I have a strong indication you know what youāre talking about, but that youāre also shooting from the hip here. I can back up my claims.
Silicone grease is a poor choice for silicone o-rings
see here
also,
See Under O-Ring Compatibility
also,
look for Silicone
I donāt know what material is used for o-rings, I donāt know if natural rubber is used anywhere, but if it is, a petroleum-based grease is not recommended. If youād like to use silicone grease on your silicone o-rings, more power to you, but you can expect them to swell and foul your action as well as snap and lose your water seal.
I didnāt mean to come up head to head with you, just figured you were shooting from the hip. If youād take a few minutes to do some Google Fu, I am confident you will be reminded. Its an easy thing to flip flop. The CPF Comprehensive Lube thread is a unified resource great for the purpose of flashlight thread and o-ring lubrication, but there are plenty of other sources of information backing up my claims regarding compatible lube for the kind of material. Donāt take my word for it, see for yourself. But please lets not just naysay each other, kind of pointless.
Fwiw I think there is probably a difference in application between divers needing to seal out water under great pressures and flashaholics needing to seal out water of no or marginal pressure and dust AND have decent lubrication for threaded action. Often, flashaholics will simply remove the o-ring completely, as their need for water seal is minimal but their desire for smooth action is great. Sounds like for diving appliations what you want is a damn tight seal, and in that application, silicone lube works for the purpose. For flashlight o-rings, you wonāt want that kind of seal.
Also, galling is simply metals in contact siezing, and can be, is often caused by galvonic corrosion, which is itself caused by a metal, like Fe or Stainless Steel from one batch, corroding in preferential to another, maybe like Cu, or even Stainless Steel with slightly different amounts of its constituents from another batch, when they are in electrical contact, like in a flashlight tube, in the presence of a conducting solution, say, lube, even if a vanishingly small amount.