Roger,
I agree with you on the WD40. I use it on most of the exposed metal surfaces of 14 pieces of machinery in my woodshop.
However, I prefer a different product to use on the ways, carriage, tool rest and tailstock of a lathe. When dry, PG2000 is drier than WD40 and won't attract EVA and cork dust like WD40 can if not completely dry. This makes daily clean up a lot easier, one quick shot of compressed air and literally everything blows off like you wiped it down with a rag.
Depending on your equipment, there are a couple more preferred spots I've found. If your lathe tailstock quill is like mine and has an exposed opening on the underside when extended, PG2000 applied to the threads will repel the dust where WD40 never seemed to dry out and i found actually attracted dust. Other areas where I prefer to use it include the gears on my drill press and the trunnions of my table saw. Wherever there are close confined areas you can't easily clean, or have mating surfaces that are frequently moved are places to consider "new school" products like PG2000 over the "old school" WD40.
Andrew,
I've never looked at a MSDS for PG2000, so I've been hesitant to use it on my wrapper in fear of transferring something to a rod in progress. Instead, I keep all the metallic surfaces of my wrapper, not just the chuck and the sides of the chuck jaws, waxed and polished with carnauba wax.
Note: Just to clarify, I don't wax anything that thread passes over or through or the gripping surfaces of any chuck.
My wrapper is in a clean heated area, unlike my machinery in the dirty area, so condensation and rust is less of a concern. The advantage of carnauba is that it has to be applied and then polished clean and once dry, there's really nothing left to migrate to a rod. I use a Mother's brand product that is pure carnauba wax with no silica additives. It's never caused a problem for me in the past.
Billy,
Billy if you're just going to clean up the outside surfaces and not do a complete teardown of the chuck then Scotchbrite should be fine, however I wouldn't use steel wool. It's too fragile and when you are using it to clean the exterior of your chuck, steel wool offcasts will migrate into the interior working areas of your chuck and generally make a mess of things, especially if you use something wet as a lubricant in conjunction with the wool. This wouldn't be a factor though if you're doing a tear down and complete cleaning as you'd be cleaning interior surfaces also.
Oh forgot, here's a link to a source for the PG2000 for woodworking lubricant:
[
www.amazon.com]
I think Rockler and Woodcraft (or similar stores) carry it also.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2014 03:36PM by John E Powell.
