[gonzobluefuzz]

Hey all,

Looking to pick your collective brains/experience. Sorry for the intrusion.....here goes.

I have a Manfrotto ballhead that had accumulated (what I felt to be) a large amount of sand, crud and other assorted good stuff. Part way into disassembly I discovered that these are lubricated with some sort of heavy almost dry grease. Since It was already most of the way apart I continued with the disassembly and cleaning.
I now have a clean disassembled ballhead. (BTW upon inspecting components wear appeared negligible to nil so I probably did this for nothing ).
Prior to reassembly I want to re-lubricate.... my question is what type of grease is usually used. I'm sure that my friendly local cam. shop would be more than happy to sell me a tube of "miracle ballhead lube" at $20 a nano blister pack. in all honesty thats not quite what I'm looking for! I'm looking for an equivalent/similar less specialized product that I could pick up at an auto supply or hardware store at a fraction of the cost.
I realize the amount of money involved is a pittance in the grand scheme of things but on the other hand I hate getting hosed at the register on this type of stuff.

Hope this makes sense,

Cheerz,

G

[Tanager]

Head lubrication - Pint of Guinness should do it.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Hopefully someone will give you a useful answer soon!

All the best,

Mark

[narawood]

Hi G,

If I don't want grit etc to stick to lubes I use products such as 'WURTH High Performance Dry Chain Lube' for motorcycles, or DRI-SLIDE (I forget the manufacturer's name), you won't really see it on the part to be lubricated but it lasts a very long time.

I'm assuming that both products are available in Canada, Wurth is I believe an American product.

Hope this helps,

Regards,
John

[Stewart J.]

As an engineer I would suggest a silicone based lubricant, I use a spray type one for my tripod head. (for pedal cycle chains as you say has a dry feel to it so used sparingly no mess)

Stewart