Question about silicone grase.
The silicone grase used for oring lube is DIELECTRIC (not conducts electricity).... so.... if we put it in a flashlight with not-anodised threads (which uses the threads to conduct electricity) it will stop working?
Well, "dielectric" has a very specific physics meaning, but for our purposes here the grease is an insulator.
It doesn't matter on the threads because the mechanical pressure of the locking threads easily displaces the liquid. If anything, the liquid can help suspend and displace other particulates that otherwise impede conduction.
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Actually if the grease you use is the thick and not flowing type, it might impede conductivity. But if your light has tight threads (you feel some resistence when screwing it w/o the o-ring), it really shouldn't be a problem.
And how about this product? is LIQUID silicone , not grease itself. It is liquid
I have seen contact problems in end cap treads.Also some welding marks at battery contact points. Since it is not mentioned more here,I guess it is related to the alloys used in sub $3 lights?
Ordinary car grease made it worse. I temporary solved it with a kind of aluminum grease used for cars.Do not want those on skin and clothes.
Will try vaselin and baby oil and value them with a multimeter.
Lennart
Don't use oil-based lubricants! They will break down rubber gaskets and cause them to break.
This is a quite old thread. Most people have now started using Nextorch grease. Its cheap and easy to get and it is made for flashlights:
http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php/nextorch-silicone-grease-for-flashlights-p-5355
Do not know if that is true?Oil system on cars are full of rubber seals.Just look at an oil filter rubber gasket.
Lennart
I use superlube oil with PTFE. I've never had a problem with it migrating but i also only need 1-2 drops (depending on the size/number of threads) to make whatever i am lubing spin smoothly. I only bought 1.25oz needle oil bottle and probably still have 1.245oz after oiling my 10 lights.
Just to chime in, I've lubed my m@glites with vaseline for years, if not decades. Just recently, I found out vaseline (or petrol jelly, or white petrolatum, or CAS 8009-03-8) will cause the m@glite O-rings to swell to a degree or two, but actually, that's not bad. Petrol jelly makes them swell over time to actually better seal.
On my new lights, as of 2010, I've used the mucho-expensive NyoGel acquired through lighthound.com @ downright ridiculous shipping costs to EU (I'll stress that until the day they'll reduce shipping costs for a padded envelope to sensible levels below 30 bucks - heck, I haven't even paid that much shipping for a box from Montana containing a finned aluminum oil pan for my V8 engine). Never will do that again. The stuff's great though, I'm merely unhappy with the source ATM.
Automotive silicone grease makes perfectly sense, but personally, I am still a bit wary of silicone. I do some spray painting every now and then, and therefor silicones of all form are being avoided... mostly.
As far as WD40 is concerned - while it may actually act as a lubricant for a very short period, it is NOT a lubricant. It still is what it has been formulated for half a century ago: a water-displacing agent to clear hunting rifles of moisture. It's a quick aid, but not a cure-all; and certainly no substitute for a genuine lube. Even 15-weight motor oil would do a better job at that.
NexTORCH: I still have to try that myself! My nearest source would be antsupplies.co.uk again, but sadly, the last time I placed an order, they were out of it. I'll have to ask back, though, they seem to be carrying this grease on a regular basis. Might be a good source for BLF members located in Europe. Can't complain about them shipping costs from Wales, UK to European mainland either.
Manafont may be initially cheaper, though, but also takes much longer (roundabout six weeks from HK to Germany).
Hope that helps,
Simon the Sixfink
I used to use Vaseline to lube leaky pneumatic cylinders, as it made the o-rings soften and swell. I can confirm, with 100% certainty, that petroleum jelly will damage many o-rings, and would not suggest it for flashlights or any other o-rings except as a last-ditch effort to make a dried and hardened seal last a little longer.
For flashlights, I use either Dow Corning o-ring lube or the "Lube Gel" sold at radio shack. It looks like they've branded several things as the same lube gel, and I don't know which one my (ancient - probably 10 years old now) tube is. Based on the descriptions at CPF (and, you've gotta love CPF... moderators closing threads about lube with rude replies after one post...), the stuff I have is probably SuperLube re-branded. I use SuperLube for other things, and they certainly are similar. Since it seems like the current product is not the same (and seems to eat o-rings, from the reports), you might try getting SuperLube. I know Harbor Freight carries it - I use it on my milling machine's ways.
Don't use teflon Magic Lube. Turns tacky and sticky as soon as it's thin, and you have to use really toxic solvents to get it off.
Any dive shop and most plumbing stores should have silicone grease which should be excellent. You could also get dielectric grease from any automotive store, which is just high-purity silicone grease. It's used on spark plug boots, distributor caps, connector pins, etc. Disc brake caliper pin grease might work well too - it's a bit thinner than dielectric grease, and very slippery.
Hrmm, I have some Wet Platinum somewhere, which is silicone lube... never tried it on a flashlight. It's useless under high pressures (even ones it's intended for), but it is very slippery, and would probably work quite well on well-machined threads.
Don't use lithium grease (or axle grease, molygraph, chasis lube, or anything similar)... it makes some o-rings crack very quickly, and when heated it will separate, giving you a messy pocket and dried/stuck threads...
The only "aluminum grease made for cars" that I can think of is anti-seize, which dries relatively hard and is rather abrasive, so I would not suggest using it...
--Bushytails
I currently I am using this
And is the best I have found at the moment, very close to the one used in my itp at factory