General belt lubrication

[danhampson]

I've been thinking about belt lubrication for the belt on my protos, prior to the build i placed the belt in a sealey bag and sprayed it with silicone spray, leaving the belt in the silicone until fitting, I've since put a couple of flights in and the belt now looks like its never been lubed.
I've been given some silicone grease by an engineer at work for my thrust bearings and was wondering if you think it would be ok to lube the drive train with this, the initial silicon spray was an anti static measure and my thinking is that the silicon grease might last a bit longer that silicon spray and lube the drive train as well.

 

[Westy]

silicone spray works on treadmills ..... so I do not see why it would not work on something that is loaded with less than 10th of the force and loading of a fitness treadmill

 

[danhampson]

cheers Westy i was going to swab the main gear with the grease and turn the head until the whole belt has a thin layer in the inside then swab the outside of the belt.

 

[Westy]

why are you lubricating it? for static? usually you would run it dry

 

[Tony]

I have never lubed a belt. If I do lube a belt, I would use graphite, not an oil to do so. However, putting any kind of lube will give you an increased risk of the belt slipping. It will also soften the rubber increasing the possibility of stripping teeth off the belt.

 

[Lee]

Silicone spray every so often is all i do to my belt. I spray some on to a cotton bud (Q tip) and hold it against the belt while i turn it.

 

[danhampson]

its just for static issues Ive read that protos are susceptible to static discharge from the belt (causing brown out), even the ones that have the new conductive boom, my thought was that the silicon grease would be longer lasting than silicon spray.

 

[murankar]

I got many flight and I mean many flights on my protos mini and have yet to lube the belt. I also have yet to have an issue with brown outs, even with a low end radio like the stock TH9X.

 

[tommyboy660]

Yes if u put the belt in a bag and let it sit in oil or other lube it will not only become soft but its likely it would easily stretch out if not loose teeth too. Before lubing id try out a rubber band off a newspaper or something and watch what it does. It becomes so when stretched instead of getting bigger and bigger it will just loosly break or something. I like tonys idea of graphite cuz of slippage but what about if you have a torque tube should i lube it in any way or use graphite?