Part 296

Heat the wax and the petroleum jelly gently until liquid; then mix together the water and lime. Decant the former into packing receptacles, and add lime and water, stirring until it sets. For cheaper qualities use cream cylinder oil instead of petroleum jelly.

«WAGON AND AXLE GREASES:»

«For Axles of Heavy Vehicles.»—I.—Tallow (free from acid), 19 1⁠/⁠2 parts; palm oil, 14 parts; sal soda, 5 1⁠/⁠2 parts; water, 3 parts, by weight. Dissolve the soda in the water and separately melt the tallow, then stir in the palm oil. This may be gently warmed before adding, as it greatly facilitates its incorporation with the tallow, unless the latter be made boiling hot, when it readily melts the semi-solid palm oil. When these two greases are thoroughly incorporated, pour the mixture slowly into the cold lye (or soda solution), and stir well until the mass is homogeneous. This lubricant can be made less solid by decreasing the tallow or increasing the palm oil.

II.—Slaked lime (in powder), 8 parts, is slowly sifted into rosin oil, 10 parts. Stir it continuously to incorporate it thoroughly, and gently heat the mixture until of a syrupy consistency. Color with lampblack, or a solution of turmeric in a strong solution of sal soda. For blue grease, 275 parts of rosin oil are heated with 1 part of slaked lime and then allowed to cool. The supernatant oil is removed from the precipitated matter, and 5 or 6 parts of the foregoing rosin-oil soap are stirred in until all is a soft, unctuous mass.

«For Axles of Ordinary Vehicles.»—I.—Mix 80 parts of fat and 20 parts of very fine black lead; melt the fat in a varnished earthen vessel; add the black lead while constantly stirring until it is cold, for otherwise the black lead, on account of its density, would not remain in suspension in the melted fat. Axles lubricated with this mixture can make 80 miles without the necessity of renewing the grease.

II.—Mix equal parts of red American rosin, melted tallow, linseed oil, and caustic soda lye (of 1.5 density).

III.—Melt 20 parts of rosin oil in 50 parts of yellow palm oil, saponify this with 25 parts of caustic soda lye of 15° Bé., and add 25 parts of mineral oil or paraffine.

IV.—Mix residue of the distillation of petroleum, 60 to 80 parts; tallow, 10 parts; colophony, 10 parts; and caustic soda solution of 40° Bé., 15 parts.

«A Grease for Locomotive Axles.»—Saponify a mixture of 50 parts tallow, 28 parts palm oil, 2 parts sperm oil. Mix in soda lye made by dissolving 12 parts of soda in 137 parts of water.

«MISCELLANEOUS LUBRICANTS:»

«For Cotton Belts.»—Carefully melt over a slow fire in a closed iron or self-regulating boiler 250 parts of caoutchouc or gum elastic, cut up in small pieces; then add 200 parts of colophony; when the whole is well melted and mixed, incorporate, while carefully stirring, 200 parts of yellow wax. Then heat 850 parts of train oil, mixing with it 250 parts of talc, and unite the two preparations, constantly stirring, until completely cold.

«Chloriding Mineral Lubricating Oils.»—A process has been introduced for producing industrial vaselines and mineral oils for lubrication, based on the treatment of naphthas, petroleums, and similar hydrocarbides, by means of chlorine or mixtures of chlorides and hypochlorides, known under the name of decoloring chlorides. Mix and stir thoroughly 1,000 parts of naphtha of about 908 density; 55 parts of chloride of lime, and 500 parts of water. Decant and wash.

«Glass Stop Cock Lubricant.»—(See also Stoppers).

Pure rubber 14 parts Spermaceti 5 parts Petroleum 1 part

Melt the rubber in a covered vessel and then stir in the other ingredients. A little more petroleum will be required when the compound is for winter use. {463}

«Hard Metal Drilling Lubricant.»—For drilling in hard metal it is recommended to use carbolic acid instead of another fatty substance as a lubricant, since the latter, by decreasing the friction, diminishes the “biting” of the drill, whereas the carbolic acid has an etching action.

«Plaster Model Lubricant.»—Take linseed oil, 1,000 parts; calcined lead, 50 parts; litharge, 60 parts; umber, 30 parts; talc, 25 parts. Boil for 2 hours on a moderate fire; skim frequently and keep in well-closed flasks.

«Graphite Lubricating Compound.»—Graphite mixed with tallow gives a good lubricating compound that is free from any oxidizing if the tallow be rendered free from rancidity. The proportions are: Plumbago, 1 part; tallow, 4 parts. The plumbago being stirred into the melted tallow and incorporated by passing it through a mixing mill, add a few pounds per hundredweight of camphor in powder to the hot compound.

«Lubricants for Redrawing Shells.»—Zinc shells should be clean and free from all grit and should be immersed in boiling hot soap water. They must be redrawn while hot to get the best results. On some shells hot oil is used in preference to soap water.

For redrawing aluminum shells use a cheap grade of vaseline. It may not be amiss to add that the draw part of the redrawing die should not be made too long, so as to prevent too much friction, which causes the shells to split and shrivel up.

For redrawing copper shells use good thick soap water as a lubricant. The soap used should be of a kind that will produce plenty of “slip.” If none such is to be had, mix a quantity of lard oil with the soap water on hand and boil the two together. Sprinkling graphite over the shells just before redrawing sometimes helps out on a mean job.

«Rope Grease.»—For hemp ropes, fuse together 20 pounds of tallow and 30 pounds of linseed oil. Then add 20 pounds of paraffine, 30 pounds of vaseline, and 60 pounds of rosin. Finally mix with 10 pounds of graphite, first rubbed up with 50 pounds of boiled oil. For wire ropes fuse 100 pounds of suint with 20 pounds of dark colophony (rosin). Then stir in 30 pounds of rosin oil and 10 pounds of dark petroleum.

«Sheet Metal Lubricant.»—Mix 1 quart of whale oil, 1 pound of white lead, 1 pint of water, and 3 ounces of the finest graphite. This is applied to the metal with a brush before it enters the dies.

«Steam Cylinder Lubricant.»—To obtain a very viscous oil that does not decompose in the presence of steam even at a high temperature, it is necessary to expose neutral wool fats, that have been freed from wool-fatty acids, such as crude lanolin or wool wax, either quite alone or in combination with mineral oils, to a high heat. This is best accomplished in the presence of ordinary steam or superheated steam at a heat of 572° F., and a pressure of 50 atmospheres, corresponding with the conditions in the cylinder in which it is to be used. Instead of separating any slight quantities of acid that may arise, they may be dissolved out as neutral salts.

«Wooden Gears.»—An excellent lubricating agent for wooden gears consists of tallow, 30 parts (by weight); palm oil, 20 parts; fish oil, 10 parts; and graphite, 20 parts. The fats are melted at moderate heat, and the finely powdered and washed graphite mixed with them intimately by long-continued stirring. The teeth of wooden combs are kept in a perfectly serviceable condition for a much longer time if to the ordinary tallow or graphite grease one-tenth part of their weight of powdered glass is added.

«TESTS FOR LUBRICANTS.»

In testing lubricants in general, a great deal depends upon the class of work in which they are to be employed. In dealing with lubricating greases the specific gravity should always be determined. The viscosity is, of course, also a matter of the utmost importance. If possible the viscosity should be taken at the temperature at which the grease is to be subjected when used, but this cannot always be done; 300° F. will be found to be a very suitable temperature for the determination of the viscosity of heavy lubricants. Although one of the standard viscosimeters is the most satisfactory instrument with which to carry out the test, yet it is not a necessity. Provided the test be always conducted in exactly the same manner, and at a fixed temperature, using a standard sample for comparison, the form of apparatus used is not of great importance. Most dealers in scientific apparatus will provide a simple and cheap instrument, the results obtained with which will be found reliable. With the exercise of a little ingenuity any one can fit up a viscosimeter for himself at a very small outlay.

Acidity is another important point to {464} note in dealing with lubricating greases. Calculated as sulphuric acid, the free acid should not exceed .01 per cent, and free fatty acids should not be present to any extent. Cylinder oil should dissolve completely in petroleum benzine (specific gravity, .700), giving a clear solution. In dealing with machine oils the conditions are somewhat different. Fatty oils in mixture with mineral oils are very useful, as they give better lubrication and driving power, especially for heavy axles, for which these mixtures should always be used. The specific gravity should be from .900 to .915 and the freezing point should not be above 58° F. The flash point of heavy machine oils is not a matter of great importance. The viscosity of dynamo oils, taken in Engler’s apparatus, should be 15–16 at 68° F. and 3 1⁠/⁠2–4 at 122° F. In dealing with wagon oils and greases it should be remembered that the best kinds are those which are free from rosin and rosin products, and their flash point should be above 212° F.