[GreenKeys] Recommended lubricants for Model 33

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 4 March 2014 14:30, Jones, Douglas W <douglas-w-jones at uiowa.edu> wrote:
> I have Teletype maintenance manuals for the Model 33 from the
> 1960s (manuals that came with the TTY I have), but I'm wondering.
> Lubricating oils have come a long way from the time those manuals
> were printed.  Synthetics that never leave behind any gums much
> evaporation there has been would be particularly nice.
>
As a chemist, I would say for a grease try and get your hands on the
(incredibly expensive) flouroether greases used for ground glass
joints. The stuff doesn't react with anything, so no "Surprise, I ate
your machine!" moments, and because it is so unreactive it lasts damn
well forever. However, as part of that, it is an extreme bitch to
clean, because your regular cleaning solvents are the kinds of things
the grease is designed to not react with; then again since it says
nice and greasy for essentially forever you won't need to worry about
cleaning it all that much.

For oils, I have no idea you'd have to ask someone. Though I have
heard nice things from a typewriter person I know who makes use of
Marvel Mystery Oil on his Correcting Selectric II. The same people who
make the flouroether grease that my university's labs use also make
flouroether based oils. Same kind of thing as the grease in that they
won't react with anything and last essentially forever.


> What brings this to mind is the fact that many of the lubricants
> in the old mechanism turned to gum in the years between then and
> now.  Degumming things involved, in many cases, complete disassembly,
> and in other cases, Q-tips and wipedowns with things like WD-40
> and Goo-gone.  Now that things are pretty nearly gum-free, the
> question is, what to use to re-lubricate that minimizes the
> likelihood of gummy stuff over the next 50 years.
>
Well, for a grease, see the above. The only problem with those greases
are they cost *A LOT* since they are specifically designed for one to
be able to throw a million different chemicals at them without them
ever reacting with anything (since the point of the grease is to keep
ground glass joints from freezing, as well as keeping them air tight).


In terms of oil, again ask an expert.


If you're wondering, my university uses DuPont Krytox greases in our
chemistry labs. I believe though that the stuff costs an arm and a leg
to buy though. (Even though once you lubricate the machine it'll
probably stay lubricated for the rest of forever.)

Cheers,
Christian


-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.