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Markham941
29-Sep-2018, 03:41
I have a vintage Toyo 4x5 that I bought in an estate sale.

The camera will take hours to properly clean but before I finish I was curious to know what lubricants do you use for your controls.

John Kasaian
29-Sep-2018, 05:32
On metal to metal parts, I use Lubriplate 630 as per Ken Hough's recommendations
http://deardorffcameras.0catch.com/Care.htm

I'll add from personal experience, don't use Butcher's Wax to protect the wood!

Pere Casals
29-Sep-2018, 07:11
On metal to metal parts, I use Lubriplate 630

John, this is a lithium based grease that would work well in the mechanisms of a view camera, at the end this is a very light duty and a lithium grease may be used even in heavy industrial duties. Anyway today we have modern lubricants that are better in all aspects, in particular dry-film lubricants based in Teflon, like "DuPont™ Non-Stick Dry-Film Lubricant with Teflon® Fluoropolymer". http://www.performancelubricantsusa.com/product/non-stick-dry-film-lubricant.php

In particular "Thin coating is excellent for tight tolerances and sliding tracks"

This ensures very enhanced penetration, ultra long persistence, persistent smoothness, expulsion of dirt and almost total protection aganist water. A lot of times this allows a perfect job without disassembling the mechanism to be cleaned.

While I use lithium grease for some applications in industrial machinery I always use dry-film teflon for precision mechanisms that are exposed to air (not confined, as gearboxes are), with awesome results.

Jim Jones
29-Sep-2018, 07:16
Avoid lubricating shutters unless you really know what you are doing. They usually work well when clean and dry, although carefully lubricating the right spots extends shutter life.

Markham941
29-Sep-2018, 18:31
Does anyone have any experience using silicon or graphite spray lubricants for the camera movements or rail?

Jac@stafford.net
29-Sep-2018, 18:52
Does anyone have any experience using silicon or graphite spray lubricants for the camera movements or rail?

Never, ever use graphite! It is like a nano contaminant and if it finds its way to your lens, and it will, it can ruin it forever. I dunno about silicone, but in my modest 40 years of experience, the best lubricant is NO lubricant. Just keep the rails clean. When they are stuck, find out why. Unless your camera is a POS, clean is all you need.

LabRat
29-Sep-2018, 19:20
This is a vague question, as there is no "one size fits all" answer...

Like a car, there are different lubes for different applications, and no one thing for all...

My repair/restoration shop has many different lubes, polishes, chems, finishes, protectants, etc and you should have the wisdom to use the proper one when (or if) needed (or sometimes not at all)...

It seems the American way now that one "miracle" product will replace everything else with "no fuss or muss"...

Nothing like the rubber stamp approval of "as seen on TV"...

Steve K

Bob Salomon
29-Sep-2018, 19:51
This is a vague question, as there is no "one size fits all" answer...

Like a car, there are different lubes for different applications, and no one thing for all...

My repair/restoration shop has many different lubes, polishes, chems, finishes, protectants, etc and you should have the wisdom to use the proper one when (or if) needed (or sometimes not at all)...

It seems the American way now that one "miracle" product will replace everything else with "no fuss or muss"...

Nothing like the rubber stamp approval of "as seen on TV"...

Steve K

For Linhof where there is brass on aluminum Marflex thourghly cleaned the parts and then used an extremely thin layer of pure petroleum jelly,

Bernice Loui
29-Sep-2018, 22:01
Dry Graphite is death for precision mechanical items due to the abrasive nature of Graphite. Graphite is hard, gets stuck in the pores of metal surfaces where they stay and slowly grind away at the moving parts. There was a time when powdered Graphite was used in locks.. with disastrous results.

Lithium grease dries out over time resulting in sticking clay mixed with dirt will grind away at precision mechanisms as they move. Lithium is used as a thickener for the base oil.

Petroleum Jelly also dries out and becomes clay with time.

Silicon based lubricants might be OK, but if any of that ends up where it should never be, removal can be a serious problem.


For moving part that is not made of aluminum Dupont Krytox 205 GPL works. It is PTFE based, originally designed to endure space flight conditions of very low vacuum, not react with other materials and not dry out easily.

For aluminum parts consider a synthetic base, non-lithium thickener moly grease with a low NGLI rating when low viscosity is needed.

Parts and mechanisms that require the lower viscosity of oil, use synthetic micrometer-instrument-watch oil.


Bernice





Does anyone have any experience using silicon or graphite spray lubricants for the camera movements or rail?

Markham941
29-Sep-2018, 23:56
Hmmm, I don't think it was a vague question (labrat)

I just asked what people used to lubricate their camera. Perhaps I could have been more specific about the camera (cast aluminum parts),
Also, since I'm in Japan some items are either difficult to find or need to be imported.

I was just keeping my options open to what is viable for me. But thank you for your comment.


I did read about issues with using spray (dry) graphite and potential lens contamination. Thank you for the advice Jac


Thank you Bernice! I'll read up a little more and see what i'll use to smooth out the camera movements.

Pere Casals
30-Sep-2018, 03:31
Does anyone have any experience using silicon or graphite spray lubricants for the camera movements or rail?

Both will work, graphite is not neat. A good dry-film teflon lubricant is a better choice because it bonds to metal making a persistent film on it.

As Bob explained, "after cleaned the parts and then used an extremely thin layer of pure petroleum jelly" it would be perfect.

But if we don't want to disassembly some mechanisms to be cleaned then the a good dry-film teflon (ptfe) is superior because of penetration and the capability to expell dirt.

jim10219
1-Oct-2018, 18:22
Silicon lubricant is used for plastic, silicone, and rubber. Use liquid silicone for plastic gears and silicone grease for plastic hinges. Don’t use silicone around electronics. Use a synthetic oil lubricant for metal parts like gears and such. A light machine oil, like sewing machine oil or a lightweight synthetic motor oil like Mobil One 5-w20 would probably work too for most things on a large format camera that require oil, if that’s all you have. Lithium grease is good for slow moving metal parts like hinges.

That’ll do well enough. You can use more expensive, specialized lubricants if you want to, but it’s generally not needed unless you’re dealing with precision machinery, like inside a shutter. And as already noted, you need to know which parts to lubicate, with what lubricants, and how much when dealing with a shutter. The margin of error is a lot smaller there. The rest of a large format camera can be fudged pretty well without dire consequences.

WD-40 in its natural state is a bad lubricant because it has a bunch of cleaning chemicals in it. It’s good for removing rust though, if you remove it afterwards. You can turn WD-40 into a decent lubricant if you spray some into a sealed glass jar and let it sit for a week or more to allow the oil to separate from the other stuff, and siphon the oil off the top. It becomes a nice, light weight oil then.

Generally, you want a thicker lubricant for slower moving parts, and a thinner lubricant for faster ones. But what’s really important is cleaning everything really well before applying any new lubricant.

Jac@stafford.net
1-Oct-2018, 19:34
WD-40 is not a lubricant.

Bob Salomon
1-Oct-2018, 20:58
Hmmm, I don't think it was a vague question (labrat)

I just asked what people used to lubricate their camera. Perhaps I could have been more specific about the camera (cast aluminum parts),
Also, since I'm in Japan some items are either difficult to find or need to be imported.

I was just keeping my options open to what is viable for me. But thank you for your comment.


I did read about issues with using spray (dry) graphite and potential lens contamination. Thank you for the advice Jac


Thank you Bernice! I'll read up a little more and see what i'll use to smooth out the camera movements.
Most movements on Linhof cameras are done with the use of dissimilar materials, le, brass on aluminum. This type of assembly is naturally self lubricating. Presuming that the gearing isn’t gunned up with grease the tightness or looseness of the sliding movement are adjusted by tightening or loosening the small screws that adjust the tension of the brass shim against the aluminum.

The only recommended lubrication for this system is an extremely thin application of petroleum jelly, really really thin, once it is on carefully wipe most off to leave a thin film, a really thin film!

Markham941
1-Oct-2018, 22:32
Thank you. I'll give it a try once I have finished cleaning the camera and the movements still have resistance.

The standard lift movements are rather stiff at the middle but not at the bottom or top. I'm guessing there is more gunk I missed while cleaning.



As an added note.

Thank you everyone for contributing and answers.

I new to LF cameras and had no idea if they were even lubricated. I assumed they were since they have moving metal parts.

anyway, I appreciate the help.

Pere Casals
2-Oct-2018, 02:01
Most movements on Linhof cameras are done with the use of dissimilar materials, le, brass on aluminum. This type of assembly is naturally self lubricating. Presuming that the gearing isn’t gunned up with grease the tightness or looseness of the sliding movement are adjusted by tightening or loosening the small screws that adjust the tension of the brass shim against the aluminum.

The only recommended lubrication for this system is an extremely thin application of petroleum jelly, really really thin, once it is on carefully wipe most off to leave a thin film, a really thin film!

I guess that a refined Linhof should be lubricated as specified, if not it perhaps can have a too smooth touch, the effect of the jelly in the touch is different that the one from oil. Other cameras always require additional smoothness :) like my cambo sc.