Omega D Care -- Lubricant type for enlarger rods & track

Asking for lubrication my first question would be the mechanical reason using brass here, btw what's about the counter part of this gliding system? Is it a plastic wheel which probably is not compatible to lubricants containing different chemicals? Is it just a guiding and sliding rail where the drive comes from gears?

""a lot of these enlargers don't hold focus very well""

If vaseline has been recommended, modern bed oil for smearing the beds of lathes could be a solution.
Yes, it's no grease, but a thick and a sticky oil. Reminds me on semi-liquid honey.
Since we not only have to perfectly smear but also have to lock our tool holders on the lathe bed, the "limited slip"-performance of today's bed oil may be of interest here.

On the other hand I'm not aware of any lubicant staying and smearing forever, but also have learned using these modern lubrication liquids like ceramic-, teflon- etc- based.
Wouldn' take any siliconbased stuff; after years of using them I'm allergic now.

After a precleaning and degreasing with "Brake Cleaner" I am polishing my brass and aluminium parts with a drop of "Alu Magic", what a wonderful but minimal abraising stuff.
You also could give the good old "Nevr Dull" a try - there should be no abrasion.
If not working, I'm using 000whool with slightest pressure, and with smearing and somehow cleaning lubes like petroleum/lamp oil.
Dew is right with these tiny rust particles, but I can't see them sticking into brass like it would happen with grinding materials (carbon, korund etc)- I also wouldn't care, its just an enlarger with low precision. I also clean my parts after polishing or whooling.

Clean, polish, don't use any grease or oil unless that doesn't do the trick. Then just a drop or two of sewing machine oil rubbed over whatever is squeaking. There's nothing on an enlarger that requires much lubrication.

If it's not holding focus well, the bellows adjustment is not stiff enough or the locking of the head is too weak. There might be adjustments to tighten those or they may be worn out. In a university setting, it's likely the latter.

eli griggs said:

Johnson & Johnson paste wax applied and allowed to leave a clean, dry finish will do the job just fine.

Raw brass runs on steel as a natural lubricant, the fittings, for thousands of years, just clean and polish it to its natural, thin, hard finish once, twice a year and keep tarnish at bay for a darkroom free of grease and dust.

Renaissance wax would work but is massively expensive!

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yup I've been learning that most of the parts of this shouldnt even be lubricated, idk who did in the past, they were a fool. If the the tolerances are in check it's fine to leave em dry.

Not to Necropost too hard, but the general update I have for this thread is that a lot of the issues are related to the enlargers ending up tilted as compared to the desk, they're not bolted into the wall, glad we dont have earthquakes on this coast. Cleaning up the brass contact surfaces & the rusty lens plate holder springs with some really fine sanding pads has resolved like 90% of the issues than can be fixed withoht replacing the god awful tables theyr'e attached too. or purchasing a dehumidifier. That'd fix a lot of issues too.

Yeah, alignment is a big problem, especially in community darkrooms.
If you don't have an alignment aid device you can find a 3D printed one somewhere in the forumsphere like:

All you need is a decent quality little torpedo level to get all the relevant planes on an Omega enlarger aligned together.
Of course, not every level sold in a hardware store or home center is actually level, especially not the cheaper ones.
If the column leans too much one direction or another relative to the baseboard, thin metal shims can be inserted as needed in the rotation socket itself. Once it's all aligned, secure the chassis to the wall using a solid brace.

Community darkrooms and school darkrooms pose their own problems, especially if the students are orangutans swinging themselves around enlarger columns. Withhold the bananas to those who behave badly.

My longtime experiences as a sailboat racer allow me to suggest something available to sailors usable in the darkroom for mechnical lubrication!

McLube Sailkote, a spray on/rub on dry lubricant which adheres well to surfaces and does not wash off even in a wet environment, which does not stain, leaves no greasy residual to gather dust/dirt, and does not contain PTFE, and safe for use on metals to reduce friction and on polymer rollers commonly found on sailboats. Available from marine supply stores, like West Coast Marine.

I see they sell that at West Marine near the Richmond Bridge. I go past there frequently. There's also Whale Point Marine across the street a bit aways.

Incidentally, the real whale point, below the Bridge, is undergoing trail development, due to be opened up to the public in a couple years or so. It's going to be harder problem how to protect the adjacent old Naval buildings around Pt Molate from the local plague of spray paint taggers. Those historic buildings can only be seen inside on infrequent guided tours now. The old officers houses are like a 1940's movie set, but authentic, left just as they were. The main WW II Naval building was previously the largest winery in America; and the last whaling station in North America was adjacent, where pilot whales were turned into CalCan dog food. Lots of history there.

The company I worked for was highly involved with all of that Naval operation when it was still active. I remember when we located and sold the true French Cassegrainian quarter-saw walnut veneer cloth-backed ridiculously expensive "wallpaper" that went into the Admiral's little house. That is still all there, as is, replete with vintage kitchen appliances.
The whole village is behind a big steel perimeter fence, off-limits to the public. The big Pt Molate fuel tanks are on the hill right behind it, with the Chevron refinery right past that. Quite a few interesting photo opportunities if one can get the correct angle of perspective.

Steel wool and barkeeper's friend is for stainless steel kitchen pots that have had food carbonized to their surface. It works well for that purpose.

loccdor said:

Steel wool and barkeeper's friend is for stainless steel kitchen pots that have had food carbonized to their surface. It works well for that purpose.

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Barkeepr's friend does a nice job of removing tarnish from metals other than stainless steel, too.

loccdor said:

Steel wool and barkeeper's friend is for stainless steel kitchen pots that have had food carbonized to their surface. It works well for that purpose.

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Was told steel wool would leave micro burs and would encourage further corrosion. been using sanding sponges when needed.
Overall, turns out a lot of the issues is that dry contact aurfaces were lubed, and/or parts were just scrap metal due to being serviced by an idiot. Attaching an image I took on one of the rods below.



I'm not sure exactly what I will do about this, something has caused the brass rollers to become adhered to the stainless rod on some of the enlargers, including the above one. Tried completely removing the set screws and even so no movement. these rollers are chewed up, and locked in place somehow, and the rods are misaligned and also chewed up. i could fix the latter idk what to do abt the former. this did come off the worst functioning enlarger in the room. I'm unaware how the heck this even happened. I wil likely just replace the entire assembly from our pile of Out Of Service color enlargers.

That is chewed up from someone trying to use a set of pliers to move it. With the set-screws removed, it should move by tapping sideways with a hammer - you can heat it up with a torch (or a lighter, for that matter) to help that happen.

Don_ih said:

That is chewed up from someone trying to use a set of pliers to move it. With the set-screws removed, it should move by tapping sideways with a hammer - you can heat it up with a torch (or a lighter, for that matter) to help that happen.

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tried hammering it with the screws removed it's like properly stuck in place. Unfortuneately I cannot heat it on premisis, i'd need to use my stovetop back home. I got the go ahead to pull parts from the pile of color enlargers we have, so i'll just do that.