Grease for Lens Gear

I decided to play with my 50mm 1.7 today. Since I didn't have a rubberband ball, I started opening the lens from the rear.

I was able to take everything apart except for the focus limiter (since I heard it was hard to put that back together).

I want to know what kinda grease do should I apply on the gear since I want to make focusing "smoother". It almost looks like automotive anti-seize lube.

Thanks in advance!

There is a specific grease, the name of which, for the life of me, I cannot remember.

I would fire off a PM to Dyxum member and lens repair supremo PeteGanzel for his advice.

Just found the post, 27 July 2009:-

I had an excellent response this morning from Peter Wilks of Newgate Simms (Nye's UK distributor) - which is copied below with their permission for all that are interested:-

Thanks for your enquiry. As you would expect, I have had much experience in similar enquiries. The ‘868’ range is the correct range of damping greases for your type of application. The base oil for the range is a Polyalphaolefin but crucially uses PTFE as a thickener which gives the product excellent shear stability – this shear stability is very important for the type of focusing mechanism you use.

From past experience I would recommend the Fluorocarbon Gel 868H (H = Heavy). The viscosity difference between the H and VH is not great and most customers of a similar nature to yourself settle on the ‘H’

My company is the distributor for the UK and parts of Europe. We normally deal with bulk order enquiries and are not set up to deal with very small orders. To handle enquiries of this type we set up a small volume agreement with an online supplier of parts to individuals and trade….a company called Farnell. Hopefully you have heard of Farnell – they are an excellent partner in this type of area. They hold in stock some of our most popular product lines and 868H is one they have. We have just refreshed their stock levels so I know 868H is there, in stock ready for dispatch.

Information on how to order from Farnell is at the end of this email. They have a 10cc syringe (roughly 10grams) for sale. When/if you apply 868H – administer a generous amount to the area concerned. 868H has excellent ‘stay in place’ properties and will not migrate with temperature variations.

I hope you find this information helpful. Please do not hesitate to contact me directly should you have any further enquiries.

How to order from Farnell
The Farnell stock number for the Nye product:
·        868H ‘Damping Grease (Heavy)’ 10cc syringe – 1712887
·        868H ‘Damping Grease (Heavy)’ 100gram tube - 1712888

Here is a link you can use direct to the Nye Lubricants products available at Farnell:

http://uk.farnell.com/nye-lubricants

You will need to scroll down when the page has loaded to view the products.