Make Lubricating Graphite Wax Sticks.

I use this stuff a lot in areas where you need a long lasting lubricant but can't have dust collecting.  Seems to work a treat for this purpose.  One stick like this will last many, many years.

Comments

[flamesami]

Very neat! I just remembered after seeing the video about an instructable for hot waxing bicycle chains, would this work better I wonder.

[drobertson123]

Thanks for this. I can actually use this for a few projects.

A few things you may want to try as a next step. It is possible to dissolve recyclable plastic grocery bags into hot wax. The result is what we refer to as machinable wax and we use it for prototyping on the machine tools (CNC, Lathe, etc..) It actually does machine very well and if you get a high enough concentration of plastic in the mix it is fairly structurally stable.

My thought is that if you take the machinable wax and add the graphite as you have done you would create a material that would be ideal for creating small load bushings. For me I might try using it for bushings on some wooden clock parts.

Thanks for posting this. I really got me thinking. :-)

[NelsonStudios]

I would really like to see this if you make it.

[drobertson123]

I haven't actually taken the step to make an instructable yet. Maybe this will be the one. The machinable wax instructions are actually not mine. They are from rawkstar320 and can be found here;

https://www.instructables.com/id/Machinable-Wax/

I used that instructable as the basis for my own production of machinable wax and was very impressed at how good the stuff turns out. With the sacrifice of a few of my daughters crayons you can even make the stuff pretty.

My only contribution to the idea was to combine your process for graphite wax sticks and combine it with the machinable wax from rawkstar320.

I have been tinkering with handmade wooden clocks. Making extremely low friction bearings/bushings for custom work is a real pain in the butt. I think with the graphite added to the machinable wax you could actually produce a material that is extremely low friction and sturdy enough to stand up to small loads.

I am not the fastest project person, but I will document it when I try it out and attempt to get something up for the curious people.

[flamesami]

I just scrolled down while waiting for the video to load, so I haven't seen the video yet, but I second the "do it and show us please!"

[rimar2000]

Interesting. Sometimes I use soap to lubricate door hinges or drawer sliders.

[artworker]

super cool idea!