garage door question

[bj66]

Kind of an odd question to ask.

 

Over head door is 18 X 10 and is starting to stick going down. What do you guys use to lube the rollers and rails?

 

around here (in the country) you can do more harm than good depending on what you use. Its dusty here, so you cant have something that dirt will stick into. Also it is really cold, so you cant use grease. wd40 would attract dirt as well.

 

Had a can of white lithium grease that is supposed to dry and not be affected by cold so I tried it. Helped the sticking issue. I sprayed the rollers themselves plus a few inches above them. Then I ran the door up and down a few times to lube the edges of the roller. Tried not to overdo it.

 

Did I choose wisely, or am I looking for trouble later with the rollers gumming up?

[Flyinfool]

I have used Remington Rem DriLube. It leaves a Teflon coating that is dry to not attract dirt, it will not make a mess of a jacket or you if you brush against the rail, and even the south pole does not get cold enough to matter. I only use it on sliding metal to metal like the rollers and rails. You do not want to use it in a rotating bearing.

[cowpuc]

Back when I was young I spent a fair amount of time racing dirt bikes. Later in those years, O-ring chains became all the rage (probably still are) because they were sealed and supposedly never needed lubing. Problem with them was they robbed a fair amount of power that could be useful if you wanted to have a small competitive edge so I usually stayed with non o-ring chains. Problem with the non-ring chains was they wore quickly if not maintained with good lubrication. Similar to your situation BJ, I found that any form of "wet" lube that I used on my chains actually worked against me because the wetness would pick up dirt from the tracks and turn my chains lubricant into more of a lapping compound than a lubricant. I found a solution that worked really well in the bicycle chain lube world with their high wax "dry" lube. In spray form, the wax is suspended in a fast drying agent that, after it dried, left the dried "wax" in place as a lube. Worked GREAT except it took a fair amount of applications before a heavy wax film developed..

I too tried using spray on white grease BJ, it worked fine except it was grease so it never dried and still collected dirt. Another down fall with the aerasol white grease was that it too had to be applied many times before it built up a good grease base. Problem was once I made the initial application, all added applications were made over the top of contaminated grease..

Thru the years going all the way back into the 60's, I am thinking I tried about every experiment known to man trying to keep from wearing out chain/sprockets on my dirtbikes (including things like dipping chain in a heated mix of 90 wt gear lube/grease mix) but thru the years found nothing worked as well as the bicycle chain spray on "dry lube" when it came to the dry, talcum powder like dust that was found on some of the sandy tracks around here..

[Edbo]

You might try paraffin wax. Like my mother used when she was canning. I use it a lot on door hinges, when putting in screws in hardwood so it doesn't split, I've used it on machinery that had metal that moved against each other and it seems to hold up very well. Would be easy to just rub it up and down the rails of the door.

[Gdub]

They make a lubricant just for garage doors. It comes in a small spray can and should be available anywhere they sell garage doors. I have used it for several years now with no problems. Good luck.

[Flyinfool]

They make a lubricant just for garage doors. It comes in a small spray can and should be available anywhere they sell garage doors. I have used it for several years now with no problems. Good luck.

 

Oh come on now, where is the challenge in that?

[MidlifeVenture]

Could also be something going on with the springs an imbalance in tension causing the door to track uneven nothing that slopping grease will help.

[Gdub]

Sorry FlyingFool, what was I thinking! I guess you could throw an eye of newt and a possum tail to give it character.

[dacheedah]

They make a lubricant just for garage doors. It comes in a small spray can and should be available anywhere they sell garage doors. I have used it for several years now with no problems. Good luck.

2nd that

[Yammer Dan]

I thought I was the only one with a pot of 90 on the stove with a chain in it. Told my girlfriend I didn't think that thing was ever going to get tender. :Avatars_Gee_George:Got some strange looks with that one.

 

Forgot to include!!! I took a old candle and rubbed down the track on mine.....

Edited January 24, 2016 by Yammer Dan

[saddlebum]

You could try dry graphite lube which comes in an aerosol can.