the Cu coming out of solution happening as you apply it. Vertical fixed surfaces are hardest to apply but all you do is wrap or stick several layers of cloth around the surface and spray with a pump pack.

Originally Posted by Yanis

It would not be particularly durable since copper is quite soft and would wear quite easily.

It's not really a wear situation - its just the head of the DP sitting on the shaft.