Time for a new chain lube

[Mark-Ia]

You can put pressure back in a spray can by using a tub less valve stem. Google it.

 

[J.Wondergem]

(quoted from post at 22:37:34 05/30/23) I save my old motor oil and keep a 90W gear oil bottle around withe the pointy tip. Refill it with old motor oil and add liberally to the chains. I think it works great and it's free. Now if it was a motorcycle and my life depended on it, I would definitely buy the space age stuff.

I had a neighbor that used, used motor oil in his chain saws. I never tried it, just use it on my trailer deck.

 

[lastcowboy32]

(quoted from post at 05:00:59 05/31/23)

You are correct that you want flow. The trick is to get the oil INSIDE the rollers. That is why they have chain lubes that come out of the can watery thin so that they penetrate inside the rollers, then set up thick so that they prevent metal on metal.

Here is something that I wonder.

I think that, if you go overboard, you can spend more time and money on chain maintenance and lubricants than on a new chain. I also think that this depends on the application and how hard the chain is to replace.

Our haybines have a 10' length of #40 roller chain for the reel drive. These chains stretch a ton during use and become prone to breaking after about a year's worth of use. I just keep a spare chain (20 bucks) in the garage and replace them on my schedule... as opposed to being in the middle of a 60acre hayfield, when they decide to go. I can replace the chain in five minutes (literally, I timed it once). For that chain, I just put some dabs of grease on it with the grease gun every so often.

I'm mostly protecting the sprockets, which are expensive and hard to replace. The chain only needs to be "unfrozen" and protected from water/rust grease does that just fine.

Then, there are the rectangular chains on the 276 baler. For those, the length of the chain sets timing and the tightness of fit of the chain rollers on the sprockets makes the timing precise. They aren't "easy" to replace... but I'm more worried about timing. I'm also concerned with the consequence of failure... as in... a broken knotter chain leaves the needles in the chamber... NOT GOOD. With those, I may be able to lubricate them to last 30 years, but by then, they will be so sloppy...and at a higher risk of breakage... that I really don't want them on my baler. So, again with these, just enough lubricant to protect the sprockets... and replace the chain before it becomes sloppy or prone to breakage.

For other chains that are harder to replace...or if they seem to have an easy life... where they don't stretch and break over time.... or if timing/expensive repair isn't an issue... I would care more about good lubricant and spending more time applying it.

But... there is part of me that thinks about chain lubricant like fishing lures... there are so many choices and so much talk about it... as marketing to get people to spend more money on it than the benefits gained.