Plastic Safe Grease?

[xraycajun]

The tube of ceramic grease that came with my Tamiya cc-01 looks too small to cover the entire kit. What greases from, let's say, an auto parts store would work well and not harm the plastic?

Thanks!

[team3six]

Just go to your local hobby store and get some Stealth grease. Best you can use for RC plastic gears.

[jwo]

i've been told white lithium grease will not harm plastic or soften it. i had to learn that one the hard way. i picked up a tube of it from an auto parts store for like 5 bucks.

[Katon]

well did it break or soften them? You said you had to learn the hard way... if it works then its not really the hard way.. Hehe just curious.

[Synister_Intent]

Its not really from a auto parts store, but a friend of mine told me to get a something called "Gear Jelly", supposively they use it on heavy machinery and things of that nature. I haven't quite located it yet, but if you happen to find it let me know or if I find it I'll let you know.

:Edit: Nevermind I'm an idiot, I just went to google and found it for Rc's, heres the link, but they are out of stock, I'm going to continue looking for it though:

http://www.jpcustomrcs.com/catalog/i...77/6381360.htm

[team3six]

I sell Rocksmith gearjelly, and its made for steel or metal gears, doesnt work too well with plastic gears.

[Synister_Intent]

Yeah I know about that gear jelly but this gear jelly is supposed to be safe for Rc gears.

[xraycajun]

I have silicone and PTFE grease for fishing reels. Perhaps those are safe to use?

[team3six]

Originally Posted by Synister_Intent

Yeah I know about that gear jelly but this gear jelly is supposed to be safe for Rc gears.

huh?
Ummm, the stuff that JP is selling is what I am selling. Its the exact same Gearjelly. Its not made to work with plastic gears. Dennis will tell you that right off the bat. and I am a distributor of this product. It's made for RC applications and is made for metal gears.

[rex cars]

while not available at your auto parts store, i use parma "homeset lube".
http://www.shopatron.com/products/pr...3.11625.0.0.0?
i would guess that any lithium or teflon based grease would work

[NeXt559]

Originally Posted by team3six

huh?
Ummm, the stuff that JP is selling is what I am selling. Its the exact same Gearjelly. Its not made to work with plastic gears. Dennis will tell you that right off the bat. and I am a distributor of this product. It's made for RC applications and is made for metal gears.

really?

ive been using the stuff in ALL of my rc's, both plastic and metal gears

i know its not recomended for ball diffs.

is the gear jelly going to break down my plastic gears? what are the side effects of using the gear jelly on plastic?
just want to make sure before i break down my kits w/ plastic gears, or worse replace them

[Joat]

Superlube, works like a champ, food safe and I think plastic safe too?

[xraycajun]

I've done alot of research over the last few days. I found that I should look for products that have no petroleum or petroleum distilates. Superlube fits that category. I also found that Abu Garcia reel grease is re-packaged superlube. I am also looking into Finishline grease for mountain bikes (a ceramic grease that supposedly contains no petroleum products). I'll let y'all know what I find!

xray

[Joat]

Originally Posted by xraycajun

I've done alot of research over the last few days. I found that I should look for products that have no petroleum or petroleum distilates. Superlube fits that category. I also found that Abu Garcia reel grease is re-packaged superlube. I am also looking into Finishline grease for mountain bikes (a ceramic grease that supposedly contains no petroleum products). I'll let y'all know what I find!

xray

Been using superlube grease for years,on everything, never any issues, though they do have different ones, all are made from the same basic stuff, I think you gotta look at which one is thicker for a gear diff?, I run the stuff that comes in a silver can or the GM p/n 12371287- same stuff

[jwo]

Originally Posted by Katon

well did it break or soften them? You said you had to learn the hard way... if it works then its not really the hard way.. Hehe just curious.

i ran regular grease in one of my buggies and chewed the gears right out in it.they were still there but kinda folded over. they lasted fine in it before i put grease in it.they were damaged either. i just though there should have been grease. some one on rcuniverse informed me of this that white lithium grease is what i should have used or a grease safe for plastic. i have since and no problems. so it must work.

[jsowens]

I've used both white lithium grease and park polylube 1000, which is a grease I use on my mountain bike, on plastic gears without any issues of parts breaking down. I did come across this stuff, though...it says it's fully compatible with most rubbers and plastics.

http://www.pricepoint.com/detail/113...Grease-3oz.htm

[team3six]

OK, let me help you with this thread and educate some of you on personalities of lubricants and greases.

In no way am I forcing anyone to purchase the Rocksmith Gearjelly and by all means if you feel more comfortable using another product, then by all means please do so.

The question was asked to me in a P.M. about what the long/short term effects would be of using gearjelly on plastic gears.

I myself have had quite sometime involved in building Pro Street/top fuel drag racing cars, so understanding lubrication is a must. Its not as simple as just buying any ole grease or lube and shooting it on a your moving parts hoping for the best. If there was an ultimate lubricant for plastic or metal, slow or fast, meshed, or twined type gears, we all would be using it.

You need to understand that one, these are 1/10th versions of gears which generally take on more wear and tear and more movement then larger scaled gears. Plastic is what is generally provided for most kits because its cheaper, it allows a truck or car to be an RTR or ARTR out the door, its less expensive to replace, and most of all It keeps from other parts breaking which could be more costly. I want to stress this... A lot of people wonder why plastic, when it could be metal! I would rather strip a plastic spur gear then strip all my gears in my transmission! sometimes Plastic is a better way to go, Building that Ultimate Integy blinged out truck looks good, but most likely will run like crap once one of them expensive gears goes out and wrecks a tranny or axle.

Now Most of the time these gears come factory with a high viscosity lubrication already applied for a reason. Again its cheap and as much as you would be replacing the plastic gears, that is as long as it would take for the light weight lube to last. But the reason that its a lighter weight lube is because its viscosity is more watery and in that has less distillates. Its purpose made for that application

So if you are looking for an over the counter safe type of grease or lube for plastic gears, you want to get something that is specifically made for plastic gears. Just because its a thinner lube doesn't mean its safer. Its all about the dissolving properties of that product. Not all greases and lubricants are the same, some have higher levels of distillates.

Now to explain the classes on how distillates effect the ratio of grease you are using its quite simple.

Crude oil is born of the earth, when it is drilled, it is then taken to be refined which is done by heating up or Catalytic cracking, this allows the properties of the crude oil to separate into several parts and types of petroleum products from lip gloss to heavy solvents

In that its easy to deduct the differences of a light weight lube compared to a heavy grease. lightweight lubes will have less distillate properties yet still have a jelly form to it. Its the top of the grease layers in the petro pool. it was easier to heat up and rose to the top of the separation process and therefor makes it easier to breakdown. gears spinning = lubrication breakdown increased!

Heavier solid crude takes more heat and means that its harder to break down.
spinning gears = lubrication breakdown decreased!

Now some of these lubes and greases are mixed with a solvent additives. and the reason for this is to increase burning point, ignition spikes, curved breakdown. which makes these substitutes easier to use in certain situations.

If I am using grease to pack bearings in a 1:1 axle, the reason it is designed for is that when the axle spins, it heats up and viscosity increases to make sure that everything is getting covered in the material to protect the moving parts in that bearing, when it cools down it returns to its original state. Yes I will have to replace it, but not as often and there will be metal breakdown in those parts from natural wear and tear. Most of the time bearing grease also has Graphite or Poly graphite based material, this helps in coating the metal parts, but is definitely not for plastic parts. Graphite isn't good for that purpose because as it heats up, it also fills holes, some holes you may not want filled.

Using a heavier joint grease in say lubricating parts wont need that breakdown solvent base. All its job is to do is keep the joint or control points from seizing in metal to metal movement. it heats up, but not as much. it can take more abuse because there are less solvents in its makeup composite.

So, there you have it.

Rocksmith can be used in plastic gears, and so far has been safe in plastic housings. but its not recommended to be used on plastic gears because of the levels of distillates in its mixture will eventually cause the plastic to gum up and make the plastic gears more pliable, eventually ending in stripping the gears. This is because as the gearjelly heats up in movement, the solvent solutions are active. This has no harm effect with metal gears but in fact allows the gearjelly to do what its meant to do. Stick to gears and provide the maximum protection for the RC application. It was designed to do just that!

again for plastic gears I highly suggest using AE's Stealth grease or Stalth Lube. It has been the best stuff for that type of application. But you will need to be attentive in checking your gears and replacing fluids as needed.

Good luck and I hope this helps answer some questions on what to use.
Please support your local hobby shops and Vendors here on RCC

[MadForce]

Great info here, thanks T36!

[NeXt559]

great info

no doubt i'm still going to using gear jelly for all my metal gears, the stuff really brings down db levels

as for stealth grease i actually keep a tube or two around and use it for my spider gear diffs to really slow down the diff movements. the stealth gear almost has the consistancy of a roofing tar on a warm day. they almost feel like they're locked but they have the slightest bit of play that fit my driving style perfectly

[spankrjs]

I use a plastic safe grease made by a company called "Labelle". They make lots of model railroad stuff, too. I use a plastic safe oil that they make in my Bruiser Trannies because although most of the gears in the Bruiser tranny are metal, the spur gear and other parts are plastic. I always wondered if part of the reason people had trouble out of Bruiser trannies was because they were using 1:1 lubricants which actually harmed the small scale components