Shopsmith Forums

What is supposed to be used to lube the bars to provide smooth moving on the headstock. Wax? Spray Lube?

Thanks!

Wax! Like Johnson's Origional past wax. Not a carnuba wax.

charlese wrote:Wax! Like Johnson's Origional past wax. Not a carnuba wax.

Here in the rust capital of the world I can absolutely second that emotion.
Wax. Then wax. Wax again, always buffing well after. One more time, can't hurt.
Now that the preliminaries are done, wax. To be sure, go back to step one and start all over again.
Finally, 4 to 26 careful individual coats, also well buffed, to finish off.

Now all that needs done is to rewax the ways everytime they're used. Only need five or six coats any more though. And each application from here on in only takes maybe two minutes max.
Is it worth it? Well I can move my PP, which is heavier than the old one, with one finger, two if I move it and the carriage together.
And this can of Johnson's, which I bought when I bought the Mark V, looks like it's good for approximately 367,244 more coats, at this rate of usage.

[by the way, I hope and trust that my exaggerations are noticed as such, and appropriately discounted.]

keakap wrote: Finally, 4 to 26 careful individual coats, also well buffed, to finish off.

Now here I thought that the new application cleaned off the previous coat. Non building of coats. So ya only really have ONE coat after applying the 24.

beeg wrote:Now here I thought that the new application cleaned off the previous coat. Non building of coats. So ya only really have ONE coat after applying the 24.

Ah, not so, Grasshopper.

There may be some removal of the previous coat, but only very minor if it had been properly applied (well buffed), but not all of it. There most definitely is a buildup of sorts of each carefully applied coat of wax.

'The proof is in the pushing'.
Try it for yourself (which I did because I too had thought the "one coat only" theory applied). Clean the ways completely, with whatever does remove that wax. Then apply one coat-- not so carefully, for a better demonstration-- and try the slide, h-stock and then h-s with carriage.

Then re-clean and apply 2 or 3 good careful coats, observing proper drying, wiping, buffing procedures. Now try the slides again.

(I'm assuming your stuff does slide without major effort, to begin with. If not you have way tube misalignment problems, easily fixed.)
-----------

There's another indication, for me, but maybe not for most users. Rust. If I had but one coat, no matter how well applied, it was not enough to prevent rust. My bench tubes proved that for me. Multi-waxing, however, did help, and a lot.

keakap wrote:Ah, not so, Grasshopper.

There may be some removal of the previous coat, but only very minor if it had been properly applied (well buffed), but not all of it. There most definitely is a buildup of sorts of each carefully applied coat of wax.

'The proof is in the pushing'.
Try it for yourself (which I did because I too had thought the "one coat only" theory applied). Clean the ways completely, with whatever does remove that wax. Then apply one coat-- not so carefully, for a better demonstration-- and try the slide, h-stock and then h-s with carriage.

Then re-clean and apply 2 or 3 good careful coats, observing proper drying, wiping, buffing procedures. Now try the slides again.

(I'm assuming your stuff does slide without major effort, to begin with. If not you have way tube misalignment problems, easily fixed.)
-----------

There's another indication, for me, but maybe not for most users. Rust. If I had but one coat, no matter how well applied, it was not enough to prevent rust. My bench tubes proved that for me. Multi-waxing, however, did help, and a lot.

Hmmm Two procedures may need to be discussed in detail.

What are the proper drying, wiping and buffing procedues?

If the way tubes are misaligned, just what is the fix? Yes, I know. Align them properly. But just how do you do that?

keakap wrote:... Multi-waxing, however, did help, and a lot.

And I just remembered sumthin else, on the "what to use" query:
I haven't used it on the ways yet, but I will-- a thing called Renaissance Micro Crystalline Wax Polish.
This is something I got from Woodcraft for a particular project, on a whim- a very dear (as in $$) whim- 32 simoleans for 7 ounces-- pardon me, 200 milli-litres. Now I don't know what 32 bucks is in English pounds, all I know is I got pounded, roundly. 'Waxed', ya might say.

But maybe not. The stuff goes on extremely sparingly, so should last longer than me. And it does a wonder on metals. I assume it'll do as well on other materials. Supposed to be good on anything.
Note the instructions: "Apply sparingly with soft cloth and buff gently. Dries hard instantly. Does not show finger marks."
"Used by the British Museum and restoration specialists internationally to revive and protect... , imparts soft sheen."
I've seen comments on the stuff lauding it's qualities such as rust prevention, help with: soft shine, friction, non-staining coating for: saw tables, jointer/ planer beds, plane soles, fences; et yada cetera yada. And it smells good. Another claim is that it most definitely does accumulate. The 'micro crysatalline' thing, along with 'wax polish', apparently acts as filler of sorts, to the point where each coat builds until near-microscopic scratches, for instance, disappear and the surface is increasingly "polished". (I have no idea how many coats this addresses. My 'take' is that it's sorta like going one higher number in honing stone on a plane iron. That sort of thing.)

I have one plane sole in 'testing'. Got five or six coats on, and although I cant see a difference, I can feel it. That sucker is so slippery I exercise extreme caution picking up the plane sos I don't drop it.
And now that this subject has come up, I will be applying it to my SS way tubes later on today. I may even go "scientific" on the headstock Push Test if I think of a good way to do so.

dusty wrote:Hmmm Two procedures may need to be discussed in detail.

What are the proper drying, wiping and buffing procedues?

If the way tubes are misaligned, just what is the fix? Yes, I know. Align them properly. But just how do you do that?

drying, wiping and buffing:
my understanding is (and whether officially right or wrong, this is the way I've finally found that works best for me) to wipe on (assume a clean surface) a thin and even coat, covering thoroughly] until you can see a change and it doesn't look 'wet' anymore. I tend to think this is relatively unimportant as long as it has time to dry at least somewhat. I'm not fussy and can't tell the difference.
{So it's 'dry'. A minute or two. I slid the headstock all the way to one end and slathered what's left. So however long it takes to apply, then cap the can, swap to a drying rag, and start wiping down the starting point is what I go by.}

Wiping-- with a clean rag (terry shop rags from Costco), wipe down the subject area lightly but briskly, and not particularly fussily (I don't do this to the point of it being a pain in the neck.)

Buffing: When the drag on the cloth is gone I know the "haze" coat is gone (don't have to see it).
Then with the cloth turned inside out to a clean area, I do the ol shoeshine bufferoony on the tubes, lightly, maybe 4 or 5 swipes per section, no sweat (literally).

Unlike waxing my old cars, when I used to do that, this uses light pressure only, at any stage, and my concentration is on creating a surface more than a coating. (If that makes sense.)

I use more wax now than I used to. What I think is the "key" point, after trying all kinda ways, is in the wiping stage, getting what I call the "haze drag" completely gone. If it doesn't go right away, I won't use more pressure but will just wipe longer. Then the "buff" stage-- light but fast strokes-- theoretically for me sets the surface. This last could be a fig newton of my imagination for all I know, but it satisfies me.
{Nota, Benny: I noticed that our Sawdust Session guru Nick when waxing the tubes, in at least one session, wiped on, but (Oh No, Mr. Miyagi!) never wiped off. I'll ascribe that to artistic license, so I don't have to think about it.}

ooooooooooooooooo

As for "easily" correcting minor way tube misalignment, lemme think about that so I can give you a hopefully useful reply, short form, for this particular alighment question (sliding headstock). Nothing new, I think. (involves a 5/32 allen)
Later.