K2 rail & screw grease

[leo.dearden]

Hello,

I have a KG-3925 and I'm extremely pleased with it. It's working well and I want to keep it that way.

AFAICS, that means I need to grease the linear slides and ball screws once in a while (through the grease nipples on the ball nuts and slide blocks). Any idea:

- How often I should do that?

- What sort of grease to use?

- What sort of grease gun to use?

Any help very welcome,

Leo

[sploo]

Hi Leo,

I was recommended product code 1378K33 from http://www.mcmaster.com/

This is a US supplier, and the product itself is (or was, when I bought it) "Super Lube Synthetic Grease with silicone (PTFE)", code 41150, made by Synco Chemical Corporation.

They (SCC) gave me the following contact details for the UK:

Company Name: Henkel Loctite Adhesives Ltd.
Phone Number: 441-707-358-800
Fax Number: 441-707-358-900

That lead me to a supplier in Oxford (can't remember the name, sorry), and I got a couple of the grease cartridges. I can't find a pic of the cartridges right now, but I think it's the same brand (and similar looking) as this:

Amazon.com: Loctite Lubricant, Super Lube Synthetic Based w/PTFE(grease): Home Improvement

Amazon.com: Loctite Lubricant, Super Lube Synthetic Based w/PTFE(grease): Home Improvement

I got a grease gun from Machine Mart, and later bought a Draper flexible rubber hose for it from a local tool shop.

I clean and grease the rails after every day's use of the machine. I've found that the jaws on the grease gun head are very tight on the nipples for the rails, and therefore hard to remove. Because of this, I put grease directly onto the rails and spread it with a cloth.

Fortunately, the nipples for the ball screws seem to be a bit easier to remove the jaws from, and they're also a bit more solid, so you can apply grease to those through the proper route.

My advice would be to find the thinnest head for the gun you can find, as K2 haven't left much room to get at the nipples on the 3925, and there's at least one I just can't the get jaws onto.

Do I get a prize for using the words 'jaws', 'nipple', 'ball' and 'screw' in a serious mail?