maintenance of casters

[rdewinter]

The casters on my ss seem to have a mind of their own. They don't want to track in the direction I push the ss sometimes. They don't appear damaged or worn badly. Any suggestions for maintaining the casters? I thought about cleaning them with a stiff brush and giving them a squirt of WD40 Silicone. Is that a good idea?

Bob
San Diego

[ryanbp01]

Wd-40 or silicone spray should work.
BPR

[dusty]

When mine get that bad, I pull them completely off the machine, take them apart for a cleaning and inspection and then put them back together. Again, I use paste wax on the wheel stems rather than a lubricate that can collect saw dust.

I believe that while WD-40 may provide some temporary relieve of the symptoms it actually aggravates the problem. I do not use WD-40 on anything in the shop.

This reminds me, I have one on the Pro Planer that needs to be cared for.

[beeg]

Again, I use paste wax on the wheel stems rather than a lubricate that can collect saw dust.


WD40 is a penetrate, not a lubricant. I'd go with Dusty's use of a paste wax.

[Ed in Tampa]

Actually WD-40 is a water displacer that carries a lube that outgasses and can leave a residual on some surfaces. After using my axes I always spray them down with WD-40 to displace any water vapor that may be on them. Then I store them, without fail they always have a film left on them which is neither slick nor very easy to remove. WD-40 in convient and many people use it for just about everything but it can also cause problems.

Silicon is another topic a real can of worms that we have debated before but if you do any finishing you don't want silicon around. I have even had problems with silicon something or another in sand paper. I now only use garnett paper around my wood projects and non silicon wet and dry paper around metal finishing.

There are excellent lubes many in as convient forms as WD-40 that work well. However most aren't universal as WD-40 has become. By that I mean you can use a white lithium grease spray for some things but since it attracts dust it isn't good for all. You can use spray graphite which won't attract dust but since graphite is basically pencil lead you don't want it sprayed on things you want looking nice. There are a number of lubes with a wax base that are excellent in high dust situations but wax has a lower melting point than asphalt based lubes so it will run off if the temp gets high. I'm having excellent results with some new lubes out that contain teflon and products like turbine oil. The teflon sprays on, doesn't attract dust, seems to resist heat, and is basically colorless. Turbine oil is what I was taught was watch oil. A very thin oil that has a low surface tension. It almost vaporizes but leave a very very fine film that protects and lubes yet doesn't build up or leave a nasty residual.
Ed

[ldh]

The casters on my ss seem to have a mind of their own. They don't want to track in the direction I push the ss sometimes. They don't appear damaged or worn badly. Any suggestions for maintaining the casters? I thought about cleaning them with a stiff brush and giving them a squirt of WD40 Silicone. Is that a good idea?

Bob
San Diego

Bob,
Go to the thread on CASTER WHEEL QUESTION and check the last post #67 and see one of the solutions I use. The thread had several posts on it so I think a number of folks have had caster problems. As a gimpy old guy I am always looking for easier ways to move my machines.
ldh

[Ed in Tampa]

Bob,
Go to the thread on CASTER WHEEL QUESTION and check the last post #67 and see one of the solutions I use. The thread had several posts on it so I think a number of folks have had caster problems. As a gimpy old guy I am always looking for easier ways to move my machines.
ldh

The thread IDH is talking about is http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthread.htm?t=1193&page=7
I thought the link would take you to last post but it doesn't only the last page of the thread. Scroll down to the last post #68 to see how Idh fixed his caster problem.
Ed