It sounds an excellent way of introducing unwanted friction into the driveline. I'm baffled why someone would want to fill the tube with congealed fat when oil and grease are readily available. I would imagine it would emulsify and go rancid and you would simply end up with an unpleasant slime.

There are many suggestions on this forum for lubricating propeller shafts. We also have an article on the subject of Drivelines by Glynn Guest which is very useful. Well worth a read.

**LINK**

Colin

Oh dear lord no, let's not get into prop shaft lubrication again.

Lard? I've checked my calendar, April first is next week.

Stephen, I apologise for sounding so dismissive, sometimes old and experienced modelers have unusual ideas, this is one best avoided. Fit a lubrication tube to the prop tube by all means, many of us do, then use whatever proper lubricant you settle on. I'm not even going to re-open the subject again by mentioning my choice.

Chas

A perennial question that sadly I can no longer argue with Dave M.

This season I was looking forward to in-depth discussions over PTFE grease.

I bought a tube of waterproof silicone grease for the jet drive shaft on the Stingray, and used a syringe to inject it ubtil it oozed out the end….(bearing in mind the "shaft2 is probably 30mm long)

HOWEVER, the grease is quite thin and may be suitable for propshafts.

Ashley

Stephen.

People didn’t have the money we have nowadays to buy fancy waterproof dilithium greases and stuff, and used what they had!

No doubt other people probably used lard at some time although none are likely to admit it now.

Ashley

At the beginning of this thread, the gentleman who used the lard to seal his propeller shaft – I wonder how old this gentleman be? I wonder if he came from the same school as the gent who was my mentor when I first started modelling? If my mentor were alive today he would be roughly 102 yr old. If you didnt have a steam driven model – it wasn't a model. But, he did have a beautiful book of all these weird and wonderful solutions for problems encountered in modelling.

I will always recall one of his many solutions to mix high temperature grease with old car engine sump oil. This was to be poured into the steam lubricators on steam engines (helps them lubricate when running under steam).

His other tip which I remember was he used to use tallow – the grease from the slipway where the bigger ships were launched. He used to use it for tapping grease – also – he used to use the same stuff as prop tube lubricant.

Also, can you remember the powdered milk tins that baby milk used to come in – none of them were ever thrown out. A few of his models were made from tin plate salvaged from these tins. One of the models was HMS Ark Royal – and yes it was steam driven – good old Mr James Berwick with his book of knowledge.

The other thing is who remembers lard/dripping and salt sandwiches – beef dripping off the Sunday dinner – when I think back to what people ate – its a wonder people survived.

Goodness I miss the old so and so Milbourn – I bet he would have come back with some corking answers.

John

Edited By John W E on 28/03/2021 16:37:39