Noisy Dragonfly Rotary

[Davidbautista90]

Hey I have a green dragonfly which I've been using for about 5/6 months now, but I was wondering if your guys dragonflies are noisy when you give it more give or if that was just something funny on my model. I constantly oil it about every 2 weeks, don't know if that has anything to do with it too. It's not nearly as loud as my coil machines but I guess I'm too used to how silent the hawk and bishop are that I thought the dragonfly should be silent too.

[N.I.L.8]

im running into the same problem....when i first got it i could crank it up and i feel the more i use it the louder its gotten. ive troubleshot everything to figure out where the excess noise is coming from and i couldnt get it. i also oil my machine about once every 3 weeks. i almost wonder if the oil is beaking down the grease that the machine came with. if anyone has any info please holla! my dragonfly used to be 100% silent and now its starting to get quite a bit louder:( ive also found that my negative ground will come loose and needs to be tightened from time to time.

[peter clements]

im running into the same problem....when i first got it i could crank it up and i feel the more i use it the louder its gotten. ive troubleshot everything to figure out where the excess noise is coming from and i couldnt get it. i also oil my machine about once every 3 weeks. i almost wonder if the oil is beaking down the grease that the machine came with. if anyone has any info please holla! my dragonfly used to be 100% silent and now its starting to get quite a bit louder:( ive also found that my negative ground will come loose and needs to be tightened from time to time.

Have you Emailed the makers about these issues? Doesn't sound right at all to me-send it back.

[tattooedpirate2]

If I'm not mistaken the piston/slide mechanism is made out of teflon plastic and certain petroleum based oils penitrate the teflon and eat it up. You might want to look for wear in the piston bore and if the piston has excessive wear.

[Davidbautista90]

Hey I messaged Christian today and he replied very quickly saying

"That is normal. It is pree lubed with grease from the factory and when that breaks down it sounds a bit more. The reason we supply oil instead of grease is that its hard to get it in to the vital areas. The softer adjustment and the heavier the needles the more sound."

[Davidbautista90]

He also said

"The machine is not worn it will last much longer. Another thing is that the inner piston spring gets a little bit weaker after some time, you can stretch it just a little it will reduce noise but hit harder. Make sure to oil it in the oval hole above the needle bar pin and work it in for a while. Also take off the cap and push down the square piston and oil around it."

[slicksteel]

man thats alot of bs to have to deal with on a weekly basis! I was thinking of getting one but seems like a lot of hassels with this machine!

[Davidbautista90]

The only problem I've had with it was the noise issue, oiling it is like with most other rotaries, I personally like being able to adjust the give to work with different peoples skin and depending on what type of work I'm doing. I still love my dragonfly but I wasn't sure if the noise issue was normal or not, aside from that it's still an awesome machine!

[Mr.Taboo]

Manual says to oil it every 100 hours of use. So depending on your work load probably every two weeks or so give or take. Though I imagine more frequently wouldn't be bad , it would just flush out the heavier grease a little quicker. Making for more noise , I'm still new to mine but did notice that when set softer it does get a little louder then when set for firm.

[otto]

if your spring is tired,when the machine setup is smooth the needlebar pin will travel a little bit more up and will hit the uper wall of the cylinder producing that noise,or the noise damper(it s an little oring inside) becomed harder (oil is not too friendly with rubber)

[N.I.L.8]

i talked to my old man whos an engineer at nasa and he was telling me that basicly (this is the dumbed down version) grease for gears and oil for bearrings in this situation. he said that the downfall is that grease atracts airborne contaminants if not sealed which could be an issue with cross contaminantion. he went on to say that if engineered correctly, there should be more "space" left around the piston for grease than there would be for oil due to its viscosity. this small amount of play due to the oil pushing the grease out is enough cause chatter. he then instructed me to remove the piston clean it completely of the oil and then use a regular marine grade grease. christian @ inkmachines.com instructed the use of "any normal grease". i used the marine grease and it worked like a charm.dont forget all matter in the universe is trying to make its way back to its original form, with this said petrol based products will break down anything else with petrol in it.

[N.I.L.8]

...under the right conditions.

[Administrator]

What about Teflon or Silicone based lubricants?

[N.I.L.8]

after doing a lil more research im seeing that teflon lubes with a fluoropolymer base should work fine for any machine, there is also a product called hot sauce for the gears in a fishing reel thats brags in the speed department and also a product called superlube, which if im not mistaken is a silicon base. the viscosity is the key. it almost acts as a dampener in the way of sealing the excess play around the piston to avoid the sound waves from escaping.

im interested in seing if somone would be willing to make the shaft and piston out of graphite...self lubing anyone?

[Zapp]

Franco use in his bishops SUPER LUBE Synthetic Multi-Purpose Grease and i use it for my Rotary Works Machines also !
GREAT STUFF !!!!

[N.I.L.8]

good stuff! im gonna give it a shot on my workhorse when the time comes:)

[fkirons]

Lithium grease.