Anyone lubricate a Incra TS-LS micro adjuster?

[Brian Tymchak]

Howdy. I've had the Incra TS-LS fence on my table saw for about 14 years. Lately, the micro adjuster has gotten difficult to rotate. After 14 years I figure it needs a good clean out and lube job. However, it's not obvious to me how to do that. There is no info about lubricating (or any maintenace) of the fence/positioner in the manual or on Incra's website. I only found one post in another forum that essentially said to dribble a lubricant onto the wheel and work it in. I'm hoping someone here on the Creek has done this and can provide me with some direction on how to go about this.

Thanks!

[Dave Zellers]

Haven't done it but own Incra positioners and miter gauges. My first attempt I think would to try to use past wax before oil given all the sawdust involved. I bought some beeswax pellets and melted some in mineral oil for situations where wax is too thick and oil attracts too much dust. I made a 1-3 wax to oil and a 3-1 wax to oil. I like the 3-1 mix on most things. A Q-tip or toothpick (or both) might be the best applicator in this case.

For the melting- mixing process, I simply placed a can over a 100 watt light bulb. It doesn't take long.

But of course, many would just shoot it up with WD40.

[Patty Hann]

Haven't done it but own Incra positioners and miter gauges. My first attempt I think would to try to use past wax before oil given all the sawdust involved. I bought some beeswax pellets and melted some in mineral oil for situations where wax is too thick and oil attracts too much dust. I made a 1-3 wax to oil and a 3-1 wax to oil. I like the 3-1 mix on most things. A Q-tip or toothpick (or both) might be the best applicator in this case.

For the melting- mixing process, I simply placed a can over a 100 watt light bulb. It doesn't take long.

But of course, many would just shoot it up with WD40.

Super-dee-duper idea... if you can still find a 100W incandescent bulb

[Dave Zellers]

Super-dee-duper idea... if you can still find a 100W incandescent bulb

In the future the kids will ask, "Why doesn't my 100 watt equivalent LED bulb work?"

[jim sauterer]

I had the same problem call infra customer support they will walk you through it they are great to deal with.i don’t remember but it was simple and worked great after.hope this will help.

[Richard Coers]

Isn't there a plastic nut in the micro adjuster? Better be careful with what lubricant you add or it could make that nut brittle or cause it to fall apart.

[Rich Engelhardt]

When in doubt - dry lube usually works.
Don't have any on hand?

Shave a tiny bit off of any lead pencil with a single edge razor blade or sharp utility knife. The "lead" is really just graphite.
Works like gang busters in sticky locks.

[Jimmy Harris]

When in doubt - dry lube usually works.
Don't have any on hand?

Shave a tiny bit off of any lead pencil with a single edge razor blade or sharp utility knife. The "lead" is really just graphite.
Works like gang busters in sticky locks.

I wouldn't use normal pencil lead though. A normal pencil, like your typical No. 2 is an HB hardness, which means it's about half clay and half graphite. Graphite is soft, so they mix it with hard clay to stiffen it up. And by grinding up a normal pencil, you're introducing an abrasive with your lubricant. And that might work in the short term, but it'll do more damage in the long run.

Now if you have access to something like a 12B art pencil, then that is going to mostly, if not all, graphite. And that would work as intended. Even an 8B probably wouldn't be too bad, as it too would be mostly graphite. But unless you have artist pencils available to you, I'd stick to the regular graphite lubricant. Or one of the other dry lubricants.

And you can still buy incandescent light bulbs. While the ban went into effect in August of 2023, there are carve outs for certain applications. Like you can still buy photo enlarger incandescent (and halogen) light bulbs. The PH bulbs, like PH140 and PH212, use the old standard light bulb socket, and are pretty much identical to the old light bulbs. They just have special coatings to make sure they put out the right balance of the light spectrum for developing film. Getting the color balance right with LED's or CFL's is pretty much impossible because they're not black body light sources to begin with.

[Rich Engelhardt]

You learn something new every day.
I've always just grabbed a #2 pencil and scraped off some of it when I had a stickey lock.

[Brian Tymchak]

Thanks all for the tips.

I had the same problem call infra customer support they will walk you through it they are great to deal with.i don’t remember but it was simple and worked great after.hope this will help.

Simple is good. Glad to hear that.

Isn't there a plastic nut in the micro adjuster? Better be careful with what lubricant you add or it could make that nut brittle or cause it to fall apart.

I have no idea what the internals look like. If there is a plastic nut in there, that might be the source of the issue if it cracked or something.

I'll tear into the fence this weekend. I may have to use it more traditionally for a while if I have to order parts. You never really understand how dependent you've become on something until you lose it. It already drives me nuts having to adjust the fence those last few thousands without the micro adjuster.

[Richard Coers]

Here is what the manual says about maintenance;
Screenshot 2024-03-15 at 10.00.02 AM.png

[Richard Coers]

And this instruction tells you about replacing the threaded segment. https://incra.com/manuals/ThreadedSe...cement_ins.pdf

[Bill Dufour]

Dupont chain saver lube. Wax in a spray can. Goes on wet with solvent that cleans off gunk. Dries to a clear thin wax that does not attract dust.
Bill D

[Brian Tymchak]

Here is what the manual says about maintenance;
Screenshot 2024-03-15 at 10.00.02 AM.png

Thanks for posting that. That's not in my manual which seemed odd. So, digging thru all my shop tool docs, I found another owners manual (the TS-LS ) in my router table folder, which has the maintenance section. The first manual I was looking at is called the LS Positioner, which deals with installation and usage on a router table. Just flipped thru it to find any mention of maintenance and didn't pick up that it was the router table manual. Somewhere along the line I misfiled things.

Still, though, I would like an exploded view of the micro adjuster to understand how to disassemble that. I'll spend some time on it tomorrow after getting the spring yardwork started....

[Richard Coers]

Thanks for posting that. That's not in my manual which seemed odd. So, digging thru all my shop tool docs, I found another owners manual (the TS-LS ) in my router table folder, which has the maintenance section. The first manual I was looking at is called the LS Positioner, which deals with installation and usage on a router table. Just flipped thru it to find any mention of maintenance and didn't pick up that it was the router table manual. Somewhere along the line I misfiled things.

Still, though, I would like an exploded view of the micro adjuster to understand how to disassemble that. I'll spend some time on it tomorrow after getting the spring yardwork started....

Did you see my second link? It shows the half nut that engages the threaded rod/