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On Wed, 25 Sep 2013 13:49:51 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Sunday, September 22, 2013 9:12:01 PM UTC-6, John Doe wrote:
What is gear grease called? I'm talking about the common grease that's
used to lubricate gears. It's usually a glob stuck someplace on the
gears. I guess over time it works its way into the gears. In any case,
it's thick grease. Anybody know specifically or keywords that I can look
for? Thanks.

There's white lithium that's used on small-motor gear trains that use
metal gears that aren't high speed or loaded heavily. There's moly grease
that's used on metal gears that are loaded heavier. There's hypoid lube
that's used in heavily loaded enclosed gear trains, full of zinc and
sulfur compounds that stink. Then there's synthetic gels with PTFE added
for nylon and plastic gear trains found in a lot of other appliances.
There's any number of chassis greases of various sorts for low-speed,
high-pressure application in vehicle suspensions. All of this stuff is in
common use and can be found at auto parts or hardware stores. What's your
application?


I was looking into this some time ago when it came to the plastic
gears in my mini mill. The vendor recommended grease (white lithium,
NLGI #2) which is not available locally.

The question is, how much latitude is there in substituting or, to put
it the other way, how much damage can you cause by using a different
grease. In my case I had a NLGI #2 black moly grease, apparently high
quality, which I use for everything else.

What could go wrong apart from the color change?

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

If you add a new type of grease without cleaning off every speck of the old
grease there is a chance the bases of the two greases might be incompatible.
They can react and form a very ungrease-like gunk. Here is a chart of
compatibility:
http://thelubricantstore.com/grease-compatibility-chart

The other issue is the components of the grease should be compatible with
the plastic. This article indicates that moly is usually NOT good on
plastic.
http://machinedesign.com/mechanical-...gears-and-more