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Lubricating fans

S

sombunall

Experienced Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2010
Messages
154
Location
Montreal, Canada
A while back I searched google for a way to lubricate fans. I came up with graphite powder and blogged about it http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/entry.php?44-Graphite-powder-for-noisy-fans. Then I found out from Chuck that high temperature grease is better because it's a poor conductor of electricty. I just found out today that if you hover your mouse in the right place a pencil appears and you can edit your blog post. But I digress...

So I went to the hardware store looking for HT grease and found lithium grease in a big spray can but it has a warning about flammability. So I didn't buy it thinking it could cause a fire. Then I saw this from Chuck:

You may want to try using some real lubricant, rather than WD-40, which is pretty much Stoddard solvent and not much more. White lithium grease comes in an aerosol form and may give you more lasting performance. I use it on noisy fan bearings quite a bit with very good results.
Click to expand...

http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?20334-Restoring-an-IBM-AT-5170/page2&highlight=lubricating

I think the fans I want to use it on has no bearings. Anyway I found this stuff in my house:

Ultra Slick extreme sport synthetic grease... exceptional anti-wear and high speed performance... -28 to 282 celcius...Contains petrolium oils... Designed for use with ATVs, snowmobiles and other recreational vehicles

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/4/Auto/3/AutoFluidsChemicals/LubricantsPenetrants/PRDOVR~0280814P/Permatex%2BUltra%2BSlick%2BExtreme%2BSport%2BSynthetic%2BGrease%252C%2B85%2Bg.jsp

Can I use it or do I have to go back and get the white lithium grease?
 
Usually you can find an open shaft end by peeling off the label on the fans. Stick a glob of grease in over the shaft end and either glue the labels back on (I use Scotch Super 77 adhesive) or find a sticky label that you can use.
 
Ok Chuck so I'm on the right track!

So now what I want to do is remove the graphite and oil. I added too much graphite on one 92mm fan by mistake so I'm starting over with my sport grease. To clean it out I think I'm going to use some 94% grain alcohol with an eye dropper to try to rip the undesirables out. I figure 70% isoprophil has water in it, might rust the fan and is too weak anyway. I'm going to get that fan drunk. What could possibly go wrong?
 
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I never thought of using grease to lube fans, but it makes sense. I've always used Labelle lubricants. They're sold for lubricating things like slot cars and model trains and hold up well in harsh environments. Any hobby shop that sells those kinds of items will have them. I can't remember offhand which is which, but I use #106 and #107. One is oil and the other is grease. I've always used the oil to quiet down noisy fans and it's done well. I'll probably try the grease next time.

To remove old lubricants, I would be inclined to use contact cleaner. CRC brand contact cleaner is available at hardware and auto parts stores inexpensively. It does a good job of removing the gunk, won't harm plastic, and it's non-corrosive. When I'm cleaning out an old motor, I just spray it down generously, then flip it upside down and let gunk run out. The same trick would work for a computer fan. The contact cleaner also works well for cleaning circuit boards.
 
Hi
I don't usually recommend contact cleaner. These usually have some silicon oils in them.
It is not a good bearing lubricant.
I recommend removing the clip on the shaft ( keeping track of where all the washers
go ) and clean the parts with Brake Clean ( find at any automotive store ).
Use carefully, it will melt many plastics but evaporates fast. Also use
out doors.
After that put the bearing and assembly in the oven at about 130F.
While still hot put some oil ( not grease ) on the bearing. The oil will
soak in while it cools. These are what
is called oil-lite bearings and are said to be self lubricating.
In any case, as the bearing cools, it will soak up oil. If you have a solid state
driver it is best to keep it below about 120F.
When done, put it back together and it should work fine. I like to
use synthetic oils because they usually have hight vapor pressure but
are often not as good a lubricant. For the low loading of a fan, this shouldn't
be an issue.
Dwight
 
Dwight, that's great if you have a fan with oiltite bearings, but most of the Chinese stuff isn't built that well. It's usually just a brass or bronze sleeve bearing and some oil. The so-called "ball bearing" fans use a single stationary ball as a thrust bearing.

If I had a noisy Panaflo or NMB fan, I'd probably inspect it for oiltite barings, but the usual Chinese stuff is almost certain not to use them. Grease 'em up!

(FWIW, I've never had a Panaflo or NMB fan develop dry bearings). Same for Torrington, Rotron and Seikosha. I did have a Papst fail that way, however.
 
Dwight Elvey said:
Hi
I don't usually recommend contact cleaner. These usually have some silicon oils in them.
It is not a good bearing lubricant.
I recommend removing the clip on the shaft ( keeping track of where all the washers
go ) and clean the parts with Brake Clean ( find at any automotive store ).
Use carefully, it will melt many plastics but evaporates fast. Also use
out doors.
After that put the bearing and assembly in the oven at about 130F.
While still hot put some oil ( not grease ) on the bearing. The oil will
soak in while it cools. These are what
is called oil-lite bearings and are said to be self lubricating.
In any case, as the bearing cools, it will soak up oil. If you have a solid state
driver it is best to keep it below about 120F.
When done, put it back together and it should work fine. I like to
use synthetic oils because they usually have hight vapor pressure but
are often not as good a lubricant. For the low loading of a fan, this shouldn't
be an issue.
Dwight
Click to expand...

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa... whoa... whoa. /PeterGriffin :eek:

The guy was talking about using contact cleaner just to clean it not lubricate it. Are you implying that I could permanently damage the bearings? Also this is for cheap sleeve bearing fans - is it really worth it to stink up the kitchen like that?
 
+-
sombunall said:
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa... whoa... whoa. /PeterGriffin :eek:

The guy was talking about using contact cleaner just to clean it not lubricate it. Are you implying that I could permanently damage the bearings? Also this is for cheap sleeve bearing fans - is it really worth it to stink up the kitchen like that?
Click to expand...
Well, Dwight's an engineer from the old school...
;-)

I've been known to oil cheap fans with a few drops of motor oil but I think I'd spend the five bucks for a new one before I went through all that.
 
When fans with ball bearings (more expensive models) go they are junk correct?
 
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sombunall said:
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa... whoa... whoa. /PeterGriffin :eek:

The guy was talking about using contact cleaner just to clean it not lubricate it. Are you implying that I could permanently damage the bearings? Also this is for cheap sleeve bearing fans - is it really worth it to stink up the kitchen like that?
Click to expand...

Hi
Maybe you know of a way to remove silicon oils that I don't know of.
I do recommend silicon grease for connectors but not as part of a bearing
cleaning method. The stuff is almost impossible to remove and when mixed
with oil, makes really poor lubracant.
Yes, I realized he was talking about using it as a cleaner. It is not a
good cleaner. Contacts have completely different requirements than
bearings do.
Chuck is most likely right about newer fans. Most of the ones I've
lubricated were 20 to 25 years old.
Dwight
 
Sometimes, when I see an old piece of gear junked, I almost want to cry. On my shelf, I've got a beautiful Litton DC motor, complete with optical encoder. The thing must have cost close to $100 OEM price--it came out of a dot-matrix printer. You see great fans in things like copiers (Fuji Xerox in particular, used some really nice kit). And yet it's all fed into the recycling maw.

For those of you who have an old 5150 with the AC cooling fan (US only, I think and maybe only on the 16K-64K model). Have you ever had the fan develop noisy bearings?

A couple of years ago, I suggested (on a different forum) that if one wanted reliable PSU fan operation, one might be best off to replace the DC fan with an older AC line-operated fan. A bit noisier, but very reliable. Some idiot knocked my suggestion saying that it would create lots of RF interference. I guess he didn't understand basic induction motor design...
 
Dwight Elvey said:
Hi
Maybe you know of a way to remove silicon oils that I don't know of.
I do recommend silicon grease for connectors but not as part of a bearing
cleaning method. The stuff is almost impossible to remove and when mixed
with oil, makes really poor lubracant.
Yes, I realized he was talking about using it as a cleaner. It is not a
good cleaner. Contacts have completely different requirements than
bearings do.
Chuck is most likely right about newer fans. Most of the ones I've
lubricated were 20 to 25 years old.
Dwight
Click to expand...

Well I was using a natural cleaner with whole coconut, orange, lemon and lime extracts with derived natural alcohol to clean silicon oil off latex but I don't know if it would work here.

The fan I'm trying to clean came out of a run of the mill AT power supply that probably died so it's ~20 years old. I think I'll try using 94% grain alcohol.
 
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Well I finally got around to testing this since my server had 2 fans that sounded like outboard motors and decided to go funny at the same time. One is a 60mm the other a 80mm.

The 60mm is a northbridge (also possibly southbridge) fan. I think my USB was crashing in linux from the chip overheating (maybe - we shall see). Anyway it was dry inside. Used the 94% alcohol with an eye dropper to push it in and out like a toilet plunger. Not much dirt came out. Funny and I only did the graphite powder a few months ago. The bigger fan was never repaired before and really dirty inside. The alcohol worked wonders. After that I used those cheap flat toothpics to push the HT sport grease in.

Clockwork. Let's hope it works as I've been a bit unlucky with that graphite powder and oil. My laptop fan makes noise for a minute once a week.
 
The biggest thing is to clean the sleeve bearing and shaft before doing any type of lubricating. Every noisy fan I took apart and worked on had gunk built up on both pieces. If you don't clean all that crud then you'll just be working on it again soon.

I've only done this work on fans that I couldn't easily get a replacement for or were in a time crunch for. At $2 to $7 for a fan from my local electronics store, it's not worth it to spend too much time fixing a fan.
 
Sometimes it's worth a dollop of high-temp grease even on a cheap fan. Often, the maker just puts a bit of oil on the bearings and that's it. With a good grease, the same fan can be made to run quietly for years It might even be worthwhile to lubricate new fans in this manner.
 
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