How to maintain McR-19XR

How do u maintain the McR-19XR reflective surface to be shiny and nice all the time? Does the reflector gets dull over time? Can I use dremel to polish it?

DON'T !!!!

There is one way ... don't ever touch it with anything. Seal it from the environment in a flashlight, where it belongs.
The surface is extremely delicate and will be ruined easily. If you already have dust, dirst or fingerprints on it ... I cannot help you.
But there are quite some threads here (available via search) that deal with the problem.

bernie

Kiessling said:

DON'T !!!!

There is one way ... don't ever touch it with anything. Seal it from the environment in a flashlight, where it belongs.
The surface is extremely delicate and will be ruined easily. If you already have dust, dirst or fingerprints on it ... I cannot help you.
But there are quite some threads here (available via search) that deal with the problem.

bernie

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So the surface does get oxidised.

Some people lightly dust reflectors with compressed air. I don't, but some do. I just gently blow to get any dust off i can (being careful NOT to get any spit on them) then put them back in the light. A few specs of dust doesn't show up anyway. The surface is very delicate. There is a lot information on here about how they're made. The orange peel is apparently sprayed on in a vacuum and everything.

No the surface should be more or less inert.
But the surface is very very delicate and will get damaged upon contact.

EDIT: upon further thought .... I do not know if the surface is inert for all eternity. Sealed in a flashlight from touch and contact it should be "functionally" inert though. Unfortunately I am no expert on this. If you do not get your answers from this thread, please contact me and I'll move it to the McGizmo forum, the maker of those reflectors.

I polished my first McR20 to a shiny dull piece of worthless metal

havand said:

Some people lightly dust reflectors with compressed air. I don't, but some do.

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The can of "Kensington Duster II" compressed air that I've got (which isn't really air, it's 1-1-difluoroethane) explicitly says not to use it on camera mirrors.

If it says not to use it on a camera mirror, I'm not gonna use it on my reflectors. I've heard stories of reflectors fogging up or developing a haze after getting sprayed with canned air.

a great thread I was following on reflectors vs optics talks a lot about protecting the reflector, and the effects of differect materials for reflectors.
I don't think the McR-19XR is protected, and yes it WILL oxidize if not protected and that will reduce output from the low 90s (%) to likely the low 80s (%).
Here is a link to a site (credit to NewBie) that talks about reflectivity of materials.
-BPH

Ty_Bower said:

The can of "Kensington Duster II" compressed air that I've got (which isn't really air, it's 1-1-difluoroethane) explicitly says not to use it on camera mirrors.

If it says not to use it on a camera mirror, I'm not gonna use it on my reflectors. I've heard stories of reflectors fogging up or developing a haze after getting sprayed with canned air.

Click to expand...

The chlorine in it will attack the surface.

If you can. fill the lens' reflector area with nitrogen or argon, and if it is sealed it will retard the inevitable oxydization.