I'm cleaning this old 35mm 1.8G DX lens for my D50 and i was wondering if dielectric grease is a good fit for lubricating plastic to plastic contact on the focusing mechanism.
P.S. yes, there's a lot of dust on my desk, i realized too late
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One thing that I wish someone could test with some lubricants are placing samples in air tight containers with glass covers and then thermal cycling them a few hundred times. Lens makers tend to not give out info on what lubricants they use, and many lubricants will off-gas when thermal cycled, and leave a haze on lens elements inside of the lens.
For plastic-on-plastic the mechanical keyboard community uses Krytox GPL 205 grease since it’s pretty inert.
savyexe [OP] 1 points · Apr 2025
lol i'm also one of them, i have the dielectric grease because i used it to lube stabilizers. unfortunately, i'm a clicky switch user so i don't have any krytox :(
StarbeamII 1 points · Apr 2025
Dielectric grease isn’t a great lubricant - it’s main job it’s designed for is just to stay in place, be electrically insulating, and keep water out. It’s not designed to lubricate. For keyboard stabilizers it’s used to fill in gaps to reduce unpleasant sounds.
savyexe [OP] 1 points · Apr 2025
any other suggestions? i don't want to buy krytox since it would be an international purchase and i can't have this thing taken apart on my desk for more than a week... i also have access to the lubricant used for printers' internal gearing