HOUSEHOLD LUBRICATION

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 51, 24 November 1926, Page 17

HOUSEHOLD LUBRICATION

When we hear gates, windows, and doors and oather domestic fitments shrieking each time they are moved, and when yve find the castors on furniture refusing to move, it may be taken that either there is an oil famine in that particular house or, alternatively, that no one is able to use any oil that is around. Consequently moving objects suffer. A rather long-spouted oil-feeder yvhich gives a small oil supply is needed, and some soft rag to collect excess oil, also a supply of some mineral gas-engine oil, half a pint being " more than enough for everything in a twelve-roomed house, if the sewing machine and lawn moyver are left ont; these,, of couse, need their oyvn special oils. For heavy gates and the like, petroleum jelly or a heavv oil would be used, or a mixture of oil and petroleum jelly would meet the case in many places. In oiling, the spindles of pulleys and castors, and the hinges and locks of doors where the metal parts move against each other, will need one or two drops of oil applied- once or twice a year. Surplus oil should be wiped off, as a verv small amount of oil is yvanted to prevent friction, while none is required outside the bearings, for which reason excessive oiling is merely yvasteful. Where wooden parts slide together and either shriek or seize, the best thing to use as a lubricant is finelvpowdered steatite, or French chalk, as dusted over woodwork it provides. a polished surface yvhich does not bind in anv way. Dry lubrication of this kind is ahvays useful with woodwork.