Big Chemistry: Synthetic Oil
For as long as I’ve been driving, I’ve been changing oil. Longer than that, actually — before I even got my license, I did a lot of the maintenance and …read more Continue reading Big Chemistry: Synthetic Oil
Category Archives: lubricant
Adding Wire Races Improves 3D-Printed Bearings
Like a lot of power transmission components, bearings have become far easier to source than they once were. It used to be hard to find exactly what you need, but …read more Continue reading Adding Wire Races Improves 3D-Printed Bearings
Extinguish Squeaks 24/7 with Refillable WD-40
It’s 10:34PM and you’ve just run out of water displacement formula #40. You could wait until tomorrow to get a new can, or you could spend the rest of the …read more Continue reading Extinguish Squeaks 24/7 with Refillable WD-40
Fail of the Week: How Not to Watercool a PC
To those who choose to overclock their PCs, it’s often a “no expense spared” deal. Fancy heat sinks, complicated liquid cooling setups, and cool clear cases to show off all the expensive guts are all part of the charm. But not everyone’s pockets are deep enough for off-the-shelf parts, so …read more
Continue reading Fail of the Week: How Not to Watercool a PC
Mechanisms: Mechanical Seals
On the face of it, keeping fluids contained seems like a simple job. Your fridge alone probably has a dozen or more trivial examples of liquids being successfully kept where they belong, whether it’s the plastic lid on last night’s leftovers or the top on the jug of milk. But deeper down in the bowels of the fridge, like inside the compressor or where the water line for the icemaker is attached, are more complex and interesting mechanisms for keeping fluids contained. That’s the job of seals, the next topic in our series on mechanisms.
Packing it In
One of …read more
Mechanisms: Bearings
They lie at the heart of every fidget spinner and in every motor that runs our lives, from the steppers in a 3D printer to the hundreds in every car engine. They can be as simple as a lubricated bushing or as complicated as the roller bearing in a car axle. Bearings are at work every day for us, directing forces and reducing friction, and understanding them is important to getting stuff done with rotating mechanisms.
Rolling-Element Bearings
What first pops to mind when using the term “bearing” is probably something from the broad category of rolling-element bearings, like …read more