I use Nano oil strictly for my brass locomotive drives that do not have any plastic gears, just fiber or brass/metal gearing. I have Labelle plastic compatible oil for around can motors or other plastic/near to plastic areas. Mike
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
Geoff,
Thanks for responding to the thread.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Yes thanks Geoff and Dave, an interesting observation, and your move to recall your product to correct a problem is admirable.
I have been very satisfied with Nano-oil and will continue to use it, but I will be cautious concerning application to Polystrene.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Thanks Geoff. Sorry to hear about your misfortune. It appears that Nano Oil is OK to use as long as it doesn't come in contact with polystyrene parts.
Joe
Joe, I only have two types of plastic used in my BullAnt drives, Acetal, otherwise known as Delrin, and Polystyrene, in this case High Impact Polystyrene. So those were the only types I tested.
The Acetal was not affected, it sat in the oil for many weeks with no effect, but the polystyrene was softened by the oil in less than a week. It became like cheese and broke apart in my hands.
The damage caused the electrical pickup mounting bolster to fail on every model I had lubricated with the Nano Oil, so I had to recall every one of them and replace the affected bolster. Also, I was selling the oil, so I also felt obliged to contact the purchasers and offer to buy it back. However I had not sold that many tubes of the oil and only 11 customers took up my offer.
Geoff
Other than styrene have you found any other plastics that are degraded by Nano Oil?
Thanks Dave. OK, I am here now, does anyone have any questions?
Ed:
You are right! I must have been having a senior's moment when I was looking at the main site because I totally missed the 'Model Railroad' header.
Sorry to cause more confusion. I'll edit the posts.
Dave,
Looking at the links you posted, it looks to me like there is only ONE website. Not two.
One is the home page of the website. The other is an internal page of the same website.
Note that "nano-oil.com" is in all the links. Thus one website.
Ed
Hi Joe,
Please have a look back at my previous post. I edited it because I realized that we were looking at two different websites. The one I have been looking at doesn't contain the Model Railroad section.
Edit: I was wrong, they are both part of the same site.
This was the citation I was referring to: http://www.nano-oil.com/Model%20RailRoad.html. I think it still quotes a more universal compatibility.
EDIT: Since there may be 2 different web versions I hope that we can hear from the Nano Oil person to clear this up
Joe:
JoeinPAdeclares in Red Letters that it is compatible with all plastics.
I discovered that there are two Nano Oil websites. I just read through one Nano Oil website a couple of times and the statement that it is compatible with all plastics doesn't appear there, at least I couldn't find it.
EDIT: Both are part of the same site. Senior's moment.
http://nano-oil.com/
There is only one reference to "model railroad" that I could find and it is on the second page under the applications listed for the 10 wt. oil.
The website you linked to does indeed state that it is compatible with all plastics so there is some confusion between the two sites.
http://www.nano-oil.com/Model%20RailRoad.html
I wonder which is the most recent site. I couldn't see a date on either.
hon30critter Rich, richhotrain Again, why not call Nano Oil directly and discuss your concerns? I just left a message at the Nano Oil phone number. Hopefully he will get back to me so I can present his point of view. Also, hopefully he won't sue me! Dave
Rich,
richhotrain Again, why not call Nano Oil directly and discuss your concerns?
I just left a message at the Nano Oil phone number. Hopefully he will get back to me so I can present his point of view. Also, hopefully he won't sue me!
His bigger concern ought to be that you won't sue him!
Rich
Alton Junction
richhotrainAgain, why not call Nano Oil directly and discuss your concerns?
Rich:
richhotrainWell, since my name and my quotes are associated with this reply, let me clear my good name on a few points.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you personally were maligning Geoff Baxter. Obviously my post could be interpreted that way so I apologise.
Geoff has asked me for the link to this thread and I just sent it to him. Hopefully he will chime in.
JoeinPA declares in Red Letters that it is compatible with all plastics.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
I am surprised a manufacture would say all in regards to plastic as there are too many formulations to count and it would just be a mater of time before one was incompatable.
I'm getting a kick out of all the old threads that are popping up as Dave spreads the word....
I got caught a couple of times. Now I look at the dates.
Mike.
My You Tube
hon30critter Rich: richhotrain but that statement is based upon hearsay and does not match up with Dave's own experience with Nano Oil. richhotrain Why not call the manufacturer yourself, Dave, and discuss the issue? Dave
richhotrain but that statement is based upon hearsay and does not match up with Dave's own experience with Nano Oil.
richhotrain Why not call the manufacturer yourself, Dave, and discuss the issue?
I was not one of those who suggested that Geoff "is full of it", nor was I was of those who "seem to be implying that he is lying".
The reason that I suggested, Dave, that you call the manufacturer yourself is that your name is possibly being maligned on the Internet. Just Google 'Nano Oil plastic' and your "WARNING!!! Nano Oil is NOT for plastics!" is the first search item to appear. Why not call Nano Oil yourself to discuss your concerns? If it were me, I would.
Regarding polystyrene, I have read that many lubricants attack polystyrene. It may be that even Labelle 108 does that. I don't know that for a fact, but it may be worth looking into.
That leaves open the question about the Nano Oil web site proclaiming that "Nano-Oil is compatible with all plastic and/or metal surfaces". Again, why not call Nano Oil directly and discuss your concerns?
Evergreen styrene is, uh, styrene. Styrene does not enjoy the company of many oils.
Geoff should not be surprised that oil and styrene have relationship problems. It is common knowledge.
BUT.
He perhaps relied on Mr. Nano Oils's comment that Nano Oil "loves" plastic.
What it looks like we have here is that Nano Oil loves (some) plastic. Just not Geoff's plastic. Which appears to be styrene.
I do believe I will place the blame on Nano Oil. If they do not specify which plastics their oil is compatible with, they are being irresponsible and/or dishonest.
The name alone should be a warning, I suspect. It is VERY clever. And I mean that in a bad way. Though I have never investigated the line.
Does it effect evergreen styrene in the same way? This would be good to know, a lot of scratch builders use styrene in their models, and oil may get on internal parts of a scratchbuild.
Geared Steam:
Geoff just got back to me about the type of plastic that was affected by the Nano Oil. It was polystyrene. I suspect that your locomotives wouldn't use polystyrene in the mechanisms for obvious reasons, and he did state that Delrin didn't seem to be affected. In the case of the Bull Ant drives the polystyrene is used to form the chassis that supports the drive components as well as the shell, and because the drives are so small, transference of the Nano Oil from the moving parts to the chassis would be pretty easy.
The fact remains that Geoff experienced significant failures after using and endorsing Nano Oil, and I thought it appropriate to pass that along.
FWIW, I haven't tossed my Nano Oil tubes in the garbage. In fact, I just used some 10 wt. to lubricate the controls on my 10 year old gas BBQ this afternoon and it worked wonders. I though I was going to have to replace the valves but apparently not.
FWIW, I just changed the title of the thread to say that Nano Oil is not good for "all" plastics.
Regards,
My experiences are with Bachmann Shays and the second generation plastic driveline gears and many Bachmann rod locos and the 44 tonners.
It has been at least a year from application, possibly two, I can't find my old reciept.
I have only had very positive experiences with its use, and if that ever changes, I will be happy to report it.
richhotrainbut that statement is based upon hearsay and does not match up with Dave's own experience with Nano Oil.
You are right, my own experience with Nano Oil so far has been great and that is why I have been pushing the stuff. However, we now have evidence that Nano Oil will affect some plastics and therefore a caution should rightly be issued. For those who would suggest that Geoff is full of it, please tell me why he would stop using it and selling it if he hadn't actually had a problem. He was also one who extolled the virtues of Nano Oil because it had worked so well for him at first.
richhotrainWhy not call the manufacturer yourself, Dave, and discuss the issue?
Geoff did exactly that and got nowhere. I choose not to question his word on that. Obviously if the Nano Oil web site still claims that their products are compatible with "all" plastics they haven't changed their tune. Geoff's plastic frames were damaged after being immersed in Nano Oil. I choose to take that as a given. Others would seem to be implying that he is lying. Why would he? What's to be gained?
Ed,
I'll ask him.
Did Geoff say what the plastic is that he had the problem with?
It's looking like Nano Oil doesn't affect "engineering" plastics. Like Delrin.
But lots of oils affect others. Which could explain why Labelle had "plastic compatible" oils.
hon30critter He did say that the Nano Oil did not seem to affect Delrin.
He did say that the Nano Oil did not seem to affect Delrin.
Thanks for that tidbit. I was going to ask you specifically whether Delrin was affected or not.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Hi Ed:
7j43kI suppose a person could put a nano-bit of the type of plastic Geoff uses into some Nano-oil and see for one's self.
I sent an e-mail back to Geoff and asked for a few more details. It turns out that he did exactly what you are suggesting. He placed two Bull Ant frames in oil, one in Nano Oil and the other in LaBelle oil. After being in the oils for about a week the Nano Oil frame crumbled like cheese. The other one was not affected.
He also explained that it was not just a few of his frames that failed, it was 100% of the frames where Nano Oil had been used.
Just to indicate what sort of businessman Geoff is, he recalled all the drives where Nano Oil had been applied at the factory and rebuilt them all at his expense.