What kind of grease for the extractor mechanism?

[ugcheleuce]

G'day everyone

The cast-off club extractor seized up when it was my turn to use it, and we (me and a friend) "repaired" it by cleaning it out and lubricating it with sewing machine oil. The mechanism was filled to the brim with bearing grease, and sand and dirt got into the grease.

I do suspect that this mechamism needs grease again (gear grease, if such a thing exists) and not just sewing machine oil, although it works fine with just the oil (makes a bit of a scraping noise... not good, but hey, it works again). What do you think?

My friend (who claims to be knowledgeable about gears and stuff) is of the opinion that this gear needs oil only (he suspects the grease must have been added by a previous user with good intentions).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul_rp5gaDvc

Samuel

 

[simonforeman]

I work in the food industry and the factory use a food safe lubricant. This looks like white grease. Sure that you can buy this from somewhere.... Would suggest checking out the scraping noise, you do not want iron filings in your honey....

 

[Beefriendly]

it's a good point that any bearings etc in an extractor that may be in close contact with the honey need food grade grease. OP needs to explain (photo?) which part of mechanism they are adding oil to. There are too many variations to comment on as you get motors and gear boxes on top of extractor to motors underneath the extractor. Lot of depends......
Personally if just managed to repair and making noise...bin.

 

[G4WIL]

G'day everyone

The cast-off club extractor seized up when it was my turn to use it, and we (me and a friend) "repaired" it by cleaning it out and lubricating it with sewing machine oil. The mechanism was filled to the brim with bearing grease, and sand and dirt got into the grease.

I do suspect that this mechamism needs grease again (gear grease, if such a thing exists) and not just sewing machine oil, although it works fine with just the oil (makes a bit of a scraping noise... not good, but hey, it works again). What do you think?

My friend (who claims to be knowledgeable about gears and stuff) is of the opinion that this gear needs oil only (he suspects the grease must have been added by a previous user with good intentions).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul_rp5gaDvc

Samuel

Any lubricant used must be food safe !
It is available !


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Bee Bumble]

Bee equipment sell it:
https://bee-equipment.co.uk/collections/honey/products/grease-food-approved

 

[ugcheleuce]

Thanks everyone for your inputs so far. See the attachment for a picture of the extractor. Inside that housing is a worm gear. The hand crank's shaft drives a helical spur which in turn drives the worm, which engages the rotating axle when you turn the handle faster than very slow. (At the very end of our repair job, we managed to break the crank, hence the metal tie in the picture.)

After some Googling I now think that the mechanism should be greased, and the crank's shaft should be oiled (there is a little oil hole in the crank). Google says that worm gears generate a lot of heat even at relatively slow speeds, so unless you apply the oil very regularly (like, every time you use it, which wouldn't make sense in this case), it would have to be greased (says Google).

It's a good point that any bearings etc. in an extractor that may be in close contact with the honey need food grade grease.

There are no bearings (only gears). The extractor is driven by a hand crank, and the crank and mechanism is located about 20 cm above the lid that sits on top of the drum. The moving parts of the mechanism fit snugly in the housing. I'm not sure how close "close contact" would have to be to be "close" (-:

 

[ugcheleuce]

Bee equipment sell it:
https://bee-equipment.co.uk/collections/honey/products/grease-food-approved

Thanks. The technical data sheet for this product makes me suspect that this is specifically bearing grease that may not be suitable for greasing gears (see attachment).

 

[Bee Bumble]

Perhaps these people should have what you are looking for:

https://www.lelubricants.com/food-grade-lubricants.html