Fan bearing lubricant was Re: WD-40 (again)

drlegendre . drlegendre at gmail.com
Mon Apr 18 21:45:04 CDT 2016


Forgive my ignorance..

What could possibly justify a cost of $25,000 (US) for a liter of this
Braycote material? Of course, I'm extrapolating - $25/gm, assuming 1000gm/l.

Sounds like a government contract rate to me. MoS2 and TFE-rich lubricants
have been readily available for decades - and while they tend to be on the
pricier side, I've seen nothing that touches $25-28/gm.

On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 9:11 PM, Eric Korpela <korpela at ssl.berkeley.edu>
wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 2:53 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
>
> > I did some research among the antique fan collectors on the web.
> > Here's what's been recommended, in no particular order:
> >
>
> And if you're looking to preserve an extremely valuable museum piece and
> need the ultimate in non-reactive oil or grease, a perfluorinated polyether
> (PFPE) "oil" or one with PTFE nanoparticles is virtually guaranteed not to
> react with anything you might find a computer.  But it is very pricey.  $25
> a gram for Brayco 815z "oil" and $28 a gram for Braycote 601EF or 602EF
> (with MoS2).  The solvent you need in order to remove them is $0.25 a
> gram.   But a gram of this stuff goes a long way.  I'd go with 602EF for
> fan bearings.
>
> But it does somewhat reduce the need to worry about what happens if the
> "oil" gets hot or hits rubber or paper or plastic.  It doesn't dry out,
> evaporate, or gum up at normal temperatures, since it's teflon and
> molysufide microbearings in liquid teflon.  I wouldn't buy it to use for a
> personal machine unless it was one of a kind, or someone at the lab was
> throwing out a tube of out-of-date braycote.  (Which hasn't been the case,
> I don't have a personal stash).
>


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