Please recommend a flashlight grease for dummies (ie me)

kreisler,

When the weather clears, come around for a good home-made espresso and a few drops of that fabulous silicone oil on your flashlight threads. Smile

weather has cleared :steve: , i am coming to Sloveniaaaahhh!!

( sorry, but i took your words as invitation. hehe )

Espresso machine turned on.

I hope you'll understand that, given the current oil shortage, only brand name flashlights qualify... Laughing

i am looking into it, good idea ;)

Fenix is brand name :

Looking now for some good oily stuff..

Me too. Had it for years and use it on everything. Doesn’t eat any O-rings that I know of. Easy to find. I got mine at a gunshop but prob find at hardware store.

Please recommend a flashlight grease for dummies (ie me)

BTW, I'm pretty sure the lubricants recommended above were for the flashlight, not for the dummy. Just an FYI...

Ouch! Supposed to feed squirrels nuts, not crush 'em. Laughing

http://www.youtube.com/embed/TamMqvk4Bb8

In applications where it's OK to use a petroleum-based lubricant, I really like Rem Oil :

It's ostensibly for Remington firearms, but works great in appropriate flashlight applications.

Do not use with rubber O-rings or other rubber components, as with any other dino oil.

I seem to be the only one who thinks the "stickiness" or "thickness" is actually a pro and not a con. The light scuba silicone grease I use will stay were it belongs..... on the threads. I used various lighter mineral lubes and nyogel before and hated it. They went everywhere... battery, tailcap and my clothes... they were too thin... so I actually prefer thicker lubes because it makes fiddling around with not so well cut threads so much easier. Also silicone lube is non-toxic. I use it on everything twisties, clickies, anodized, non-anodized ... no problem at all. The slightly higher resistance is a non-issue for me. Although, I noticed that my light scuba grease is not as solid as the nextorch stuff, it moves at very slow speeds when I move the jar.

thanks for sharing Vectrex!

if we all lived in the States we would probably use exclusively the Superlube stuff. 3$ for a litttle tube (1/2 oz), 5$ for a large tube (3 oz) and available from many vendors (incl free conus). the generic term for super lube is either < teflon grease > or < teflon oil >. Those lubricants are popular among cyclists (where are our cyclists@BLF when we need'em in the discussion?) and gun hobbyists, and any gun shop and bicycle shop would offer teflon-based lubes (also < teflon spray >).

Superlube seems special in many ways: The entire company is specialized on selling it (Synco Lube), the stuff is patented, and more sophisticated than the generic teflon lubes. And last but not least, it's cheaper than the competition.

Ebay asks 8-10$ for global shipping of a mini tube of 3$ Superlube (no thx!), so i am checking now a few other sensible sources..

Vectrex your stuff seems to be much better than the stiff sticky Nextorch ***p. Am just thinking that any teflon based lube must be way superior on the threads (if one wants soft and easy twisting action).

@ Vectrex: I think one of the problems can be quality. There seems to be more slop in budget lights' threads, requiring more lube, attracting more grit or leaving more lube behind.

You are likely using higher-quality torches with the thicker lube, as well as with diving lights - the thicker stuff being extra insurance against water intrusion.

I generally use the thicker stuff in joints that are less frequently used, along with those using metal/plastic threads. (e.g. Jetbeam PA40, Fenix LD40)

I like the thinner stuff (RemOil, et.al) on tailcaps, since they are more frequently removed for battery installation, and are more often wiped down (and re-lubed)

I had the silicone jelly on a Fenix L1P and a Quark at one point. The Fenix particularly didn’t like it because of its fine threads.
My silicone jelly came from a plumbing dept, so there may be thinner versions. It might work good on lights with sloppy threads.

yepyep. that's the perfect version. Item no. 21030, i.e. 3 oz. of the standard Synco product. I talked to the company and they informed me that "Super Lube" and "Superlube" are protected trade names in Germany and that's the main reason why nobody in the world is allowed to officially sell Synco's product under this name ("Super Lube") in Germany, neither thru a distributor channel, amazon or ebay unless you want to risk getting sued. There might be other reasons why most/all U.S. dealers do *not* ship the original product to Germany economically ( i am not going to pay 8 or 10$ ebay shipping costs cheapo me hehe). I found a German dealer who sells the liquid form of Synco's Super Lube, namely the Super Lube Precision Oiler (renamed to "Synco Lube Oiler"):

That dealer might be able to offer "Synco Lube Grease" in future but that might take a while. So for the mean time i've ordered the Synco Lube Oil and will test it for you, me, us. Typically watchmakers and camera fetishists use Superlube Oil .. for minimum friction in rotating fine machine parts (watches, clocks).

I am just looking for minimal drag in my twisties (Romisen zoom, Quark tactical UI, AAA keychain lights), especially on bare aluminium threads.

I will keep you posted if kreisler recommends the stuff or not. be my word the last on the topic "synco's super lube oiler". where's your trust, where's my credit? i am doing it as BFL service ;)

Kreisler:

If you have any stores (ConUS would be Cabella's, Bass Pro Shops, Gander Mountain, etc.) locally that cater to fishermen, you might try fishing reel grease or fishing reel oil. Ardent is one brand I've thought of trying, but I'm testing out bicycle chain oil right now.

Thanks for the tip. However I'll do no more testing (experimenting) other than the just ordered superlube oil. In fact, the Synco company's engineer recommended suberlube grease over the suberlube oil when i asked him which one would better suit my needs (non-anodized aluminum threads, twist UI). but let kreisler have the final word on this topic "superlube grease vs. superlube oil". My total was €6.89 (=9.xxUS$) for the oil (and it should be better than silicone oil because mine contains teflon), and i already wasted much time on the Nextorch ****, so i'll be fed up with the lubing topic if the oil turns out to be a disappointment.

If it does, i'll try to sell it here (krrrhh).

And go back to the dry state: no lubes, nothing. bone dry.

I have a tube of grease and some kind of "dry lubricant" with teflon added in my hobby workshop. Both seem highly regarded by cyclists.

I never tried them on flashlights, wondering if, with time, the teflon deposit (if real) might impair the electrical connection.

agedbriar - is the dry lube by chance 'White Lightning'?

i am almost(?) sure that my dad's got similar stuff in his garage or workshop but i guess i prefer to import my own mini original tube Made in USA and keep it neatly in my personal drawer. and i am not interested in any further experiments. Any synthetic lube with added teflon will do the trick i am sure, be it cyclist's lube, fishing's lube or gun oil. They are also more expensive than Superlube. Superlube is brand name stuff and yet the cheapest of all teflon-based lubes.

Cant wait to test the Synco oil..

No, it's this:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=5963

Looks and feels like milk when applied. You have to let it dry before using the lubricated parts, which then get a thin coating of lubricant that indeed doesn't attract dust as much as common grease. Not quite "dry", though, something between grease and wax, I'd say.