Reel grease

[ubbi 2]

Hot sauce oil and grease only-- for fine reels, including Alnwick made Hardy's. As far as Hardy's made in another country, you could go with the cheapest lubricant you can find, imho.
T

X 3

[bulldog1935]

Lubraplate-Andy Puyans suggested it many years ago.

Mr. Puyans is wrong, lubriplate has up to 1% sodium hydroxide in its formulation - fine for steel, death for aluminum, even anodized aluminum
http://www.lubriplate.com/PDFs/MSDS/105.aspx

[Ricinus]

Bulldog1935 has obviously done a lot of research on this and I think I would go with his recommendations.

Mike

[bulldog1935]

one other place for grease is the thrust collar at the bottom of a Hardy spindle
(putting grease in there reduces end play on Hardys)

see the groove cut into the middle of the spindle? That is a reservoir for light oil in the spindle.
If you put grease in there, it doesn't do anything except sit there and decompose, but light oil drips out into the bushing.

[bulldog1935]

when I was still on 27" wheels with only shorty fenders on the Raleigh, I had road tires on the Zeus/Rigida wheelset, and had a matching Campy-GS/Rigida wheelset with cross knobbies I used for riding caliche roads (now on 700C with full fenders, I ride gravel-racing slicks full-time).

Yes, I used white lithium on the Zeus cup/cone wheel bearings, frequent cleanings and rebuilds, but still eventually pitted the alloy (obviously the bike has lived indoors for its 38 years). The Campy hubs in the photo of course took Phil Tenacious Oil through fill ports.
But the reason I showed this, I've gone to Boca Si-Ni ceramic balls on my Moser C-Record cup/cone hubs, so lithium in those would serve no positive purpose whatsoever. (sorry I don't have a C-Record photo, but they're gorgeous hubs).

[aged_sage]

Lubraplate-Andy Puyans suggested it many years ago.

Mr. Puyans is wrong, lubriplate has up to 1% sodium hydroxide in its formulation - fine for steel, death for aluminum, even anodized aluminum
http://www.lubriplate.com/PDFs/MSDS/105.aspx

Please don't let my 40+year old Medalists that have never been lubricated with anything but Lubriplate know this!

[bulldog1935]

This is a topic that always brings up anecdeote, deep emotions and voodoo. But I'll give you odds that I'm the only licensed, professional corrosion engineer posting on this thread, and my primary industry is petrochemical.
This thing is never on.

[Middle Branch]

LOL! Ron's a gem.

I believe there's a machismo element to a man's choice of grease, sort of the "I only drive Chevy's and use Penzoil, and you can stick your Ford up your a**!" type of thing.

But then there are things like laws of chemistry and physics.

[bulldog1935]

Yes, you can buy two 1-lb tubes of automotive grease for one little tube of hot sauce, but if you use them for your reels, and use them properly, the hot sauce will last you just as long (because the automotive grease will decompose before you can use a fraction of it). I work on OPs' reels and a tube lasts me longer than a year. You don't need a pound of grease for your reels.

[Canebum]

Ron, would you mind posting more pics of that reel?

[bulldog1935]

Sure, friend
This reel has never been in a boat on a reservoir.





This is a genetically polluted hybrid of the state fish, Guadalupe bass - the endemic species survived our decade-long droughts because of its unique ability to retreat into the aquifer and live in caves

They are extinct in the Blanco River and only survive in the Guadalupe because of a massive stocking effort.
This is an A-strain fish (of 2 known A-strains), isolated in a headwaters spring creek by an aquifer recharge sendero

Its no wonder the Comanches considered these places sacred.


My Saturday morning bike ride follows the creek sendero, and crosses a German graveyard. The road was a wagon trail connecting 3 German settlements. There are a half-dozen unidentified graves with only one date (1872), likely victims of Comanches. Sometimes you gotta wish the Comanches had fought harder.

This is the Guadalupe, about a half-mile above the second fish, private access on a ranch that was founded in 1855 by a German immigrant.


ps - here's a hen that lives in the mouth of a cave and eats the baby bats that fall in

[Canebum]

Thanks Ron, that is one gorgeous reel.

Love the river pics as well.

[bulldog1935]

the hen came from this plunge pool, and was in these drought conditions

The cave vent is about 40 yards down the right bank and subtracts water from the river, sourcing an aquifer
here is the same waterfall after a monsoon winter - that's Rob- TxTrout fishing with me - he's standing on the dolomite pedestals exposed in the upper photo

[euroflyangler_paul]

What a story, from reel grease to Comanches, German graves, caves, and bat eating bass.....great reading and great pics!

[bulldog1935]

thanks, I was digging in the point that endemic Guadalupe bass, the state fish, designed to survive here through the eons, will eventually become extinct because the state chose to make quality reservoir fishing a priority over protecting the endemic species. It all happened in my lifetime.
I don't fish the reservoirs - some do, and they believe this outcome is a fair balance of the resource. They don't even live here, they're off in another Texas state, Arklahoma or somewhere.

Here you can see why our rivers coming through the escarpment move in and out of caves.

Where my buddy is standing used to be the aquifer, and the creek was on top of the limestone.

[Hellmtflies]

I don't think it matters much as long as you clean and relube with some regularity.

DITTO!

[bulldog1935]

OK, but why use a product specifically formulated for very hard steel, which comes in containers 100 times larger than your possible need, on a valuable antique that doesn't contain any steel (and the product even has ingredients that potentially damage the valuable antique)?
don't worry, rhetorical question, kinda like the endangered endemic fish

[reelmaker]

Now that I have been enlightened, it is just amazing to me how all those EVH, Zwarg, Walker, Bogdan and even my own reels I have handled in the last 45 years survived without Hot Sauce.

[bulldog1935]

maybe you only saw the ones that survived, but it's still not the point. We're talking about not putting a product with intentional caustic addition on a valuable antique that is cast pot metal - clearly, you're not enlightened, as the IQ of supporting evidence continues to diminish.
One of the reasons they use caustic is they expect naphthenic acid as a product of grease decomposition
this turning to............................................this is a product of naphthenic acid

why use something intentionally good if something that is made for something else and turns to wax and acid after a year works fine for a year
this thing is never on

we had a guy on another forum talk about washing his reels in the dishwasher and hasn't had a problem yet

[reelmaker]

OK. I think I've got it now. Cast pot metal needs Hot Sauce. Sorry for the mistake. I'm not a caustic engineer, just an old reel tinker guy. Guess the folks who have the very few reels that survived before the invention of Hot Sauce are really very lucky.