best place for fine tip foam swabs and other light cleaning products?

[tobrien]

so I have some rather large (relative to the flashlight parts) foam swabs from Parts-Express, but they are, again, rather large and by no means fine pointed for precision work.

So where can I get packs of fine-tipped, quality foam swabs? do y'all have any experience with particular brands?

also, what are some other items I might need for flashlight cleaning?

thanks!

[novice]

If you are referring to the type of swabs generically known as 'Q-tips' (although that is a proprietary brand name), I get packages of them at the local 'Dollar Tree' store for $1. The boxes of individual small packets of 'alcohol swabs' (a box of these last me a long time) can be gotten at almost any drugstore chain for probably less than $5. Boxes of round toothpicks are cheap and can be helpful in removing o-rings for cleaning, and for cleaning troublesome gunk out of machined threads. Once you have used a toothbrush beyond it's useful life, save it, and clean it in soap and water. It can be useful in trying to really scrub gunky threads. Then rinse the threads thoroughly with water, and make sure it has dried completely before you apply any Nyogel or silicone grease. I splurged once and got a tube of very high-quality Nyogel for lubricating o-rings and machine threads at Lighthound.com, although you can make do with a small container of 'silicone grease' that most auto parts stores carry. I don't know if the generic silicone grease that I had previously was 100% pure, or if it wasn't, how much other stuff might have been in it. I got the Nyogel because I didn't want to take a chance that the generic stuff had any petroleum by-products, which you don't want to get on your o-rings, because it will eventually break them down. A can of compressed air can be useful for trying to blow stuff off of a reflector, because you don't ever want to touch a reflector with anything. I don't know the cheapest place to get 'canned air'. On a slightly off-topic note, a bottle of 'Mineral oil, U.S.P' will probably cost less than $5 at a drugstore chain, and is perfect for both lubricating pocket knives, and putting a protective film on the blade of any pocketknife that might possibly be used on food, because it is the only non-toxic food grade oil that will not go rancid eventually, at room temperature.

[Tegan's Dad]

Foam swabs are different than "Q-Tips" because the foam doesn't leave lint and other crap behind. I would check a camera store, or radio shack.