Complete strip and clean cycle

[462]

My son works at the Richmond, California, Conoco-Philips refinery as an industrial electrician. Once a year, the cracking pit (I think he calls it a pit) is cleaned and re-wired. He says it's a nasty environment to work in and his tools are quickly corroded, but the refinery pays for their replacements.

 

[Rick]

Sounds like you have the same sort of vintage synthetic Mobil grease as I do, Rick. I suspect that in the
early days of synthetics, probably there were fewer variants. What color is your grease? Bill

It's just a slightly darker red than say fire engine red but definitely "red".

 

[Pistolero]

Rick, it sounds like it must be pretty close to (or exactly the same) as what I have. It has served me extremely
well for a long time, and also my microscope friend, and never a complaint, zero deterioration with
time.

462, I wonder if that is a regular refinery or another of the highly specialized hydrocracking units for
making high grade lube oils? A hydrocracker is a very different unit (or at least it was 25 yrs ago when I spoke
with the Conoco engineer) than a normal fuels refinery, which are mostly looking to make gasoline and diesel and as
little 'byproduct' as they can get away with. But, to some extent, the nature of the crude will dictate what you
can refine it into, and in what percentages. For example, Venezuelan crude has a LOT of asphaltic compounds,
so you WILL be making asphalt, and Pennsy crude (at least used to, maybe different today) has a lot of waxes which
will need to be removed and sold. "Petroleum" is a highly variable goop as it comes out of the ground.

Sounds like the pit may have a lot of sulfur compounds there, they can form nasty corrosive compounds with just
the moisture in the air, etch and corrode metals quickly.

It's been a long time since I was in the business of making products out of petroleum and nat gas, so I am
sure a lot has changed from what I learned then.

Bill

 

[Pistolero]

Does it look like this, Rick?

 

[Rick]

Does it look like this, Rick?

View attachment 9328

Looks exactly like that except . . . Can says Mobil 1 and it's a 1 pound can.

 

[S Mac]

Bill, maybe you should divide that into 1/4 lbs and spread it around.

Does it look like this, Rick?

View attachment 9328

 

[462]

Now, that is a great idea!

I'm in.

 

[Pistolero]

If it was impossible to buy, I might consider that, but the stuff is available to buy today.

$23 gets you a grease gun tube of it, delivered, which is easily a lifetime supply for gun use.
The grease gun tubes are about 14 oz or so, almost a pound, and I think Rick can verify
that it will last a lifetime in gun applications.

Link posted above somewhere.

Bill

 

[Rick]

Oh yeah, definitely. In all the years I've been using that 1 pound tub I doubt I've used 10% of it.

 

[KeithB]

That's what Haas recommends and we use to lube the ball drives on the CNC mill and lathe drive screws. Lasts really well even when it gets splashed with water soluble cutting fluid. Use it in a grease gun.

 

[Pistolero]

That is good to know, Keith. It is really a good grease, and I think on something like a ball drive it will
stay put and not harden up over time. Good added info supporting this stuff. I am glad my friend
and I stumbled upon it. That water resistance is good to know, too. For a gun that might get wet
some time, great to know it will not wash out or deteriorate.

Bill

 

[358156 hp]

In the interests of proper thread drift, would the aviation Mobil 1 grease with the clay thickener be appropriate for use in say the front end or wheel bearings of an off-road truck? I'm wondering if the clay base could tend to be more hygroscopic than the soap-based synthetic version. All in all, even $20.00/tube grease is cheap insurance in most applications.

 

[Pistolero]

I have used it in aircraft wheel bearings, and when a 5" low profile aircraft tire (rim size, probably 12" tire OD),
spins up at a 75 mph landing it is really turning fast, far higher RPM than any car tire at normal road speeds. No
issues at all. IMO, the synthetics are far more water resistant than the soap based greases.

Bill

 

[358156 hp]

I pretty much assumed that because of its intended use, it would not attract moisture but this is the first time I've encountered a clay thickened grease, and we're all here to talk anyway.

BTW, you can buy the stuff on ebay in small quantities for about $10.00 or so. Since I can get it for around $20.00, it would make more sense to me to simply buy some in larger quantities and find additional uses for it.

 

[Ian]

Clay greases are not generally NLGI GC/LB certified for automotive disc brake wheel bearings. Like electric motor bearings, there are special considerations involved with centrifugal force, heat, oil release, re-gelling, and staying put that not all grease thickeners are good at accomplishing.

 

[Ian]

IMO, the synthetics are far more water resistant than the soap based greases

This doesn't make sense. The synthetic or conventional part is the oil in the grease, not the gellant. What makes a grease water resistant or not is the gellant, not the oil type. Lithium complex (lithium 12-hydroxystearate combined with lithium soap) is more water resistant than straight lithium soap grease, but calcium stearate grease is more water-resistant still (RIG grease and the various Alox products are heavily calcium-soap based, the latter as natural soaps including magnesium and other simple mineral soaps concentrated from the crude through the distillation process). Bentonite grease is not normally water resistant at all, though there are some exceptions due to certain additives in some of them). I don't know about fumed silica gellants, I played with them a bit but never subjected a sample to water). Aluminium complex grease has some very interesting properties, mainly that it can be heated past its dropping point and re-gel unharmed when it cools. Mg is also highly water resistant as a grease thickener. My personal favorite for bullet lube is sodium soap grease (lye soap saponified in the presence of about 80% oil in the vat), but it has such an affinity for water that you can literally wash it off your hands with plain warm water. The sodium greases still provide excellent corrosion resistance even when saturated with water, however, which is one reason I prefer them for bullet lube....that and the sodium grease shoots better across a wider temperature range than anything else I tried.

 

[CZ93X62]

This is my safe gun; it is in condition one and stays on the shelf shoulder high. So when the safe door opens, it is in my hand.

I have one of those too. SIG P-220.

I clean pretty thoroughly after every firing. I detail-strip every 1K rounds or so on carry guns, less often on the sporters.

 

[358156 hp]

It's baack! Say, has anyone tried Royal Purples synthetic grease for anything? I'm still sort of stuck on the off-road truck application myself.

 

[Ian]

I'm not a fan of products that are heavy on the marketing wank and light on the SAE test data. If it has "synerlec" in it then surely it has to be the best thing since unicorn farts.

 

[RicinYakima]

Unicorns fart?