Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
Have you done this? [not trying to start anything]
Might one chuck it in a drill motor and hold it in a saucepan on a stove? Hold it over an open flame?
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I have oiled 2 house fans (old style good quality fans with oiling holes) and 2 computer fans freebeard.
But what I did was:
Crush a bit of boric acid powder in a mortar and pestle through a piece of shrink wrap to keep all the fine dust in.
I did this while watching TV.
Then I added boiling water drop by drop to the powder till I got a consistency similar to the engine oil I used.
Then I just mixed in the oil at a ratio of around 60-70% oil to boric mixture and just oiled the fans as usual.
There was no rush (for me) to see if it worked so I just left the reaction of Boric acid with the bearing surfaces to time and air humidity.
The fans are all still turning and take longer to spin down.
The tired at the time computer fans feel tighter on their shafts to me and are both still spinning away and silently.
That's about as close as I have gotten to my suggested 'Fast Treating' of an old ball bearing experiment.
In an automobile engine you have heat, water, agitation, pressure and a filter to catch any undissolved powder.
I would say that one could simply make a mixture as described and then spin the bearing in some steam.
You could jury rig the bearing to spin over some boiling water in a sauspan or jury rig a kettle with some wet cloths (to seal) and a bit of pipe to better direct the steam.
As Boric Oxide is not very soluble in tap temperature water the idea here is to keep the bit of water in the mixture hot, while slowly adding to it over time to dissolve more of the powder.
ie: Try recreate the conditions in an engine sump as best you can.
If you try this on a tired bearing; do do a clean and std lube to get a baseline feel for the bearing 1st.
Then wash it out again before the experiment.
It will probably take a good while longer (and stopping to add more mixture) than a car engine does to 'take'.
If you have a tired computer fan and want to take the long road; just do what I did.
Thx for asking / your interest.
It means a lot at this point.