54 replies to this topic

[ickus305]

In the past there has been some misguided information about how to properly maintainence and lubricate your K'nex® Trains for optimal performance. With this tutortial I hope to clear up the muddy water and show the best LONG TERM method to care for your coasters.


**video at the bottom of the post**



How to Lubricate a K'nex® Roller Coaster Car/Train





These are the tools that I use for cleaning and lubrication.
*Brush -to clean out dust and etc
*tweezers - to remove hair etc
*Pen Oiler OR Tooth Picks -these are used to precisely apply the oil
*paper towels - to clean up any messes





When lubricating your train car use a lubricant
OIL is a great Lubricant
I use synthetic motor oil (1 quart cost about $5 USD [this will last you a lifetime]) Try use the lowest weight possible.
other acceptable oils include silicone spray, bike chain oil, and also sewing machine oil





THESE ARE NOT LUBRICANTS (DO NOT USE THESE)





When applying oil to the train cars Make sure to only place oil on the metal axle. (a little oil will go a long long way.)




When you place the train back on the tracks, it will appear to have lost speed when you first test it. It will take a little bit to get things "to break in," Simply Keep running the wheels and you will soon see a change in the speed.




Remember be patient, and a little goes a long way. It is better to need to oil often then have too much oil.






Now for those who prefer a video here you go

[sathothy]

Thats an great tutorial! I like the video.

[Fraggie]

I definitely recommend taking the axels appart. I took mine appart and cleaned them off on The Jester. I never even put oil on the axels after I put them back together and it easily made it through the layout where before it went really slowly. Great tutorial ickus!!

[Maxlaam]

Beautifully done sir!

[Snake]

This is by far the best tutorial for lubing trains.

[Turtle Man 24]

Awesome tutorial, James! Now people that doesn't know how to lubricate their cars can do it now!

[Blackkitty]

Damn improving on the age old Coaster55 tut. Nice. I will have to go out and by some of the lubricants you recommended.

[Maxlaam]

I'm gonna see if I can get my hands on one of those pen oilers

[TheRandomGuy]

This would help lubing my vv cars a lot. Thanks ickus!

[ickus305]

Yep, I have done it with VV cars. Make sure to only oil the metal axle (much harder on the VV cars), and of course make sure to break it in nicely.

[Micronex]

I observed that when lubricating VV cars, if you have silicone spray you can rest the car upside down, then spray the silicone in the little gap (where the axle is) from above, and if you get it just right half the silicone goes to the axle of the other wheels. My cars then slowed down a fair bit (only making 90* on Meitnerium's immelmann) then gradually improved and now fly through the Immelmann.

[ickus305]

Engine oil is what I have in the pictures. Use the lightest weight possible.

Garage door oil is probably too heavy (sounds more like a grease then oil, but I have no idea.)

[BubbleMan 32714]

I might just go this weekend to get a pen oiler myself. The tut was great Ickus. And the key words are be paitiant.

[IOAgeek]

Thanks Ickus for this tutorial, I bought the yellow motor oil you were talking about, followed the steps and Renegade is a good as new as completes the circuit now! It wasn't making the element after the first hill a week after the final video was made.

[Maxlaam]

Well, I have a little question, I finally got my hands on a pen-oiler. Or Precise Lubricator as the packaging says.

It came with oil in it and the packaging says POL1000. I couldn't trace this to an oil type, but I could trace the pen on the website it said on the packaging.

It's supposed to be this one:
Precision Lubricator - General Purpose

But the colour of the oil inside is more of an orange/brownish taint, much like a dark scotch whisky.

The colour isn't as red-ish like this one:
Precision Lubricator - Red, Transmission Oil

The packaging was a bit yellow-ish and the store clerk asked me where I found that item as he had no idea that they even had them. He said it must've been pretty old.

So if anyone (Ickus? wink wink) knows if it is any decent?? It's quite slippery to the touch and it's consistency is less than syrup but more than water.

I'm hesitant to test it out but if no-one knows I'll see what it does...

Edit: I just used it to oil my tools (clippers, wirestripper etc.) it sure helps the tools and it seems to force the old oil out, dirty stuff, like a black goo.

[chaindogg33]

I cannot say whether that is the right stuff, Maxlaam. I would just like to add that although I have not been building coasters using. Knex for very long, I experimented with many different types of lube on the few coasters I did build. I am not trying to discredit anything that ickus said, but in my experience Pure Silicone Lube has worked the best.

I tried wd40, engine oil, liquid wrench, graphite lube, crc all purpose lube, and then crc pure silicone spray. wd40 is not a lubricAnt like ickus said, it only displaces and keeps water out. Engine oil can sometimes be too thick, or viscous. Graphite powder works well but it makes a mess and is a pain to apply. It is often used on pine derby cars. Liquid wrench is really best used to free up seized hardware and is not best suited as a lube. All purpose lube may or may not contain silicone, but the problem with this as well as some other pure silicone sprays is that the propellant may contain ethers or butanes which can be damaging to plastics.

We all do not want to wreck the wheel carriage or coach car body by "fogging" it while trying to lube the metal axles. That can happen with some silicone sprays so be very careful when choosing one. Try finding a brand that says it is safe for most plastics, and try looking on the labeling for whether it uses ether or hexane or butane for propellant. When I used that crc stuff I had two diff kinds. A blue can of pure silicon spray and a red can that was crc heavy duty silicone multi use lube. If I remember correctly the stuff in the blue can fogged my plastic but the red can one did not.
Both of them worked awesome for lube. The best practice is to simply apply a tiny bit to a small area first to see if any plastic damage occurs and if so, stop using it.

If you are really worried about damaging plastic, then perhaps this is not for you and you may want to simply use the oil that ickus recommended. Also, if you could put some of this silicon spray into that precision lube pen, it would get everywhere it shouldn't. Hope this helps.

[KahluaCoasters]

I have a dog and we love her dearly so I don't want to poison her. What could I use that's animal safe? Also my dad said to use vegetable oil and that was a BIG FAT EPIC FAIL! but I cleaned it up and it was fine...

[iCoaster44]

Good tutorial !