I have encountered an interesting problem:

The Little Machine Shop Guide to Mini-mill recommends greasing the gear box
with Lubriplate 630-AA white lithium grease (NGLI 1, "plastic-friendly and
widely available").

The Chinese manual does not mention any maintenance of the gear box at all.
Their instructions are (when they can be understood) to grease the usual
leadscrews, racks etc. They do not specify type of grease.

I have applied this:

http://www.molyslip.com/WebPDF/MPG-Data-Sheet.pdf

to all the external parts. I have used this stuff elsewhere including my
guns. It is noteworthy that my plastic Glock has not suffered unduly as far
as I can tell from sparse application of this stuff to the slide.

When I tried to get the 630-AA I run into a brick wall - no-one stocks it
here, they can get it if I buy a case of it. Buying direct from the USA I am
looking at a cost in excess of $25 for a tube.

I am kind of hesitant to apply the Molyslip to the innards of the mill.
a) It is not white
b) It is not lithium
c) It is NGLI 2 as opposed to 1 - is this going to be too thick for the
gears (note the technical datasheet recommends it for all kinds of
applications which seem more or less same as the mill gear box)?
d) No word about "plastic-friendliness" (but see comment about the Glock).

On the plus side:

a) It should be a better quality product
b) I have a bucket of it

I have looked in several local shops for a likely equivalent. My first
impression is that there is little high quality white lithium grease
available. There is a lot of the stuff in cans and tubes labelled
"multipurpose" or "heavy duty" but that is about all the description one
gets. I do not think I found a single product with a clear label "White
lithium NGLI 1".

I am going to e-mail the Molyslip people for their take on this but what
would the assembled sages do? Would you:

1) Not touch the gearbox now. Or ever. If the gear breaks convert to belt
drive.
2) Stuff the Molyslip in a syringe and squirt it in a prescribed manner into
the gearbox. Then pray five times a day facing east.
3) Sell your firstborn into slavery to purchase Lubriplate 630-AA for only
this compound will ensure the correct functioning of the mill.
4) Use a brand "XYZ" 'cos it has always worked for me.
5) You should never use grease in the gearbox - only oil (this topic incites
extraordinary passions on some fora. I am only quoting...)

Thanks,

--
Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:06:35 -0800, "Michael Koblic"
wrote:

I have encountered an interesting problem:

The Little Machine Shop Guide to Mini-mill recommends greasing the gear box
with Lubriplate 630-AA white lithium grease (NGLI 1, "plastic-friendly and
widely available").



Common or garden automobile wheel bearing grease or equivalent.


Or run the plastic gears dry.


Mark Rand
RTFM

In article , Mark Rand
wrote:

On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:06:35 -0800, "Michael Koblic"
wrote:

I have encountered an interesting problem:

The Little Machine Shop Guide to Mini-mill recommends greasing the gear box
with Lubriplate 630-AA white lithium grease (NGLI 1, "plastic-friendly and
widely available").



Common or garden automobile wheel bearing grease or equivalent.


Or run the plastic gears dry.

I run mine dry, with a little shot of silicone to reduce noise.

-Frank

--
Here's some of my work:
http://www.franksknives.com/