Saw lube

[Ron Altier]

I have been doing some web research on saw lubrication. There are MANY different opinions.

First the band saw. Olson recommends a wax like lube in a stick that you press against both sides of the blade. They make the blades and say that it will make you blade last a lot longer because of less heat build up, which causes heat crystallization of the blade and failure. Others I have asked on this site say use nothing. I have used the Olson lube and it did seem to work well and I did notice a noise reduction. I have it beside my saw, but rarely remember use it. Nothing was said about dry Teflon spray. Anyone tried it?

 

Table saw. For lubing gears and all things that move under the table.  I read of people using WD40, home made brews of different concoctions,  and several sprays. The one that got the best reviews by far was Dupont Teflon dry lube. So I tried it. It did a great job and lasted much longer than anything I've used before.

 

I tried to find if it would also work on the TS blade itself, but could not find any info.  I am going to get out an old reserve blade and give it a spin.

 

Edited December 8, 2017 by Ron Dudelston
tags added

[Stick486]

12 minutes ago, Ron Altier said:

First the band saw. Olson recommends a wax like lube in a stick

 

paste wax w/ Carnauba added and w/o silicone...

paste was w/ Carnauba wax will finish harder/slicker and be longer wearing/lasting...

very cheap and there's decades of use in a can... even when you use it on all of your tools...

out preforms Boeshield IMO....

as cheap of a car buffer as you can find w/ a wool bonnet will make your life so much more pleasant...

WAX.pdf

 

41 minutes ago, Ron Altier said:

Nothing was said about dry Teflon spray. Anyone tried it?

 

doesn't seem to last long on high speed whirly things... wax does...

 

13 minutes ago, Ron Altier said:

 I read of people using WD40, home made brews of different concoctions,

 

using WD is just plain nuts....

WD-40 no.pdf

 

27 minutes ago, Ron Altier said:

he one that got the best reviews by far was DuPont Teflon dry lube

 

way to go...

I really like Tri-Flow.... a lot... well more than a lot...

 

13 minutes ago, Ron Altier said:

TS blade itself, but could not find any info

 

no need... the teeth are wider than the blade body...

if the blade body is rubbing... you need to look into why...

now you could wax the blade and it will be easier to clean...

 

 

[Ralph Allen Jones]

Hello Ron, that is what I use all the time and you will find that there is less dust build up on the tools.

The cost is very reasonable for the use of it and it does lasts longer.

Edited January 25, 2017 by Ralph Allen Jones

[DAB]

for the first time in 13 years i cleaned and oiled the gears in my TS.   holy cow is that much better.  just 3-in-1 oil.  much smoother and quieter when i move the blade.

[Stick486]

3 minutes ago, DAB said:

 just 3-in-1 oil.

keep in mind liquid lubricants collect crud..

and a lot of it...

[Ron Altier]

57 minutes ago, Stick486 said:

no need... the teeth are wider than the blade body...

There is build up on the  teeth and that should be cleaned off for good cuts. 

[DAB]

5 minutes ago, Stick486 said:

keep in mind liquid lubricants collect crud..

and a lot of it...

 

anything that lubricates will hold fine metal particles in suspension as well as any other local contaminant (like sawdust).  so since we don't have a pumped lubrication system (like a car engine), we do the best we can by adding lubrication when it is obvious that some is needed.  as for staying power, yes, oil will run downhill faster than thick grease, but oil will get into smaller areas better.

[Stick486]

3 minutes ago, DAB said:

oil will run downhill faster than thick grease, but oil will get into smaller areas better.

so enter the dry lubes....

they go on wet and then dry leaving behind a dry high pressure lubricant powder...

 

Edited January 25, 2017 by Stick486

[DAB]

5 minutes ago, Stick486 said:

so enter the dry lubes....

they go on wet and then dry leaving behind a dry high pressure lubricant powder...

 

 

yup.  

 

i have a can of DuPont dry teflon spray for garage door springs.  works great.

 

but in the case of the TS, those areas are hard to hit with a spray.  plus you'd want to clean off old crud first.  so now i have oily sawdust.  seems to work now.

[Al B]

I've found that Teflon spray works well for the gears under the TS.  For the BS blade, Just plain parafin wax seems to work OK

[knotscott]

I hear a lot of good things about the teflon spray, but have yet to try it.  Years ago Wood Mag suggested white lithium spray on grease....goes on wet, dries like a wax.

[DuckSoup]

 Plus 1 for the Teflon spay. Works great on the TS moving parts & the blade. It seems to keep the build-up on the teeth down and helps with the clean up.

[Joeb41]

I use LPS-1 spray for the table saw gears and many  other jobs around the shop and home. Works great on squeaky door hinges and is not messy. It has a special nozzle that will spray in any position. It's not cheap and sometimes hard to find. I get mine at the local True Value Hardware or Amazon.com.

[Fred W. Hargis Jr]

I've used paste wax on my table saw gears since I read a suggestion by Howard Acheson to try it, works quite well. Actually never thought about lubing my bandsaw blade. Would it matter (for the lube suggestion) what kind of guides you have (OEM, ceramic blocks, cools blocks, bearings, lignum vitae)?

[Gene Howe]

For bandsaw blades, I use the black stick lube. The guides are the Carter bearings. The lube makes it quieter and it seems to cut easier when resawing. 

I've used the stick on the TS blade, too. Can't really tell any difference, there. 

[Ron Dudelston]

The lift gears on my '47 Unisaw tend to "groan" every once in a while and I use grapgite on them but it is messy.  I like the teflon idea.

[Michael Thuman]

For the BS blade and the TS blade would lubricating them cause the lubrication material to deposit in the wood that was cut?

This is something I think we should talk about before lubricating any cutting metal.

 

 

[Gene Howe]

3 minutes ago, Michael Thuman said:

For the BS blade and the TS blade would lubricating them cause the lubrication material to deposit in the wood that was cut?

This is something I think we should talk about before lubricating any cutting metal.

 

 

I've not experienced any problems. However, I rarely glue or finish straight from the saw.

[Stick486]

3 hours ago, knotscott said:

 Years ago Wood Mag suggested white lithium spray on grease....goes on wet, dries like a wax.

 

it still collects crud..

Edited January 26, 2017 by Stick486

[Cliff]

I don't understand why people are generating heat on a  band saw when cutting wood or metal.

I think something else needs to be addressed if one is experiencing high heat

 

Table saws:  I don't understand why a sharp blade would need lube.

 

WD 40 is pretty much just kerosene.    I use Dow Corning molykote on the gearing and regular 30 weight oi on the slider