Anti-seize

[Qweaver]

I just spent a week resurrecting a 20' trailer that I built 20 years ago.  It had been setting in a field, unused, for 15 of those years and was covered with salt water from hurricane Ike in 2009.   All of the decking bolts had to be ground off but most of the other bolts come loose, not easily, but without breaking.  So after sandblasting, primer and painting, new axles, wheels,hubs, brakes and hitch...I'm putting it all back together.  All in all about $1500 in parts and materials. This trailer will go to work at my sawmill in WV so it will never see salt water again but I am considering using anti-seize on all of the bolts.   I am wondering if that would make the nuts tend to work loose?  Especially the wheel nuts.
I could have built a new trailer much faster than cleaning this one up but at the present cost of steel, I could not just throw this one away.  This will make a dandy 12,000 GVW log hauler.
Surprisingly, the stub axles and hubs are OK and I'll use them for something.  :
Quinton

[submarinesailor]

Quinton,

We use it all the time on a great number of items.  Have used it throughout my Navy career on board the boats, both inside and out.  This is the one I use the most right now:
http://www.permatex.com/products/automotive/lubricants/specialty_lubricants/Permatex_Anti-Seize_Lubricant_a.htm

bruce

[Buck]

I use the same stuff.  Sometimes I cut it with a little penetrating oil to "thin" it a little bit so its not quite as gummy.  Wish My grandparents home in Galveston would have fared as good as your trailer.

[Al_Smith]

Good old Never Seeze makes a number of compounds  that work well .

Now about those U-boats .Some moron of a machinests mate greased the main hatch on the fast attack boat I was on  with moly grease .Bad plan,moly and salt water turns into concrete .There we were the chief of the boat and myself on the top side with a big rachet wrench and two 250 pound machinests mates below before we got it dogged in . A little PM was in order when we got to Burmuda .  ;)

[Chuck White]

I use quite a lot of the Permatex® antiseize that Bruce had listed.

Every time I remove a bolt from my sawmill, it gets a liberal cleaning and a coating of antiseize before it is reinstalled.

Then, I never have to worry about whether or not I'll have to fight the bolt or nut again!  ;)

[scsmith42]

Quinton, I too use anti-seize liberally on bolts, including wheel studs.  No problems thus far.  Be sure to torque the wheel nuts properly, and check them after a short drive.

[wood monger]

I work at a pop bottling plant, lots of chemicals, water, etc. We use it whenever possible. it's great stuff, allows you to get stuff back apart. We use hevi-duty or marine grade. I knew a guy who used the stuff on U-bolts for muffler clamps and was able to unbolt the clamps instead of the usual breaking them off.

[jamesamd]

About right,  http://www.stlaroc.com/features/torqtips.html
JIM

[submarinesailor]

Al,

Your experience with the hatch reminds me of other story from the boats. 

We were in Charleston, SC for a missile offload prior to going into Newport News shipyard.  After all the birds were off, we started in on offloading the gas generators (gas generators were used to impulse the missile out of the missile tube prior to rocket motor start).  These gas generators are solid fuel rocket motors that are bolted in place with a bunch of stainless steel cap screws, big cap screws that are torqued to 350 foot pounds.  Torqued into a stainless steel ring.  So you had SS steel into SS steel.  Well someone did not used anti seize on several of those cap screws.  So, here we were trying to cut these cap screws off of a LIVE ROCKET MOTOR.  You couldn't use a torch, or a pneumatic chipping hammer.  So, it was hand sawing all 5 or 6 cap screws off.  I think it took about 7.5 hours.  Talk about some tried arms. All 13 of my boys and several other guys were flat worn out by the time we got those gas generators off the boat.

Bruce

[SPIKER]

Bruce: S.S will GAUL depending on the type of stainless steel it is the worse it can be.   I recently built a lot of industrial equipment and we got in some 304SS bolts that we could install & remove 3 or 4 times finger tight and then they would roll the thread & Gaul up..    I worked in A.F. and we used good old blue bottle of Phillips Milk of magnesia for the afterburner fins on planes due to the heating of sticking the AB fins into hot jet exhaust but the PM would let them pull back out even after plenty of heating & cooling cycles.   I also use it on cast iron engine head/exhaust header bolts & it works like a champ.   100K miles on my cougar and they came right apart & staid good & tight...


mark

[Dan_Shade]

Whatever you get, make sure you bust a bottle in your toolbox.  :D

since I did that, I'm convinced that one tube of that stuff contains enough material to cover the earth 3 times over.

[Dale Hatfield]

I have a love hate relationship with the stuff. Love the way it works. I hate the fact that it can cover the world 3 times over. I will have that stuff everywhere when I use it.

[Qweaver]

Well, here is the resurrected trailer with the offending salt water in the background  This is one of the last built by my welding class before I retired and is typical of the type that we built.  4" channel and 2x2x1/4" angle.  1/4" fenders. Simple and strong.  This was sure a lot of work...much easier to just build from scratch.
   

[moosehunter]

Imho, Use anti-sieze any where that you may need to take apart something again, EXCEPT lug nuts and studs. It is an exceptional short term lubricant and will result in over torqued lugs. I have seen wheels cave under the pressure of torquing with a hand torque wrench. Use a light lubricant on your lugs - WD-40 or similar.

In case you didn't know, anti-sieze uses glass beads to keep threads from sticking. At least the gray Permatex does.

mh

[Al_Smith]

Stainless is not the magical cure all of metals .It has it's place but I think a lot of people are under the assumption that it's best for every application .It's not, plain and simple .

On a threaded fastener of course it will not rust or corode but it will gall up and get about as tight as if it were a rivit . You can't cut it off with with a cutting torch  if it gets stuck .

Another old story from when I wore the bell bottom blues .If we ever had to take a hull plate off we always used some type of compound before it was reinstalled .They were 3/8" socket head ,flat head screws ,stainless .