Over the years, I've seen numerous threads and posts about the choice of lubricants, and it seems like most folks suggest against using common household oils. I recently stumbled across this video, and it is presented for your entertainment and possible enlightenment. Not sure that I'm going to run out and buy a bunch of household oil, and the video is not exactly scientific, but I found it to be an interesting take on "conventional wisdom".
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I'm guessing that 'back in the day' if the ol' man was proactive with his valued 1950's Lionel train set that he set out at Christmas time, he'd grab the 3-in-1 out of the kitchen drawer and give the engine a onceover. And it was fine. And they still survive today. I wouldn't overthink it.
All lubricants are not created equal - there's a reason Mobil 1 costs a lot more than conventional oils - it does a better job.
That's not to say an inferior lubricant won't work, especially in the short run, but as with lots of products, some work better than others.
It's like buying house paint - an inferior generic brand will get your house painted, but I'll go with the products that perform better; especially when it comes to metal-to-metal contact.
The fact that he's recommending WD-40 in the video is enough to disqualify it for me!
One of my hobbies is collecting old pistols, and I've gotten several that have been "preserved" using WD-40. The only problem is, WD-40 will dry out and form a solid glue that defies removal! A couple of the guns I got had to be stripped as far as possible and then soaked in solvent for several days to loosen things up enough to fully disassemble and clean them.
WD-40 is NOT a lubricant, and it wasn't intended to be. WD stands for Water Displacement, and that's it's intended use. It's fine for doing things like freeing up sticking parts, but then you need to use a proper lubricant.
One of the zillions of pages on the use of WD-40, I generally agree with the observations here.
@CJ Meyers posted:I'm guessing that 'back in the day' if the ol' man was proactive with his valued 1950's Lionel train set that he set out at Christmas time, he'd grab the 3-in-1 out of the kitchen drawer and give the engine a onceover. And it was fine. And they still survive today. I wouldn't overthink it.
I'd agree. Automotive axle grease for gearboxes and gears - though Red-N-Tacky seems like a good idea in open gear areas. Basic light to medium oil (3-in-1; 30W engine oil) for oiled areas.
Like track cleaners, this comes up over and over. Basic common sense applies in both cases. There is nothing special about our little locomotive machines and rolling stock. And, Delrin bearings need no lube.
Reminds me of the time that I tried to burn up one of my Aurora slot cars. I had a car that just wouldn't run very fast. No matter how I tuned it, it was slow. So, I decided to try and burn it up. I found some of my Mom's Lemon Pledge, took the body off of the car and sprayed Lemon Pledge all over that car. It was soaked in Pledge. Then I took the pickups and put them on to the terminals of the transformer so that it would get full power. The thing started out slow, but, as it slung the Pledge out of the way it got faster and faster! Then it got faster and faster some more. There was no killing this little car. I wiped it off and put the body back on, put it out on the track and now it was the fastest car that I had! Needless to say that all of my cars got the "Lemon Pledge" tune-up!
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