I have a feeling the new crankset is going to be pre-greased (replacement from manufacturer). If not I may first try my homemade idea (available for a cost).

In case you are serious, the way they give grease "weight" (thickness) is NOT by adding glue, mud, flour, maple syrup, etc. Leave it to the experts.

The thickener is called soap.

As with the OP's post, I'll assume you are serious and point out that soap, although slippery, contains a de-greaser (lye). I doubt that commercial bearing grease has lye in it. Also, soap is intentionally water-soluble - not a desirable property in grease.

You might have clicked through the wiki-link from post no. 5, but you didn't.

grease is oil plus soap plus additives. The "soap" probably wouldn't have a surfactant :) For example, the soap can be lithium, molybdenum, others. I am not sure what Park or Phil uses for the soap, it doesn't seem to be metallic in nature

Look it up and learn something.

Oh for the love of Pete! Just go spend $5 on a decent can or tube of grease and you'll be set for years. You'll spend as much or more on any homemade concoction you try and at best end up with a far inferior product and a lot of wasted time.

At WalMart 8 oz of castor oil is $4.49 Castor Oil Home Health 8 oz Liquid - Walmart.com and a 16 oz can of general purpose grease is $3.97 http://www.walmart.com/ip/Super-Tech...-1-lb/16795246

Are you talking about the crankset (pedal arms and front gears aka chainrings) or the bottom bracket (the bearings and spindle around which the cranks revolve)? Cup and one bottom brackets require hand greasing and adjustment but are obsolete and rarely used any more. Cartridge or External bottom brackets are sealed so the only grease required is a small amount on threads and crank interfaces.

Were not expecting to be mocked?

You're right - I should have checked the link. Live and learn!

Here's the thing about soap, the stuff we use at home every day. It contains lye (sodium hydroxide or NaOH). Take that away and you have the "stearates" mentioned in the link as soaps. They are animal fats that have reacted with various acids to produce a greasy substance that can dissolve away some of the dirt on our hands.

However, the lye is what dissolves the grease, leaving our hands clean and non-greasy. In ancient times, people smeared oil or grease on themselves and scraped it off with a blade-like instrument and thought they were "clean". In recent centuries, they found that the addition of lye improved their cleanliness (and their aroma!).

My main point: we don't want lye in our bearing grease. So home-brewers shouldn't use household soap in their home-made bearing grease. Sure enough, though, you were right according to the link.

Why glue?

I'm moving away from the glue idea. Maybe castor oil and glycerin for the pedals.

We need much more info. What are you trying to accomplish? Cheap, better, organic, environmental, survivalist?

You are the lawyer looking for a mechanic job!
Well bring a tub of this recipe in during an interview for sure success!


2oz bacon fat(strain thru a cheese cloth)
1oz fresh peanut oil(chop and blend, then press)
3oz baby tears
a pinch of lemon juice to keep grease from spoiling


Mix well. This is like egg whites where the longer you mix the fluffier it gets. You need equal parts oil to tears to ensure the grease is both slick and long lasting. The tears chemically bond to the grease.


This stuff will last you about 5 bikes, assuming you repack all the bearing points on each bike.

Like with most occasions when people try homemade items to replace marketed items the reason regards quality - in terms of both usefulness of the product and environmental. Of course, like with anything else, in my opinion, there are no proven theories, there are different opinions.

Chemistry experiments are fun, but don't put anything valuable - like your bike or car - at risk.

I'm reminded of Leonardo Da Vinci, who thought walnut oil would make a good substitute for linseed oil in his paints. He painted The Last Supper, a mural, using his new formula. The paint never dried. He tried speeding up the drying with lamps, but the paint ran and the image blurred.

Get some crude oil. A barrel is $45 and should be plenty.

Make a fractional distillation column. You can find instructions on the internet. The part of the crude you want boils around 350 °C, ensure your heating apparatus can get this hot. Collect the 350-375 °C fraction and save it. This is the "base stock".

Make the "soap" by reacting stearic acid (tallow) with aluminum hydroxide powder (available from pet supply companies).

Combine 9 parts base stock with 1 part soap.

Simple enough?

^^Excellent story/info however poor comparison.
Reason (IMO) The Last Supper could be the greatest "experiment" (mistake) ever. Other than the Sistine Chapel, possibly the most "valuable" (from many perspectives) painting (fresco) in the world.
Sidenote: How much better would it have been with a better medium? Your comment induced curiosity and a quick wiki read, informed me that "Due to the methods used, and a variety of environmental factors, as well as intentional damage, very little of the original painting remains today, despite numerous restoration attempts, the last being completed in 1999."

The intended analogy and "takeaway" for the OP were that one shouldn't experiment on valuable stuff. If he tried his original castor-oil-and-glue recipe on, let's say, a rare old Italian race bike, it might easily result in total loss of a hub or BB. If he tried it on a clunker, no great loss.

Believe it or Not, Ripley (and everyone else here, including me) the castor oil idea might not be that far off.

Green Grease: Environmentally Friendly Industrial Lubricant Developed | CleanTechnica

The process uses cellulose derivatives as thickening agents. The article mentions that the resulting bio-grease is not stable at high temperatures and doesn't stay put very well under high pressure or in high rpm applications, but in the relatively low temp, low rpm environment of a BB, hub, or pedal bearings, or in a relatively static bearing like a headset, it just might work.

OP, if you are insistent on a DIY experiment, your idea of adding glycerine is not completely wacky as glycerine is a common biological soap base, usually combined with steric acid to produce glycerol monostearate, which would indeed emulsify a vegetable oil. It should be available at any hobby or craft shop that carries home soap making supplies. As a cellulose derivative thickener, I'd think that carboxy-methylcellulose might work and is readily available as a food and cosmetic additive. It is commonly used in combination with glycerine and isotonic saline solution as soothing eyedrops (artificial tears). Other possibilities would be polysaccharides like guar gum or xantham gum which are used as thickeners and food texture modifiers. Other bio additives that the OP might want to consider include coconut oil and carnauba wax. The biggest obstacle I see is the relatively rapid breakdown and rancidity of the base oils that might be used. The addition of BHT or BHA in proportions far higher than would be allowed as a food additive, might stave this off. Other big questions are: Will it provide the required lubrication and corrosion resistance? Is it compatible with the various metals and other materials with which it will come into contact? and How would it perform under various cycling conditions of heat, cold, humidity and wet weather?

From a bike maintenance standpoint, I am sticking with my advice to just buy some decent grease and learn proper maintenance. But if the goal is to experiment with creating a sustainable and environmentally friendly product using a bicycle as a test vehicle, what the hell. As noted, pick a cheap garage sale bike that you don't mind seeing destroyed in the process. I still think you will waste a lot of time, money and effort to create an inferior product as, even if you want to go with a "green" grease, there already some on the market.

Here is some other info the OP might find interesting:

New biodegradable grease meets demand for environmentally friendly products in engineering industry - WaterWorld

ELM

Environmentally Friendly Grease Based on Ricin Oil and Cellulose Derivatives

Eco-Safe - UltraLube lubricants

What You Should Know About Environmentally Friendly Lubricants

The only way to be legit making your own grease is to go harpoon your own whale. Otherwise you're just a wannabe.

And the hits just keep on coming!


Because optimally useful products don't abound, right?


And that is why you'll never emerge from the cave. Harpoon indeed!

Not trying to hijack the thread... but this has given me an idea.
I'm going to make some "aero" spokes out of linguini and (some sort of really strong) shellac!
I'm thinking of calling them "Carbo-Blades"®.
They're gonna be super light and awesome!
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=480168

Breakfast cereals use a "non-nutritive shellac" to stay crisp in milk. Use that and if you ever get stranded on the side of the road, cook 'em up and enjoy!

I hadn't really thought about the "cannibalization" aspect but hey, that might be a win for the touring crowd.
"Carbo-Blades® deliciously efficient!"

As you loose weight from your lengthy tour, you need fewer spokes, so you just eat the extras.
*PROFIT*!!!!

At least when someone calls your wheels "noodley" we will know what they are talking about...

But I used the best butter

https://media.giphy.com/media/20QvAvNoLwgp2/giphy.gif

Castor oil will prompt rapid evacuation of your bicycle's bowels. I'd stick with conventional.

Yeah might as well wreck the most expensive part you can find..