Lube engineering hack cat

Join us Wednesday, October 19 at 12:00 p.m. (Pacific) for the Lubrication Engineering Hack Chat with Rafe Britton!

You know the old joke: if it moves when it shouldn't, tape it down, and if it doesn't move but it should, tape it down with WD- 40. For many of us, that's about as far as our expertise on lubricants - and adhesives - goes. It's a shame, because with hundreds of years of petrochemical engineering expertise behind us, not to mention millennia of ad hoc experience with natural substances, just reaching for that trusty blue and yellow can for a spritz may be a wasted opportunity. Sure, it will work - maybe - but is it really the right tool for the job?

Modern lubricants are extremely complex and highly engineered materials, often built atom by atom to do a specific job under specific, often extremely harsh conditions. Oils and greases are much more than the slippery elements that keep our mechanical systems running, and while you may not need to know all the details of how they are made to use them, a little Inside information could go a long way. to ensure the durability of your mechanism.

We invited Rafe Britton to the Hack Chat to talk about all aspects of lubrication engineering. With degrees in engineering and physics, Rafe runs Lubrication Expert and the Lubrication Explained channel on YouTube to help his clients understand what they don't know about lubrication and how to put that knowledge to use in the real world. Be sure to bring your lubrication questions and concerns, as well as your lubrication successes and failures, especially the failures!

Our Hack Chats are live community events in Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging. This week, we will meet on Wednesday, October 19 at 12:00 p.m. PT. If you're stuck with time zones, we've got a handy time zone converter.