Piston Lubrication

[RCO]

What are you using to lub your pistons? Where are you buying it?

Just starting using my rifles again and I'm all out of lubrication.

[splitbeing]

Air rifle headquarters has great prices on moly for the pistons. One order will last many guns or a long time.

[Toxylon]

I use Honda M77 moly paste for those guns that have petroleum-based lubing. It is one of the highest if not the highest moly content paste generally available, which is what you want. Very little goes a long way.

[mikeyb]

I have the Honda M77.

Honda HN 08798-9010 MOLY PASTE (M77)


It works well for me but does diesel a little after a fresh lube-tune-up. I believe the small amout of mineral oil used to make the moly powder into a "paste" is the source of the dieseling. Regardless, my small tube of Honda77 is almost gone so I picked up 2 lubricating powders.

2 oz. MicroLubrol Molybdenum Disulfide >98% Technical Grade Powder, avgerage Particle Size 3 - 4 µm (Fisher Method) 15-30 (Microtrac Method).


Solid Lubricant for Engine Gearbox 99.9% WS2 1 Micron Tungsten Disulfide Industrial Equipments DOD-L-85645 Aero and Military Standard


Pretty certain that's a "lifetime" supply even though I have a lot of springers.
I have NOT tried the powders yet. May use them straight without a petroleum based carrier. May mix powder with a small amount of the marine grease I like to use or may mix powder with an oil I like to use on trigger parts. I KNOW the mixes will diesel a little after reassembly but that is acceptable for my springers.

I typically clean out factory lube, deburr comp tube, and relube my springer pistons only ONE TIME. After that I don't add any more lubrication to the piston. A small amount of moly added to the slippery polymer of the piston seal is all my springers need until the next piston seal replacement.

Other pivots and sliding parts do get regular lubrication and I occasionally put a light oil in some trigger groups.

[Airnut]

I make my own lube.
40% Moly powder. 40% Tungsten powder with a 100% synthetic Teflon base carrer.
I have it on three test guns that were brand new out the box. I shot them 200 times then got a base line velocity then cleaned and relubed. I relubed them everywhere very sparingly. Retested again after 200 shots. Lost a little under 10 FPS in each gun but the shot cycle was noticeably smoother over stock.
I assume the velocity loss was due to the absence of the factory lube dieseling a tad? I now have 1600
On them with no change in velocity or shot cycle. I am not a chemists so I don't know what my concoction has created. I do know that sometimes when you mix things together bad stuff can happen. So far so good. I was expecting to see the performance numbers change a little after break-in  but have not seen any change after 1600 shots. That leads me to question was the original 200 shots on the stock gun enough for break-in or is the lube extending the break-in period?
I plan on a total teardown and inspection of all three guns at about 3000 shots enless something changes.

 

[ALWIII]

  I make my own. I use tungsten disulfide mixed with 5 wt Mobil 1, in a ratio that comes up as close to the viscosity of 30 wt as I can get. I degrease and dry all the parts, then burnish the tungsten disulfide powder in to the metal. I follow that with my concoction everywhere. The higher load areas of the piston gen the same stuff, but mixed with a lump of Ford moly bearing grease. Usually only a little detonation for a couple shots, then it settles down. The first inspection/maintenance is when it comes out of the box new. The Crosmans seem to all need a new piston seal when new.
  That routine with my NP XL .25 currently nets me an average 847 fps w/20.06 gr H&N FTT pellets and a little over 1000 fps w/ 16.54 gr Predator GTOs.

[nced]

What are you using to lub your pistons? Where are you buying it?

Just starting using my rifles again and I'm all out of lubrication.

After using diesel prone petroleum based molly bearing grease for years I've been lubing my HW springer internals and barrel linkages with non-dieseling Dupont Krytox GPL205 for over a decade now with completer satisfaction. Old "grease lubed" piston (assuming factory HW grease)........


Molly bearing grease that thickened in the container as the petroleum "outgassed" after a couple tears in a sealed container. Yje grease was so thick that it would support a socket head cap screw on the rim of the container with only a few threads embedded in the "tar".......


Here are some of the "sliding parts" showing Krytox GPL205 lubrication.........


Anywhoo, I bought the Dupont Krytos grease and oil on-line from a couple different vendors (I prefer the "plain Jane" version without the anti-wear/anti-corrosion additives)..........

[longhunter]

I'm with nced. Krytox is all I use, these days. A little goes a long way.