I hear people talking about lubing? their new flashlights.
I have had a Solarforce L2i for over a year now.. but it ate the O-ring!
it didnt have sufficient (oil,grease whatever), and now its dry, and after opening and closing the
tailcap, its damaged, so I need to get a new o-ring.
BUT I would like to know where I can get some of that lubricant.. ?
Is this any good? from DX; Maintenance Lubricant for Bicycle & Flashlight (50ml)
I was watching DX. and someone says an Oring needs some silicone grease...
What do I need? lubricant, silicone grease?
please help me, would appreciate links to products, and explanation what to look for, what is good stuff, and what to stay away from..
Are its threads anodized? If not, then avoid silicone grease.
I use mostly Bisley gun lubricant or deoxit red for flashlight threads and it works great. Greases tend to go everywhere and can be messy at times, so if you choose a grease do not use too much of it.
Now that SPAMBOT told not to use silicone based grease on Un-Anodized threads, I´m getting some ideas why my Solarforces make a constant & terrible mess...
Good to know.. now I need to make things sure.. I guess my lights are a mix between anodized and not anodized..
what should I get then?
@agedbriar: what youre referring to from DX, is silicone grease, and SPAMBOT is saying to stay away from that.
Who`s right?
@SPAMBOT: what do you prefer (Please dont give me some brandnames from the US. Im in Japan, and would prefer stuff from internet, but rather some DX, DD, KD, MF etc, thank you)
That's exactly what is happening with my blf tank e07. It was smooth and easy to turn before as it arrived lubed. Then when I use silicone grease (MF) it became gritty and black residue formed. I cleaned the grease off before continuing this post and the grittiness diminished considerably.
What is happening? Is silicone still advisable for anodized threads or silicone oil for all threads?
I've used many things in the past, but this works fine for me. You can get a dropper bottle from DX with a very fine tip or a syringe type blunt needle. These are great for applying small amounts of oil to the right places.
If you want something thicker something like SAE90 gearbox oil ought to do the trick.
On badly worn threads, I use plumbers PTFE tape - as long as the negative contact isn't through the threads.
Not sure which countries they are in besides the US, but the precision lube Radio Shack is some really good stuff for the price. I was finding silicone gel too thick before I read about this stuff.
i use the liquid version of super lube. It works great! Anodized or not it makes the metal glide across pretty darn well and with just using one or two drops.
I've been using the DX silicone oil I linked to for several months on anodized and unanodized threads and I'm quite happy with it. Of course, I use it sparingly. Even so, I've learned to not touch the lubricated threads when I drop the battery in my hand.
Another lubricant that worked fine for me, although somewhat thicker, was a silicone grease that scuba divers use. My son pointed me to that one, as it's standard among divers, but I would have to drive to the city to buy it, whereas DX delivers to my doorstep.
Nextorch "SL6" silicone grease, makes non-anodized threads "gritty" and produces grey/black crap that gets everywhere. Not recommended for bare threads. Works well for anodized threads tho...
Bare aluminum is inherently "dirty" so you are going to see some grey residue no matter what, your choice of lubricant can increase or reduce this however. Anodized threads are king since they are naturally much "cleaner". Deoxit is decent, does not produce "crap" nearly as fast as silicone oil and especially silicone grease.
I've used anything and everything ...having heard petroleum based oil isn't good for o-rings I opted for vegetable oil ,lip balm(bees wax) ,hand lotion,bear grease ,and finally silicone lube that I stumbled across in the garage . interesting to hear people don't like it very much ..my feelings on it are mixed as well . Next i'm going to try machine oil like Don ..if my o-rings only last 12 years I'm ok with that too ..