lubricating cmg infinity

Following Craig's suggestion on his website, I contacted CMG about lubricating the Infinity. I promptly got back the following:

> Yes, you can re-lubricate. Wd40 is Ok,
> but I would recommend a thicker synthetic
> grease (vaseline like porosity)

So there you have it, in case anyone was interested to know.

I tried Vaseline already. It works OK, but wears off a little quickly and isn't very slick. Thought about a silicone automotive grease, but a lot of them say you're not supposed to have a lot skin contact with it. I still don't know the best solution for this. Haven't tried WD40, but I know it's more like a light oil. Probably wouldn't last too long.

use pure silicone grease. a little tube, 1 ounce, costs 8 or 9 dollars from C.Crane. You may find a similar product made by GC called silicone compound for the same price or a little less at Radio Shack...
Vaseline and WD-40 are petroleum products, which is not good to put on rubber, or plastic...
you know you have the pure silicone grease when it says it's ok for food contact...

WS-40 isn't actually marketed as a lubricant, believe it or not. Sure it lubricates, but so does water (that's why you lose traction soon when it rains, right?) Anyway, WD-40 has its uses, certainly, but it really is a poor lubricant (very similar to kerosene).

2c from Darell eleven months after the topic started...

I've taken to just removing the o-ring on my ARC AAA, and it has a nice slick feel to it without the added friction. I know I'm giving up water resistance, but I have it around my neck on a lanyard, so I don't need to worry much about it.
The difference with the Arc vs. the Infinity is the foam cushion affixed to the head; it provides the additional friction needed to keep the head from rotating on its own and quells the looseness you would otherwise have with the non o-ringed head.
I haven't had any problems with it turning on by itself either, but even if it did, I have gobs of batteries to use up anyway.
It's easy enough to roll the o-ring off and on, so I can restore it simply enough-

Check your local chain auto parts store. O'Reilly's, AutoZone, etc. 100% pure silicone grease .25oz tube, 2 bucks.

GD

i wouldn't use vaseline for the same reason that condom manufactures recommend that you don't, because it's a pretrolium based product and will eat through rubber...use silicon grease...i picked up 4 good sized tubes on ebay for only a couple bucks, military surplus stuff...probably won't ever need more of it...

Go to NAPA or a similar auto parts store and ask for a tube of di-electric silicone grease. The last time I had to buy a tube was back in the '80's but I'm sure it's nowhere near 8 or 9 dollars a tube. The NAPA tube is at least an ounce.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Go to NAPA or a similar auto parts store and ask for a tube of di-electric silicone grease. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is the stuff to use. Not electrically conductive. Plus if you change your own spark plugs, you can use it on the plugs before you attach the wires to allow easy removal later.

You can also order silicone o-ring lube from www.brinkmanncorp.com...Go to the parts section with the bulbs & accessories

You want to find silicone grease go to www.Gunk.com/statessold.htm this will let you look up what stores in your state sell it. Happy hunting.

Nyegel is the lube surefire uses. I recommend on CMG's and ARC's as well.

Lubrication problem solved!
Just bought an infinity from Eastern Mountain sports ... popped in a battery, light wouldn't work ... opened it up and battery had to encouraged to drop out because there was so much lube in the barrel the battery was almost swimming in it.

Actually, that link should be www.brinkmanncorp.com

As this is not the most complex area to lubricate, I have used each of the following with excellent results:

1) Teflon oil (non-petroleum and will not affect the O-rings). You can get this from nullRadio Shack - Teflon Oil. Some of the stores stock these and can be used for anything. This is the best option I have used!

2) Fishing reel oil (very fine and may have petroleum, but I have not noticed it messing the O-rings).

3) Silicone dielectric grease (mentioned earlier in this thread). You can get this from your local NAPA store and works great for spark plug wire too.

From the above choices, I prefer the oils to the grease, as it penetrates the threads and goes under the O-ring. It's easier to control the flow. If you use grease, you have to bleed it a little to cover the entire thread then wipe off the excess for several screw on and off cycles. If you don't care about the grease bleeding, then you can forgo this cleanup.

since i missed the boat on the nyelube I went down to the radio shack and picked up the precision oiler with teflon (ptfe) mentioned in the previous post. thanks! brought the maglite back from a screaming banshee to a nice turning end cap, put some on the infinity ultra too. nice find, cheap too!

I put the Nye 759G not only on the treads of my Arc's and infinity but on the ends of the battery as well it is very smooth.

--Begin rant--

Throw away your WD40. It is not a lubricant, despite the fact that more people use it as one than any other product in the US. WD stands for Water Displacer. It's good for that and reasonably good as a penetrating oil (undoing rusted things). As a lube it is terrible. It will form a crusty shelac with time. It also contains DSMO (did I get that right?) which is absorbed very readily by the skin so toxins which have gone into solution when using the WD40 can be transported easily into your body.

A great, but hard to find alternative is Slick50 OneLube.

--End rant--

Pure silicone grease can be found in the plumbing section of most hardware stores. It should be FDA approved because it is used on the water feed lines.

An excellent light penetrating oil is Break Free. Sold at any decent sized gun store. It's petroleum based w/ teflon, so it'll harm some painted surfaces, and probably isn't great for o-rings. It's really slippery, though, so if you've got something gummed up you want to move, and stay moving, it's the thing to have.

Just tried in on the Arc AAA that has been sticky/grimey since I had to take it apart w/ channel locs after a battery died in it, freezing it up. Now it works great!

A note, though, if you put this on stuff that's screwed together, without an o-ring or something else to provide friction, it WILL unscrew on it's own.