archive Posted January 25, 2003 Share Posted January 25, 2003 How do old robots and WD-40 go together? Especially if I spritz the insides with it? Will it gunk up the mechanisms in time or protect 'em? For that matter can WD-40 be used to make recalcitrant Smoking Spacemen smoke? Gentlemen your esteemed opinions please...' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archive Posted January 25, 2003 Author Share Posted January 25, 2003 Some plastic does not respond well to WD40. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archive Posted January 25, 2003 Author Share Posted January 25, 2003 Thanks for the warning. Is there a lubricant which is safe for ALL metals and plastics in old robots? I mean rather than opening one up and spot applying oil to gears and such what is safe to generally 'spritz ' inside?' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archive Posted January 25, 2003 Author Share Posted January 25, 2003 Answer to the previous question: Nothing!!!! All randomly sprayed lubricants will f@#$%-up your electrical contacts Light flashes when phosfor-bronze strip is touched etc. These are very sensitive and most likely if it is a "Loosening"lubricant it will etch. otherwise it wouldn 't loosen would it? So there goes your paint... If you are so desiderious to squirt something into your robots ! use electronic contact cleaner. This will-apart from..yes yes yes! cleaning the contacts- also disolve solidified lubricants. And it 's action is mercifully short i.e. it evaporates quickly. And yet protect plastics and the paint they weren 't made to mil. spec 's.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archive Posted January 25, 2003 Author Share Posted January 25, 2003 Hey guys FYI... A long time ago I asked about spray lubes for my plastic robots. As usual I got another fantastic desertion from Dr. Henk which should have earned him the Nobel Peace Prize on lubricants. As I save all from this great board his info is as follows and I quote... As we get the foulest diseases mainly from other humans plastics are the greatest enemy of other plastics. Mixing hard and soft plastics is the worst idea. See Rigg 's and my expose earlier.Any material acc. to food or medical spec 's is better than industrial standard. I would not worry about silicone spray propellants AFTER the first 20 seconds. If there is no solvent which will attack the plastic the solvent will have evaporised. and Silicone itself is inert. There are Teflon lubricant spray again food spec 's that would be a good remedy against mechanisms seizing up and they could also be used to protect plastics. Sometimes they dull the surface so this needs to be polished again Any soft plastic much more than hard plastic is an ongoing chemical process. Encapsulating by a film of silicone or any other impermeable compound might trap elastomers near to the surface and cause a local degradation. Car- wax usually is a combination of things: 1 it is a polishing compound i.e. an abrasive and 2 it is a protective wax cover. The abrasive can be too much for delicate litho-ink. On plastic it is always ok. UV radiation is the great enemy. It not only comes from the sun but also from other light sources--to a lesser extend. The whiter the light the closer the visible light comes to the UV A and B speed. i.e. HMI light with a color temperature of 5600 degrees Kelvin is very close to sunlight though less intense. A box printed on ground treetrunk & discarded Japanese knicker-paper can represent several thousands of dollars. A truly worrying thought. The greatest problem with no solution that is realistic is that the paper continues to absorb the ink. Sharp lines therefore become less crisp. Add to that dirt mechanical damage and the ongoing chemical process in the paper and there is a problem. Polyethylene bags in general are a curse. They do give protection against dirt and humidity but they themselves can cause all sorts of reactions. However this is a well covered area. All stamp collection comicstrip coll. and library goods suppliers provide inert cardboard boxes glues transparent bags restoring tapes etc. A crazy idea is to display the boxes. Trough time they will not stand up to it. Display copies and keep the real boxes far away from anything =light humidity oxygen etc.etc. If you do not want to do that base your storage conditions on an optimum for the boxes. The toy will benefit en passant. H.I.Gosses' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kilroy Posted May 2, 2007 Share Posted May 2, 2007 As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I recently sprayed wd40 into a toy's gears and it had the unexpected effect of lubricating a pinon gear so that it only spun on its shaft instead of turning the shaft. A suggested solution was to apply threadlocker to it. I guess the moral is to not lubricate that which does not need lubricating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatethorn Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 WD-40's "SPECIALIST ANTI FRICTION DRY PTFE LUBRICANT" works well on the Horikawa tin robots. It deposits PTFE 'dry lubricant' on onto the moving parts, then the volotile liquid evaporates, leaving no solvents or oils. PTFE is a very long-lasting excellent lubricant that's ideally suited to this application. It also comes in an aerosol with a built-in spray tube applicator. AS ALWAYS: test on a small, hidden, area before full application. Have fun - Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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