Ball-race arm-bearings - lubrication an absolute no-no?

[Mark Kelly]

Originally posted by Aleksunder

That said, from what I can gather they would in fact function better in several ways if they were lubricated (until the aforementioned contamination offset it), such as less stiction and, more importantly, bearing rattle.

Could anyone convince me this is a Bad Idea?

Thanks.

That would depend on how much convincing you need.

The first thing to note is that lubricating a low speed precision bearing will increase the drag in the bearing. This is why jewel bearings are always run dry - if lubricated the surface tension of the fluid creates a larger effective contact area (the pool of lubricant surrounding the contact) which increases the energy required for a given movement thus increasing the effective drag. The same applies for ball bearings.

[EC8010]

Thanks for the explanation. No oil for me!