Over lubricating your steel

David Higginbotham · Post by **David Higginbotham** » 18 Nov 2011 1:10 pm

Most of us know the results of too much lubrication on our steels. For those possibly new to maintenance, please know that spray lubes will have a very negative impact! The previous owner of a guitar I recently purchased used a great deal of spray on lube on every part of the guitar. I've had to totally dismantle the guitar and clean every part as the changer assenbly was gummed up and grit, grime, and dust bunnies had collected in all parts. I could literally not touch any part of this guitar without my hands looking like the pic. That was from picking up the black pull rods that are covered in lube. I've only seen one guitar worse than this one that I rebuilt and it was so gummed up it wouldn't even return any pulls.

richard burton · Post by **richard burton** » 18 Nov 2011 2:40 pm

The last photo reminds me of a horrible few years of my life, when I had the misfortune to own a Morris Marina

Mike Wheeler · Post by **Mike Wheeler** » 18 Nov 2011 3:08 pm

I can sympathize with you, David.

Looks like it might have been spray-on graphite. That stuff, and WD40, should be illegal to use on steel guitars!!

Talk about gumming up the works! WOW

I got a steel like that with graphite caked in the changer and crossrod pivots, and I, too, had to completely disassemble it and clean everything just so the crossrods would rotate. What a mess it was. Now it plays great, looks great, and I love it.

I know you'll make that guitar play great, David. You've got the touch.

Dave O'Brien · Post by **Dave O'Brien** » 18 Nov 2011 3:13 pm

Looks as bad as the red MSA "The Universal" I rebuilt last spring...what a mess that was.
You should see it now though.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 18 Nov 2011 3:32 pm

About 25 years ago I rebuilt an MSA for a young man. It had been played in bars for a long, long time. It looked like the previous owner would just turn it upside down every so often and spray everything with WD-40. It was all black and sticky, with a build up of all kinds of sludge, smoke, and Lord know what else.

Oddly enough, I used WD-40 to clean all the parts. It cut it all off. Naptha finished the cleaning process.

Chris Tweed · Post by **Chris Tweed** » 19 Nov 2011 2:50 am

richard burton wrote:The last photo reminds me of a horrible few years of my life, when I had the misfortune to own a Morris Marina

Reminds me of a betting game we used to play when driving up the M6. If you smell burning oil, there must be a British Leyland car just ahead. Nearly always right

Chris Tweed · Post by **Chris Tweed** » 19 Nov 2011 2:52 am

So I'm not yet guilty of using WD40 on my 6-month old Stage One, but it did cross my mind. What should I use and how should I apply it?

Chris

Carl Kilmer · Post by **Carl Kilmer** » 19 Nov 2011 8:26 am

Hi Chris, the only lub I ever use is Tri-Flow. Read this post.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=215389
Hope this will help.
Carl

Joe Naylor · Post by **Joe Naylor** » 19 Nov 2011 10:56 am

Reminds me of a Sho-Bud I worked on - here is the rule -IF IT IS WORE OUT GET NEW PARTS ...... ALL THE LUBE IN THE WORLD WILL NOT HELP.

The one I worked on the phone call started with. "Your Sho-Bud is a quart low" - then he said I tried 5 or 6 different kinds of lub and it did not help.

I agreed and ordered parts.

HE was a steel player and NOT a mechanic or "fix it man"

Joe Naylor
www.steelseat.com

Mark Daniels · Post by **Mark Daniels** » 19 Nov 2011 11:56 am

richard burton wrote:The last photo reminds me of a horrible few years of my life, when I had the misfortune to own a Morris Marina

A Marina?? Blimey. You didn't pay actual money to own that did you

As a newbie, I've been extremely careful with psg lube. I finished re-stringing and lubing mine today with gun oil. I didn't use the Finish Line stuff after being warned of it's effects....

Chris Tweed · Post by **Chris Tweed** » 19 Nov 2011 4:34 pm

Thanks, Carl.

Can anybody advise what's the essential ingredient in TriFlow? Is there a generic term for this, as I haven't seen it for sale in the UK?

Chris

Bo Borland · Post by **Bo Borland** » 19 Nov 2011 5:06 pm

Tri Flow is made by Sherman Williams Co of Cleveland Ohio, USA ..

I buy 2oz (59ml) liquid bottles at the local hardware store..for $3.00 it's either ACE or True Value chain. It comes with a small delivery straw taped to the bottle that allows drop by drop delivery.

The label says to use with adequate ventilation.
I notice a slight aroma, the wife swears I am trying to kill her with it.

The liquid contain PFTE.. (google it) it is teflon. Polytetrafluoroethylene

the oil and the aroma goes away and the teflon remains..

Mark Daniels · Post by **Mark Daniels** » 19 Nov 2011 5:47 pm

I couldn't find Tri-Flow over here in the UK either.

After reading about the various things that people used I went for Birchwood Casey Synthetic Gun Oil which I found on ebay.co.UK for £5.10 It's a light oil which contains Teflon!

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 19 Nov 2011 6:44 pm

Mark, you might luck out finding it at a bicycle repair shop

Declan Byrne · Post by **Declan Byrne** » 19 Nov 2011 8:41 pm

I ordered it on ebay a few months ago paid for it by paypal but a few days later the seller told me the postal service wont allow any type of oils to be sent overseas.He refunded me.So i got this wet lube oil in Halfords for racing bikes cost 9 euro seems ok but i thinkthe dry lube might be as good since the wet is for bike chains in wet weather under extreme pressure but i saw a thread by a member using turbine oil for jets and the equivalent Aeroshell 500 is easily available in 500ml cans throughout the uk and ireland.Hope this helps $:\$

Dave Magram · Post by **Dave Magram** » 20 Nov 2011 12:31 am

Bent Romnes wrote:Mark, you might luck out finding it at a bicycle repair shop

No, no Bent.
It is in bicycle shops where the "DRY" Teflon (aka "The Spawn of Satan") lives. Avoid any Teflon product from a bike shop; the "DRY" Teflon was designed for bicycles.

The so-called "DRY" Teflon is called that because of the addition of the anti-pedal steel guitar chemical known as paraffin. The paraffin helps protect the Teflon coating on the bicycle chain and gears when riding through pouring rain and riding through muddy fields.

That same paraffin will gum up your precision PSG roller nuts faster than you can say, "Ohmigod, what have I done to my pedal steel?"

I'm sure that there are many sources on the Web to order the regular Tri-Flow from.
Just make sure that it doesn't say "DRY" anywhere on the label.

- Dave

Per Berner · Post by **Per Berner** » 20 Nov 2011 12:43 am

Ordinary sewing machine oil works just fine. One bottle lasts a lifetime. Available at your mum's, if you can't find it in the shops.

BTW, there's nothing wrong with Morris Marinas, as long as they're free. They are perfect for dropping pianos on!

Chris Tweed · Post by **Chris Tweed** » 20 Nov 2011 2:09 am

Okay, here's where (I think) we are UK-wise now:

1. Tri-Flow can't be bought here or imported because of postal restrictions.

2. Its essential ingredient is PFTE, aka Teflon.

3. Any other light oil containing PFTE will do as a substitute, except for products sold in bike shops because they use oils that stick to the chain etc. to protect against the rain.

Is this correct?

I will check out the gun oil Mark mentioned.

Another option is to use the engine oil from an old Morris Marina, but that's even harder to find than Tri-Flow

Chris

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 20 Nov 2011 2:58 am

Dave Magram wrote:
Bent Romnes wrote:Mark, you might luck out finding it at a bicycle repair shop
No, no Bent.
It is in bicycle shops where the "DRY" Teflon (aka "The Spawn of Satan") lives. Avoid any Teflon product from a bike shop; the "DRY" Teflon was designed for bicycles.

The so-called "DRY" Teflon is called that because of the addition of the anti-pedal steel guitar chemical known as paraffin. The paraffin helps protect the Teflon coating on the bicycle chain and gears when riding through pouring rain and riding through muddy fields.

That same paraffin will gum up your precision PSG roller nuts faster than you can say, "Ohmigod, what have I done to my pedal steel?"

I'm sure that there are many sources on the Web to order the regular Tri-Flow from.
Just make sure that it doesn't say "DRY" anywhere on the label.

- Dave

Dave there are divided opinions on that, which we don't have to get into right now. However, I did in fact get a bottle of "wet" TriFlow at a bike repair shop here. It works great. However, I also find that the jet turbine oil from Mobil works great as well. This is the stuff that Mickey Adams uses with success.

Todd Brown · Post by **Todd Brown** » 20 Nov 2011 10:18 am

That's what I've been using, the jet engine oil. I saw Mickey recommending this a year or so back, so I set out to get some.

I found out that Mullen sells it in a nice little applicator bottle on their website-

http://www.mullenguitars.com/Oil%20Bottle.htm

I've since used this bottle on a few different guitars routinely and I've only used 1/3 of it!

You U.K. guys should do fine with any high grade synthetic turbine oil equivalent, that's what Mullen uses on the guitars they build.

I'm glad this thread started because, I've seen several people say the "dry" tri-flow with the teflon is what you want. Now its "the spawn of Satan"? $:\$

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 20 Nov 2011 12:20 pm

I won't use anything that stays wet. They just collect dust and grit and grime.

Mike Wheeler · Post by **Mike Wheeler** » 20 Nov 2011 1:35 pm

Todd, I suspect that the people who advocated the paraffin based Triflow were simply mistaken as to which one was correct for the steel guitar.

I've been using Triflow for almost 15 years on all kinds of industrial mechanical equipment, household mechanisms, consumer devices and, of course, steel guitars. It works superbly in all these situations and lasts far longer than any oil I've ever tried...and I tried all the best.

Now, there may be other formulations, or lubes, that might work as well, or possibly better, but I'm a firm believer in not fixing what's not broke. Triflow has never let me down, so I "stick" with it. (no pun intended

)

Oh, and one more thing, if you're going to store a guitar for a long time....Triflow doesn't dry out over time.

Brendan Mitchell · Post by **Brendan Mitchell** » 21 Nov 2011 10:33 pm

Would you use wet or dry lube on an ET tuned guitar ?

Mike Wheeler · Post by **Mike Wheeler** » 22 Nov 2011 5:41 am

Mickey Adams · Post by **Mickey Adams** » 22 Nov 2011 6:54 am

I ALWAYS wear rubber gloves when tearing down guitars..yuk!