On Aug 20, 3:58 pm, wright1902glider wrote:
... In the film, they describe coating the prop shaft of
the R-2800 with the "perscribed mixture" of white lead and castor oil
before installing the prop.

Just out of curiousity, how would someone comply with this procedure
now? Castol oil is easy enough to get, but white lead? Substitutes?
And what exactly does the white lead do? Does it act as a packing or
anti-corosive?

I've found that when restoring or reproducing vintage things,
attempting to find the correct materials is a real challenge, if not
impossible. When I built my Wright machine, the only easy materials to
find were the steel rod, sheet, and wire.


My first thought was that the mixture might be some
sort of never seize, but then I remembered that white lead
(lead oxide I think) is a 'drier', a chemical that was added
to linseed oil or oil paints to initiate polymerization.

So now I'm thinking that this was some sort of adhesive, or
maybe an anti-corrosion coating like a very hard version
of cosmoline. I think Japaning, a predecessor to baked
enamel paint also used white lead.

Anyhow, linseed oil and oil based paints still use driers,
cobalt salt are typically used instead of lead compounds.

'Japan drier' is _something_ dissolved in solvent which
can be added to oil finishes to speed the hardening. It
is still sold today, must not contain white lead. So
my next guess would be that castor oil and Japan drier
might be an acceptable substitute. I've seen Japan drier
in catalogs and on the shelf at the BORG.

Knowing _why_ they coated the shaft, and what parts of
the shaft, would help.

FWIW, you CAN get white lead but you'd probably
have to order it from a company that sells chemicals
in general as opposed to just picking it up at a hardware
store or paint store.

--

FF