"PUR-TUNGSTEN" Lubricant ???

[ez2cdave]

Alan,

Have you seen and/or used this product ?

http://www.reelschematic.com/pur-tungsten.html

What is your opinion of it ?

Thanks,

Dave F.
Louisburg, NC

[Bryan Young]

We haven't.  Any one out there tried it?  If so, please post what you think about the product.

[alantani]

i've never tried any of these lubes before, but i'm sure they worke just fine.  funny, though.  i saw an avet 4/0 maintenance thread and it's mine.  i do not recall ever giving this guy permission to copy it onto his site. 

not that it really matters, though.   

[Bryan Young]

The stuff sure is expensive though.

[Pro Reel]

I did quite a bit of research on this product. It's actually an amazing product. The reel schematic dot com site is the only retailer I have found so far that sells it in small quantities. They are promoting it as a miracle reel treatment and I don't agree with that, but then again I don't agree with a lot of the product promotion from that company. They are selling it pre-mixed with oil and grease or as a concentrated powder. During the research that I have done so far, I found that it was in fact developed and used for long term , dry lubrication for use by NASA on the mars rover. Several industries now use it to lube gears and other components in extreme duty conditions. Most of the claims on the reel schematic site seem to be based on fact. The nano particles do adhere to metal in a micro thin semi permanent bond and it is currently the most lubriciuos product available. The problem is that it's not easy to apply it in a way that gets that bond. I found that there are several ways to apply it with varying degrees of performance. The best way to apply, and the way that most industries use it, is to air blast the metal part with the dry powder. They basically use blast cabinents and spray the powder over the metal. When the metal turns a slight dull grey, it is coated with the tungsten and will then be extremly slick. That would only work if you had a blast cabinent and could capture the used product to re-use it. Otherwise it would be extremly messy and very expensive to use it that way. The 2nd best way to apply it is to buff it on the metal. This stuff gets it's bond through friction. You can mix the powder with rubbing alcohol to form a cream or paste. You then buff a small amonut on the part. Thats the way I have started using it and it works very good. One thing the other sites I found stress, is that the part needs to be very clean and free from oils before you apply the powder. The reel schematic site says you should mix the product with your oil or buy their premixed oil and grease. They say the tungsten in the oil will bond to the metal over time. That is the absolute least successful way to use this product. Some of the particles will bond to the metal, but even the fine print on the site says it may take several applications to get a good bond. I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in waiting several years for a product to start showing benefits. I bought the 2 ounce jar of the powder. It is expensive, but I found that it only takes a vey small amount to mix into a paste with the alcohol. I dip a Q tip in the paste and rub it into the tension spacers that the spool shaft spins on. I buff it onto the spool shaft, pinion gear and any sliding parts that have friction. After that, grease and oil just beads up or slides right off the part. I have only been trying it for a short time, but it seems that if it's used correctly, it is a very good product. I would like to find an effective way to apply this to bearings. Boca bearings offers a service of dry lube treated bearings on the boca site. It costs $15.00 per bearing for them to treat the bearings with a permanent dry lube. The boca site says it is tungsten powder that they are using. I suspect that they have a way of air blasting the micro fine particles through the bearing. I have thought about using a thin paste to fill the bearing , then spin it on a drill or dremmel to buff the paste on the inside of the bearing, then flush it with alcohol to rinse it out. That might work, but would be time consuming.

[Sandbar33]

Pro Reel

What kind of alcohol to powder ratio are you looking at here? I am curious as to how much paste to mix up if you were only doing a couple reels at the time. At that cost sure wouldn't want any to go to waste.......how does the leftover paste hold up over time? Could you put it in a jar and it retain its form or would it turn to gunk?

[Pro Reel]

I used a small baby food jar. That works but I have decided it would be better to find a small jar with a better screw on lid. I have my eye on the little jar that bread yeast comes in, I wonder if the wife would miss it?  Anyway, I put about a teaspoon of powder in the jar and poured just enough alcohol in it to form a thick paste. A few days later, it was almost dry. It didn't turn back to powder, but was easily stirred in to powder. I poured more alcohol in it and this time I get it runny, It seems that there is a point that it can;t be diluted past, most of the powder settles out into a thick paste under the alcohol. I simply tilt the bottle and can dip my Q tip into the paste. It looks like the teaspoon amount I started with could last a very ;ong time using just a bit on a Q tip. Now, I also know that Boca bearings offers a service of permanatly dry lubed bearings. You buy a bearing from them and then pay an extra $15.00, they send it to somone that treats it with tungsten disulfide. Several guys on tackle tour have had this done and say it lasts several years so far. I don't know how this person treats the bearing. I think he takes the sheilds off and air blasts it on, as that is the most effectve way to use this stuff. I wanted to see what I could do here. I shhok the jar up to mix it into a suspension and then used an empty needle tip oiler to suck some up. I squirted it into 2 bearings until it poured out of the inner ring. I then stuck them on a pointed shaft in the dremmel and spun them for 15 seconds or so. I wanted the friction to bond the tungsten to the inside of the bearing. I then used air to blow most of it out. It spun good, but felt very gritty. I dropped them in a jar of alcohol and set that in the sonic cleaner. The alcohol turned black and I poured it out, The bearings then spun very smooth. I don't know if I got a good bond and just washed the excess out or not. To be sure I didn't ruin the bearings, I put a very tiny drop of super thin rocket fuel tournament oil in them. I then put the bearings in a Shimano Citica and it went from a 4 second free spin to a 55 second free spin. Now I just need to see how long it lasts.

[Sandbar33]

I might pick up a small bit to play around with.....sounds like it might be great as a polish for friction points. I am way to green to try anything with bearings so I will stick to the TSI for those. That stuff is phenomenal!

[alantani]

sounds like he's going to make alot of money!

[Sandbar33]

I was just thinking the same thing Alan....LOL.......I mean this is a fishing reel for Christ Sakes. I think my limited funds would be better spent on upgraded a few parts.

[alantani]

if the guy can make money, then good for him.   i wish him well.