Silicone Grease?

Where can one purchase small tubes of silicone grease for use on the O-Rings on various flashlights?
Thanks folks.
Lenny

Lowes/Home Depot

In plumbing section. Cheap.

Try doing a search on silicone grease, I recall that there were a couple threads on it. CPF member jcciv (ebay id "surefireparts") also carry the silicone grease used by Surefire on their products, you can try contacting him.

try diving shops
they should have it

lenny,

Radio Shack has a product called "Lube Gel" that comes in grey colored tube with blue and green colored highlights. It use to come in a white tube but they recently changed the color. I have read many posts on CPF that highly recommend it for lubrication and enhanced waterproof treatment.

Hope this helps.

I never found the silicon grease at Lowes or Home Depot, only some stuff with petroleum products in it. Likewise for the Radio Shack stuff (Super Lube is what it was called, IIRC, and it's MSDS specified petrol products). A local dive shop DID have lube with no petroleum in it. . . I believe this is because it may come into contact with the air in your tank, so petroleum products are not allowed, probably. But it's very expensive! Luckily, a little goes a long way!

The two I have used and like are....
I use just a little on the o-rings, you do not need much of this stuff, just little bit.

Radio Shack Lube Gel

and

Do-It-Best Silicone Grease

**The Do-It-Best lube is 90% pure silicone and contains no petroleum additives.**

Any lube will pick up grit and get a little "stiff". When that happens, clean it up and put on new stuff.

_mike_. . . the Radio Shack Lube gel you mentioned DOES have petroleum products in it. They're listed on the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) that you can access right from the Radio Shack Product Page link you provided. The other stuff looks like it does not, but I've never seen it at Home Depot or Lowes. And it's cheap!

Aloft,

I never said the RadioShack stuff was petroleum "free", just that I use it and like it for my lights.

The other stuff is found in the plumbing supplies section under many different brand names.

Basically, unless your using natural rubber o-rings (which you are probably not as they are not all that common anymore) your probably going to be fine. O-rings for the last many years I think are made of nitrile(?) and are pretty tough and chemical resistant. This topic has been discussed pretty thoroughly over the years on CPF. Many folks have used the RadioShack lube with no problems, myself included.

There are some folks on CPF who use regular old vaseline on their o-rings for their flashlights and have not reported any problems.

Anyhow, there is other stuff out there, so just do a search and see what catches your fancy.

You can find Gunk Silicone Grease at Lowe's in the Plumbing section. Here's more info on the product: http://www.radiatorspecialty.com/SiliconeGrease.asp

Home Depot had some small things of silicone grease to be used on O-rings in faucets and such. I believe the brand is Harveys or something like that and it is in a white plastic cup. I found it near the end of the aisle. It cost about 2 bucks.

I believe auto parts stores have it. I have a small tube from NAPA that's called silicone sparkplug boot release. I got it many years ago so they may not have that particular product now.

Does anyone know of a retailer Australia that sells the Greese

Torch_Boy - I am also sourcing for some. They are kinda hard to find to come by but I've found some.

MolyTec Silicon Grease I think they are Australian owned company . They have silicon grease in 25gram jar, 500gram jar and 100gram tube. Scroll to around the middle of page the packaging are yellow in color.

You can email them and ask them to give you directions where to buy it from your nearest dealer. I just did it, the 100g tube cost me AUD$15(cut throat expensive /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif ) I am picking it up on Monday, it's in South Melbourne (near you?).

Second place that have these is Miniature Bearings Australia They have the MolyTec 100 gram tube for AUD$6.01+gst, postage is AUD$8.25 around Australia. Miniature Bearings are based in Queensland and they have alot more other greases than you can think of, check it out. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif

Some places I found Silicon Grease is at your local swimming pool shop. They usually have them and heaps of O-rings sizes for your flashlights.

How much do you need? I think I can squeeze some and post it to you we are near anyway. PM me if you need help.

Vince.

I found silicone grease in the plumbing section of Lowes in a grey plastic round container about 1 3/4 inch diameter called Plumbmaster for about 3.00 on a card hung up on a peg.

I forgot to mention, during my search for silicon grease I also learned that it's an aid for sexual activities. So pop by your nearest condom shop/pharmacy/xxx store I bet you will find them but I don't know if they are the same kind of thing. Look for silicon lubricant. If you are too young, bring your parents along. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif Google can do alot of things...

thanks guys

I like the Ikelite 0-ring lubricant from www.adorama.com
For .95 cents you get 4-1 ounce tubes. Made for Ikelite underwater photography protection equipment.Excellent product.

Oh,guess I should add that shipping is currently $8.35, I don't concern myself with that as my local diveshop sells the same item for $6.89 per 1 oz. tube!!

Koala

There was a Air Force maintenance memo back in the fifties warning that Dow Corning silicone grease was NOT a substitute for KY or Vaselene.

I would guess it's better than WD-40 though...

whiskypapa3 - /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif Ok thank you for your advise. WD-40 is a temporary fix and degreaser.