Ed’s Red and 70-90 year old garage door rollers

JHZR2

Staff member
Joined
Dec 14, 2002
Messages
52,631
Location
New Jersey
On one of my buildings I’ve been working to replace the lower section of the original 9’ high wooden garage doors. It had seen enough rot over time in the bottom section and panels, it was time to replace.

Most of the rollers still roll fine. The door is really heavy, being wood and 9’; the springs are really big compared to my 8x8 doors at my home.

I decided to try to clean up a few that I had taken out. They have large ball bearings, and I figure they’re better made than anything I’d get from HD. I decided to try to use some Ed’s red, a common gun cleaning solution that consists of atf, kerosine, acetone, and lanolin.

A64F7755-5117-4986-887B-0C9FE3AF2E9D.jpeg


It really did good for cleaning and flushing the bearings. The rollers work perfectly. I greased them up with some red spray grease that I blew through to get any other dirt or grime out.

FF8C8C4B-2D57-4BC4-AE3C-44C09D049E2A.jpeg
1655EB2A-8616-41D3-BCED-DDF728392D23.jpeg
0307A119-CFE7-4358-9524-66C3894858C8.jpeg
6EDFF819-3733-4EBE-9C97-151523AB7902.jpeg
5F9870D1-701D-4094-A44D-034000800880.jpeg


Ed’s red is a useful solvent, cleaner and lube for a lot of different things.
 
Cool!
Never though of using Ed's Red like that. Some people do use it as a penetrating oil. Might have to try it. I add banana oil just for the old popular brand smell. Dexron can stink pretty bad. LOL.
 
Think about the number of actions over the years. Simple and durable.
 
Cool!
Never though of using Ed's Red like that. Some people do use it as a penetrating oil. Might have to try it. I add banana oil just for the old popular brand smell. Dexron can stink pretty bad. LOL.

What was the old popular brand that smelled like bananas?
 
I went to (big box store) to look at their Roller Bearings.
They were cheap plastic.

For the same amount of money, I bought these.
There the best in the industry.

If I had needed some, I would have bought some. Totally agree about what the box stores have, its pretty terrible. I did have to buy a universal top roller kit which worked well, admittedly, but I used the old roller.

Ive had my eyes on better rollers actually for my doors at home, which tend to bind a bit going up and down.
 
Garage roller design hasn't changed much in almost a century!
It's only been 100 years. Give 'em time and the Japan engineers will improve it, the China engineers will backwards engineer and copy it for cheaper, and the German engineers will make it complicated.
What was the old popular brand that smelled like bananas?
Hoppes. It didn't smell like bananas, but the banana oil gave it a distinct smell the current version doesn't quite have.
 
Back
Top