Plastic and Metal Gear Lube

[MAGNUMB]

Trying to figure out what lube would work best for plastic and metal gears. Any experience with any of these or other suggestions? This is what I've gathered so far.

White Lightning Clean Ride- Dry wax lube the flakes off any contaminants. Longevity seems like a concern. Highly regarded for Derlin gears on HeliFreaks. Good for exposed gearing.

Labelle 206- Grease with PTFE made for RC industry. Still attracts dirt but after grease wears away/slings off PTFE is left to provide protection.

Cera-GreaseHG- Boron grease. Good friction reducer but messy.

Tri-Flo Red Grease- One of the best for sealed gearboxes and metal gearing. Long lasting, but may not be safe for all plastics as it might contain petroleum.

Sullivan Dry Ice- Dry lube. Made for RC industry. Not much info, but looks to be decent for metal gearing with low drag.

BelRay Waterproof Grease. Medium tach grease good for waterproofing axle housings.

PJ1 motorcycle chain lube. Good adherance and decent at repelling dirt/dust.

So far I'm leaning towards Clean ride for plastic gearing and PJ1 for ring and pinion

[Greatscott]

I like AE Black Grease. It is a little pricy, but it coats well, stays on the gears, and comes off easily when you are doing rebuilds/repairs. Plus, it doesn't smell like a cat's ass like some of the other grease does.

[MAGNUMB]

Nobody likes cat's ass

Looking for a dry type lube and came across these

Triflo Dry Lube(bike chain lube)- Not sure this is safe for plastics, but looks promising.

DryFluid- Reports from HeliFreak show is seems to work well for plastic and is long lasting, but may not be too good for metal on metal.

[JatoTheRipper]

Did you search at all? This topic has been covered ad nauseam!

[allanon1965]

I use red and tacky for trans internals and differential gears, nothing for the plastic spur/metal pinon... no issues for years.

[strap624]

You can really use anything. I wouldn't use lithium or moly grease though.

[MAGNUMB]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Did you search at all? This topic has been covered ad nauseam!

Really??

I got most of this info from searching forums only....to be honest this forum had some of least info on lube and Tamiya Club and Helifreak had more...but hardly any consensus.

I'm guessing this forum has the least info due to crawling not causing enough heat to really cause too much damage to gearing.

What do you use on Ring and Pinion? Anything at all?

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by MAGNUMB

Really??

I got most of this info from searching forums only....to be honest this forum had some of least info on lube and Tamiya Club and Helifreak had more...but hardly any consensus.

I'm guessing this forum has the least info due to crawling not causing enough heat to really cause too much damage to gearing.

What do you use on Ring and Pinion? Anything at all?

Really!!

Maybe my Googler skillz are just better than yours, but here are two examples:

https://www.google.com/search?q=rccr....rccrawler.com

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&s....rccrawler.com

Don't try to use the sight search. It sucks.

This is the best grease thread I can think of on this site:
Gear Grease...

Personally, I use marine grease on metal gears and nothing, white lithium grease, or Tamiya white grease on plastic gears.

[MAGNUMB]

Thanks.

Seems like wet lube is preferred here.

I guess I'll try my luck on other forums since you guys got it locked down here on what works best for your rigs.

[allanon1965]

Originally Posted by MAGNUMB

Thanks.

Seems like wet lube is preferred here.

I guess I'll try my luck on other forums since you guys got it locked down here on what works best for your rigs.

that almost sounds like you already know what you want to use but are looking for validation......

[MAGNUMB]

This looks decent for plastic
Krytox™ perfluoropolyether (PFPE) oils and greases
thickened with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) are a
great choice for nonmetallic components.
Krytox™ oils and greases have been used as plastic or elastomer
lubricants for over 40 years. Krytox™ PFPE oils and greases and
Fluoroguard™ PFPE compounding additives are used as lubricants
for nonmetallic materials in automotive, aerospace, and industrial
applications for seals, gears, squeak elimination, and other critical uses.
Krytox™ oils and greases are inert and do not react with elastomers
or plastics. These oils and greases will not cause elastomers or
plastics to swell, shrink, or crack. Krytox™ lubricants do not hurt the
performance of the elastomer, nor improve the upper temperature
capabilities of the material—the thermal stability of the elastomer
or plastic itself constitutes any limitation.
Krytox™ greases thickened with PTFE are equally non-reactive
with polymers. Some types of grease that are used for lubricating
metal bearings have additives for anti-corrosion and extreme
pressure metal-to-metal contact, and they can affect some types
of seal materials at higher temperatures. For high temperature
applications, Chemours usually recommends additive-free oils and
greases for lubrication of plastics and elastomers.
Krytox™ performance lubricants are resistant to oxygen and reactive
gases, and are inert to virtually all chemicals that are commonly

[MAGNUMB]

I've finally narrowed it down.

Plastic on Plastic trans gears- TrakPower Krytech

Ring and Pinion- Going to test both Krytech in front diff and White lightning Clean Ride in rear diff to see how long they last.

Spider Gears- Tamiya AW in rear and Krytech in Front.

CVD joints- Krytech

[MAGNUMB]

Some findings:

Trakpower krytech is great for shedding dirt and lubing plastic bits, but for internal plastic gears I'm going to use Tamiya Cera as it lasts longer. It does raise the temps though.

Going with Tamiya AW for Spider gears to slow the action and probably continue to use Cera on ring and pinion and see how gears wear.

[Teng]

I like the ROCK "N" ROLL LUBRICATION on my metal to metal parts

[THUNDER PRO]

To be honest on of my best kept secrets is Sullivan Dry Ice. Used it ever sinse it came out to lube their tiger drive system on t max. I soak everything in it that moves in contact to anything else except eletronics. It is alcohol based teflon. When the alcohol evaporates it leaves a hardened Teflon coating behind. I use it for lots of other 1:1 applications as well. For example remove the shields from your bearings clean with brake clean to remove any grease. Soak the bearings in the dry ice overnight and let them air dry. Replace the shields and you will be amazed. Kyosho 1/8 nitro 777 buggies were notorious for destoying the best bearings you could buy in one race weekend. I bought cheap pick a piece bearings and treated them to dry ice and they last me two years straight without fail, two whole race seasons plus practice. Take the challenge its just $9.

[MAGNUMB]

Really like the concept of dry lubes like Sullivan Dry Ice.
The problem I see is that once dry the lube has a hard time moving back into the sliding surfaces after the initial application wears off...which seems to be fairly quick. This requires more applications and I'm trying to limit this.

A grease that looks to be near ideal for high speed/high load plastic/metal is Molykote G-4500. More suited towards plastic, but looks to be suitable for metal on metal.
It has long service life, Wide temp range, Compatible with many plastics and elastomers, Meets FDA H1 classification, Fully Syn POA base, NLGI #2 consistency, and Medium load carry ability. Molykote EM-30L seems to another grease that might work.