Mill chain lube

[Ron Wenrich]

What are you guys using to lube your chains on your mills?  We have some heavy duty chains that move the knees on our headblocks.  The guy pulling maintenance insists on using some heavy black stuff that comes in a spray can.  I don't like it.

It sticks on the chain, and attracts all the dust coming from the mill and the vertical edger.  Maintenance says this stuff is really great.  I say it attracts too much dust, which is more damaging than being helpful.

These chains are used for headblock alignment and don't move that fast.  Conditions are really dusty.

What's your take?

[Jeff]

Ron, I used 15-40 motor oils out of the truck garage. I ran that paticular CMC for 21 years and other then replacing the teflon wear strips one time, never wore any of the knee chains or componants out.  We tried that heavy black spray on stuff on our roll case chains. Yer right. What a mess, first its a mess on its own, then it starts sucking in every partical of sawdust it can find, gumming up the chains. No lube turns out to be better in the sawmill application then that spray grease. On those chains I went to the 15-40 as well, but they take a beating and lubing them didnt really seem to increase thier life span to much.

[Mike_P.]

Ron, Jeff:

Would Rust Reaper work on that chain application, if there was a controlled way to apply it?

Our formulation is patterned after chain lubricants commonly used on rivetless chains such as on overhead conveyors.  I've seen it used, as well, on heavy roller chains in dusty, dirty applications such as foundries.  It would flow into the friction points, has plenty of film strength, lubricates with a minimum of residual, but has to be reapplied on a regular basis.

Rust Reaper certainly would not attract the foreign material that a spray grease or heavier viscosity oil would.

Thanks,

Mike

[sparks]

On our mills we recommend transmission fluid. We lube the mast pads, chains and the main rail the head rides one with it. It cuts down on metal to meatal wear, keeps the mast slick and the chains lubed. The trans fluid allows the sawdust to stay pliable and fall off the chains.

[Ron Wenrich]

Mike

I never thought of using Rust Reaper.  I might have to look at that a little bit more.  I have a sample here at home.

For the daily lubes I've been using a penetrating oil, similar to WD-40.  That's what an oil salesman recommended, and his company used to handle some sort of oil for sawmills and edgers.  They just went to that type.

I used to use just diesel.  That works OK and doesn't attract that much dust.

[Brucer]

Puttin' on my Maintenance Engineer's hat for a moment ...

That black stuff is a special grease that clings to chains as they whip around a small sprocket at high speed. Clings to everything else as well, and vice versa :( It was meant for fast moving chains that aren't enclosed in a housing. Some folks figure it was meant for any unenclosed chain.

WD-40 isn't a lubricant, and shouldn't be used as such. Rust Reaper is a whole other animal and ought to work. As Mike suggests, you may have to reapply it frequently.

I use Automatic Transmission Fluid on all my open drive chains. I keep it in a pump-style oil can and squeeze it out in a small steady stream as I sweep it along each edge of the chain. It's a bit tedious on the main drive chain, but I don't have to do it very often. ATF doesn't seem to hold the sawdust the way greases and heavier oils do.

[Percy]

That black stuff you guys are talkin about is called "GEAR DOPE" in these parts. Up here they use it for lubing the open  bull gears on a logging tower and ring gears for line loaders etc. That stuff is nasty. Takes a year it seems to wash off your hands ;D. Anyhow, Im with Sparks, ATF is the best lube I have found for sawmilling. The saw dust can accumulate on the up/down cam bearings and stainless steel tracks on the mast of an LT70. The stuff(sawdust) gets fairly hard if you dont keep it clean. I squirt ATF on the tracks and after a few miniutes of cutting, just wipe the mush off with a gloved hand. If you put more ATF on at this point, all you ever get is mush. Three times a day max.  It(ATF) doesnt work well on the blade guide arm for some reason. The "mush" causes the thing to stall or spinout. I find no lube works best there ;D
Duhhhh  ATF works good on the chains too.  ;D ;D ;D The sawdust that does accumulate will "mush" as long as you keep up on the lube/clean up/yadda. 8) 8)