Lubrication And Calibration Ratings

[Paul Knight]

Basically you need to calibrate the grippers in the state that they are to be used.

In my case I never oil my grippers so my calibrations are fine as it. If I ever oil them up I'll need to recalibrate them.

Bingo! ................. however, they have the potential to still get a little harder on you, but at least you wouldn't be closing easier grippers that you thought cal'ed high and then comes back and bites you

[jad]

I can see how oiling would make a difference but recalibrating grippers every time you oil them is a bit much IMO. If you cal'd it all rusty and creaking and then oil it and claim you closed it at the nonoiled rating; you're just fooling yourself. In my experience, oil wears off, chalk and dust gets in there (especially with an oiled spring), etc and cleaning and reoiling becomes necessary. IMO, the ideal way to do it would be oil it, then cal it, and you're done.

The difference in poundages that Eric posted, aren't significant IMO. For example, 2-5# will feel huge on a gripper but unless he can get the same poundages 10 times in a row, anyday he walks out there (same with the pre-oil poundages), it could be due to other factors.

[Paul Knight]

I can see how oiling would make a difference but recalibrating grippers every time you oil them is a bit much IMO. If you cal'd it all rusty and creaking and then oil it and claim you closed it at the nonoiled rating; you're just fooling yourself. In my experience, oil wears off, chalk and dust gets in there (especially with an oiled spring), etc and cleaning and reoiling becomes necessary. IMO, the ideal way to do it would be oil it, then cal it, and you're done.

The difference in poundages that Eric posted, aren't significant IMO. For example, 2-5# will feel huge on a gripper but unless he can get the same poundages 10 times in a row, anyday he walks out there (same with the pre-oil poundages), it could be due to other factors.

I'm not suggesting to re-calibrate all the time. Basically what you wrote that I just put in bold, is what I'm trying to say to eveyone

and your right about those grippers, but thats just those. We had an 11lb drop on a 3.5, and an 18lb drop on another 3.5 those ARE significant differences

[Magnus]

I just oiled my remounted 250. Before, it was very squeaky and pulled 126 on the RGC. Today I'm going to calibrate a bunch of grippers that I've oiled and get the difference of them, but just feeling it, the 250 feels like it lost a good 6lb (feels like a 2.1978435 ). I like to use 3-in-1 oil. I have it on grippers that I've oiled months ago, and they're still completely squeak free...not to mention a nice lemony-fresh smell

Basically you need to calibrate the grippers in the state that they are to be used.

In my case I never oil my grippers so my calibrations are fine as it. If I ever oil them up I'll need to recalibrate them.

Exactly. I'd NEVER oil a gripper I calibrated until after I closed it. To me, it's just downright dishonest. Heck, even then I might not oil it. Like my 160lb 300, for instance. It's not real bad, mostly only squeaky until parallel, past that pretty much squeak-free (listen to it), but I'm guessing it'll still probably loose a good 8lb if I oil it. But, I want it to retain it's rating, so I never will.

Edited October 20, 2008 by Magnus

[Paul Knight]

something else that was kinda weird .... I have an RB 240 and an RB/FBBC Hard that were squeeking just a little, so we oiled them before calibrating and they started sqeeking twice as bad! the oil made them waaaay worse, but that only happened on the RB's - maybe if we used a different oil on the RB's it wouldn't do that?

[Magnus]

something else that was kinda weird .... I have an RB 240 and an RB/FBBC Hard that were squeeking just a little, so we oiled them before calibrating and they started sqeeking twice as bad! the oil made them waaaay worse, but that only happened on the RB's - maybe if we used a different oil on the RB's it wouldn't do that?

:blink What kinda oil did you use? The only scenario I can think of oil making a squeak worse is rubber against metal, but that's just plain weird.

Edited October 20, 2008 by Magnus

[MalachiMcMullen]

something else that was kinda weird .... I have an RB 240 and an RB/FBBC Hard that were squeeking just a little, so we oiled them before calibrating and they started sqeeking twice as bad! the oil made them waaaay worse, but that only happened on the RB's - maybe if we used a different oil on the RB's it wouldn't do that?

My RB's didn't squeek to begin with but I oiled them anyway and they became neither worse nor better.

[Paul Knight]

something else that was kinda weird .... I have an RB 240 and an RB/FBBC Hard that were squeeking just a little, so we oiled them before calibrating and they started sqeeking twice as bad! the oil made them waaaay worse, but that only happened on the RB's - maybe if we used a different oil on the RB's it wouldn't do that?

:blink What kinda oil did you use? The only scenario I can think of oil making a squeak worse is rubber against metal, but that's just plain weird.

I think Eric said it was a mineral oil? I bet if we sprayed it w/ WD-40 or somethin it would stop or at least get a little better - I need to make a video to show you how bad it is cause you wouldn't believe it!

[Cannon]

Little experiment that I completed tonight. I had ordered 3 new grippers from Ironmind, 2 for me and one for Luke. There were two #3.5s and one #3. All three grippers had exactly a 3" spread.

I calibrated each gripper straight out of the package. Then oiled the spring, worked a few reps, and calibrated them again.

Below is the gripper, then the calibration out of the package, then the calibration after oil:

#3, 154, 150

#3.5, 185, 179

#3.5, 187, 185

Interesting results I thought with the #3.5s. They started about the same, one dropped 6lbs, the other only 2lbs. The one that dropped 6lbs binds like crazy even after oil.

I can't imagine CCS closing one of these grippers.

[Bob Lipinski]

Paul- After I hit some of my chrome spring gripper with WD-40, it seemed like they squeeked worse. Might not be your imagination.

I've done most of the calibrating I am going to do. For my training, I think a good squeeze tells me all I need to know. I still have 2 damn grippers that don't seem to calibrate by their difficulty, even though they both have about the same spread.

[Cannon]

My issue with WD-40 is that it seems to lubricate well the instant its applied, but less so even a day later.

[lukeamdman]

I use prolong spl-100. A few of my grippers I oiled months ago, squeaky HG's, are still silky smooth.

[PowerHouse]

something else that was kinda weird .... I have an RB 240 and an RB/FBBC Hard that were squeeking just a little, so we oiled them before calibrating and they started sqeeking twice as bad! the oil made them waaaay worse, but that only happened on the RB's - maybe if we used a different oil on the RB's it wouldn't do that?

Happened to my #2 as well when I first closed it. It was sqeeking a little bit so I oiled it up, then it was more of a grinding, clicking noise. Thought it was going to break on me. That was about 2 years ago and never has happened again. It was wd40 that I used when it did that.