geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: reaxas on Mon, 11 May 2015, 08:55:15
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I've recently picked up some lube for my ErgoClears and I was wondering what everyone thinks about using Graphite Lube on switches? On paper it seems like a pretty good alternative to the regular ones.
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Graphite is electrically conductive. I cannot see this property making for a good lubricant in an electrical switch.
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It's also messy as ****. Everytime I lube my bicycle lock with it I can practically write off my jeans and t-shirt.
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Graphite is electrically conductive. I cannot see this property making for a good lubricant in an electrical switch.
It's also messy as ****. Everytime I lube my bicycle lock with it I can practically write off my jeans and t-shirt.
Oh damn! I guess I won't be using that then! I was wondering if there were any easy to find alternatives? I've looked around almost everywhere is Mississauga, Ontario, and I can't seem find Teflon Silicon Lubricant. :( Ideally it'd be local, but if there's a fast delivery time online, that'd work too!
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Be patient and order the Krytox.
A spoonful of it will last for months/years and do a dozen keyboards.
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nubbinator has a lube comparison (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=71442.0) coming up.
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nubbinator has a lube comparison (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=71442.0) coming up.
Still waiting on the stuff to actually ship to me. I should be getting the Molybdenum disulfide soon. I went with that as a dry lube for the testing since it's supposed to have good lubrication properties, likes plastic and doesn't necessarily need to be in suspension, and it's non-conductive (or at least not enough to cause any problems).
I should also be getting some Teflon dry lube from CPTBadAss.
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I should also be getting some Teflon dry lube from CPTBadAss.
It's in the mail already :)
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Oh damn! I guess I won't be using that then! I was wondering if there were any easy to find alternatives? I've looked around almost everywhere is Mississauga, Ontario, and I can't seem find Teflon Silicon Lubricant. :( Ideally it'd be local, but if there's a fast delivery time online, that'd work too!
Last time I checked, Zeal had Krytox in stock. EK also has Mechlube2.
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Yeah graphite lubes would be bad in this situation for the reasons provided. In the olden days of CPU overclocking, certain chips would need traces drawn on the chip with a pencil. It can conduct that well.
nubbinator has a lube comparison (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=71442.0) coming up.
Still waiting on the stuff to actually ship to me. I should be getting the Molybdenum disulfide soon. I went with that as a dry lube for the testing since it's supposed to have good lubrication properties, likes plastic and doesn't necessarily need to be in suspension, and it's non-conductive (or at least not enough to cause any problems).
I should also be getting some Teflon dry lube from CPTBadAss.
Fair warning, that molybdenum is a 50 state carcinogen, not just in California. Just wear latex gloves and wash them after and you will be fine. I am not sure what level of exposure increases risk by a statisticaly significant amount, but our supervisors in the Navy were anal about that. We had a couple parts that were coated with it as a permanent coating and had to be cleaned and greased every flight.
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Molybdenum Disulfide is pretty harmless. It's not rated as a carcinogen and there haven't been any damning studies of it. The National Library of Medicine at the National Institute of Health lists it as practically non-toxic. And that's a quote: (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+1660)
Molybdenite (MoS2), by inhalative or oral routes, was found ... to be practically nontoxic
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Molybdenum Disulfide is pretty harmless. It's not rated as a carcinogen and there haven't been any damning studies of it. The National Library of Medicine at the National Institute of Health lists it as practically non-toxic. And that's a quote: (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+1660)
Molybdenite (MoS2), by inhalative or oral routes, was found ... to be practically nontoxic
You are right. That was a total brain fart on my part. The grease we used was molybdenum based. The parts were copper berilium coated.