My Squeaky Carousel...

Eric

Hi, My 10196 Grand Carousel, has begin to squeak, when turning.
At first, I thought it was the wheels on the bottom of the turntable, so I pulled the thing apart and washed out the wheels, they remained squeak free for all of 5 mins. I then thought to raise up the whole carousel, thinking it might be hitting on the baseplate. Now one plate higher, and still squeaky. I'm not sure what to do next, It never used to squeak, so something has probably come loose, but when I cleaned the wheels, I went round and tightened everything, (was actually quite loose). I'm thinking a plate or some other part has slightly warped with the weight of the Lego. I don't have a huge selection of parts to interchange, so does anyone have any tweaks, or suggestions to fix this?

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I'm very OCD when it comes to my Lego, so this is really annoying...
Thanks.

prof1515

Oil the wheels by placing a drop of model airplane oil (or some other fine density lubricant) on the axle.

oldtodd33

^^ I'm a bit OCD about my Legos also and would think that any kind of oil would be messy and too runny for the application and will collect dust and dirt. I haven't had this problem on my carousel, but I don't run mine that much. Strictly display. Plastic on plastic axels do typically have this problem though. I would try getting some silicone spray and spray the technic pins on both ends as well as the drive wheel pin on the large tire. The silicone won't be oily or collect dust and dirt.

achillespdx

The other option would be graphite powder instead of something liquid. Not sure what the long-term effects on ABS plastic might be, but the prolonged friction will eventually require you to replace the axles and rollers eventually anyway.

Eric

Thanks, I'll pull them out again, and put something on them, I'll see what Dad's got lying around in his shed. :P and ^^ I don't run mine all that much either, which is why I'm a tad annoyed.

madforLEGO

I have used a small (and I mean SMALL) dab of Vaseline on technic pins (specifically the black pins).. especially for technic sets I want to get back apart after building them...