[TowerTalk] Tower Lubrication

Thu, 8 Jan 1998 04:00:18 -0600

On Wed, 7 Jan 1998 at 11:01:38, Ken W7TS wrote:

>Hi,I would like see some opinions regarding WD-40 as a Lubricant
>for cables and pulleys.
_________________________________________________________________
Ken, I wouldn't advise it for a number of reasons.  Having used it
for years on my handguns and rifles, I've found it effectively dries
up after a short while and doesn't leave sufficient residual coating
to protect against moisture, especially such as will be found on
cables and pulleys subject to rain.

On one occasion, I carefully cleaned my rifles and then sprayed them
with WD-40 and placed them in a hermetically sealed plastic container.
I was confident that they would be as new when I again opened the
containers.  Alas, I found that there was a very fine coating of rust
in a vein-like pattern on the bolts and unblued portions!  Since they
were sealed in Tucson, AZ during a period of extremely low humidity,
I could only surmise that the spray contained a minuscule amount of
moisture.

In using it as an immediate application after firing my pistols in
tournaments, I found later that they were essentially dry of lubricant.
It tends to evaporate after a period of time.  I continued to use it
as a preventive measure after a tournament but wound up thoroughly
cleaning them as soon as I could get back home, after that discovery.

The one thing I found that would last for years was plain old unvarnished
vaseline.  If it were possible to apply it hot to a hot cable in a dry
atmosphere so that it could penetrate into all the interstices, it would
be an excellent rust/corrosion preventive, in my opinion.  Not sure how
you would do that, tho.  I would tend to use stainless cable after seeing
what happened to a 105 foot SkyNeedle in Florida 30 seconds after I
descended from the platform (and the owner raised it to the top while I
was climbing down).  It turned out that the galvanized cable had rusted
almost all the way through where it went around the bottom pulley.  It
gathered moisture constantly as it dripped down the cable and finally
rusted it nearly through.  The strain of pulling the Christmas tree of
3 monobanders to the top was too much for the remaining strands.  I keep
that picture of the totally wrecked tower, platform, and monobanders on my
wall as a constant reminder that certainly I will use stainless instead
of galvanized cable anytime I have a similar situation.  I am sure there
are others that disagree but it almost cost me my life 8 years ago in
Melbourne, FL.

Rod, N5HV
w5hvv@aeneas.net

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