Shopsmith Forums

Sometime in the past this topic had been discussed and the use of a toilet bowl wax ring seemed like a decent idea. Since I am normally conservative I did this on one of my machines. I don't recall if this was a year or 2 ago but I had been happy with it.

A couple of weeks back I needed to drill some holes. I wanted them to be done on a drill press to make sure they were truly vertical. The handy shopsmith was the one with the wax. Got it in position and powered up and was going to turn the speed from slow to a more useful higher speed setting. The speed controller wouldn't hardly budge with normal force so I figured something was wrong and it had worked 6 weeks ago and was all lubed for its long winters nap.

Now remember my shop is in an unheated garage, it will stay in the mid to high 30's except when the outside gets in the -20 range where it gets down to freezing or just below. We were not at that temperature point so the garage was in the high 30's or low 40's. However the garage tends to feel like a deep freeze as the mass of everything get to that level of cold.

I decided to take a look inside to see if I could see the anything wrong... nope things looked OK. With a flashlight I looked at the gears and stuck my hand in only to find the wax was so hard that it would come off in chunks. Got most of it off and guess what the speed control was fine.

The wax ring material was extremely brittle and hard so I dug out the box with the rest of the material and it too was the same way. Then looking at the box they have a big message to be used at 70 degrees or higher. When I was last servicing my machine it was maybe 50-55 degrees.

I checked my other machine which I use the slick strip or some such name on (have since it was new back in 1976) it worked fine.

Now I normally don't use my machines during this time of year and it is probably a good idea not to... I don't know if shospmith have a recommendation but some other tools I have seem to indicate a 50 degree limit.

Now I can not say if it was a problem of putting it on when it was already to cold, if it is just not made to do the job at these temperatures or what but I'm thinking come spring off comes the rest of the wax.

Just a little message for you to think about.

Ed

Thank you for sharing your experience, Ed. My shop, although knot directly heated, never gets below that 50 degree mark, and most of the time it is above 60, so I have (thankfully) knot had that experience. I may, however, change my lubrication method for the speed changer since you have discovered that.

Thanks Ed! Glad to know about the flaky/brittle makeup of beeswax when cold. Never thought of it before, although have seen cool beeswax crumble off, never thought of it as being sticky rather than slippery.

In my shop, the lube that works with the Speed Control is wheel bearing grease. It works in both cold and hot conditions. I'll explain with a little story - -

I had just ordered and received a new "Speed Control Assembly" to serve as a spare for my existing, working assembly. Because I had stripped the threads inside the hole that accepts the stop screw, I filled the hole with J.B. Weld and tapped it to fit the stop screw. This is the second fix with J.B. The first time I tried a fix the J.B. Weld didn't hold. (likely because of my method of using it) However not wanting to suffer an extended loss of the part, I ordered a new standby Control Assembly.

This new Assembly would not move!!! It looked good with smooth castings and parts, however, I could not rotate the worm shaft by hand. After attaching a padded vice grip to the shaft, I could rotate the worm gear through the entire rack gear - but it was really tight. There was a little white grease on the rack, but it didn't seem to help at all.

Had to determine where the hang-up was so I removed the worm shaft and lubed with oil and checked/lubed the free movement of the rack around the roll pin. - - After several full rotations, through the entire rack, I could see the rub marks on the rack. So-- I took after the rack with a small file and a diamond pad. The unit is still tight, but is workable with little effort by using the vise grip using a short grip. (still can't turn the shaft by hand with finger pressure)

I know from experience the rack will wear down some through use. As it does the movement will become easier.

Now we get to lubrication between the worm and the rack. I've found that white grease is too fluid in summer months and has a tendency to flow from the unit. The only grease remaining after a little use is whatever seeps into the aluminum rack. According to Ed's report, beeswax is too stiff in winter. This brings me back to the use of wheel bearing grease. It has always seemed to stay well adhered to the gears. Yes, It attracts dirt and needs frequent cleaning off and re-application, but it works in both hot and cold conditions. 10 hours of use seems like often enough to clean and replace the grease. This is the same as recommended time for lubrication of shafts, so isn't a special need, only an added one.

After leaving the new, adjusted speed control assembly in the shop overnight, temp in shop got down to 35º and the new unit turned just as it had the day before, at 60º. No stiffness to the new wheel bearing grease.

I am fond of this product. I have used it for engine assembly for years.
http://www.lubriplate.com/products/grea ... rease.html
It also works great on a zillion other things. On electric motors however I use regular electric motor grease.
Years ago I discovered that Slick 50 grease (contains Teflon) makes a measurable difference on old tractor steering gears most of which used a worm and sector gear like the SS speed control only much bigger.