Author Topic: Quality helicoid grease recommendation  (Read 1023 times)

Zang

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Quality helicoid grease recommendation
« on: September 15, 2022, 03:48:11 »
Hey guys,

I am using Moody Tools helicoid grease ordered from the US for my lenses (I hope I remember the company name right). After 4 and 3 years, I have discovered that two of my lenses that I overhauled are having issue with oil on aperture leaves. I opened them up and I can see that oil comes out from the helicoid. From what I remember, I did not use a lot of grease on the lenses. When checking the grease box, I can see that oil also separates from the grease in there. That is pretty disappointing and I feel my huge amount of effort seems to be wasted (I have used the grease on 13 lenses). What is your experience with different greases? What grease (that is less likely to turn to oil :) ) do you recommend to use, best if available in North America.

Cheers,
Zang

Øivind Tøien

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Øivind Tøien

Snoogly

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Re: Quality helicoid grease recommendation
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2022, 06:10:06 »
When the other Richard H is active again I am sure he will be able to give some feedback. But the two usual suspects of lens reair on YouTube often give their grease recommendations.
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Richard Hawking (not Richard Haw!), in Tokyo

Zang

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Re: Quality helicoid grease recommendation
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2022, 06:10:41 »
The S10 grease has been mentioned here before:
https://www.micro-tools.com/pages/search-results-page?q=grease
https://www.micro-tools.com/products/hg-10

Right, Micro Tools. I bought he Moody Tools (not moose tools :) ) JIS screwdrivers from them. The helical grease also bought from them, but no longer available. It says helicoid grease #10. So I am not sure if trying another grease from them and wait another 4 years to see if it is better is not an optimistic option :(

Zang

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Re: Quality helicoid grease recommendation
« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2022, 06:14:10 »
When the other Richard H is active again I am sure he will be able to give some feedback. But the two usual suspects of lens reair on YouTube often give their grease recommendations.

I am hopping everything is OK with him and he is reading us, but is just too busy enjoying the new place to respond right now.

Snoogly

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Re: Quality helicoid grease recommendation
« Reply #5 on: September 15, 2022, 06:19:40 »
Strange. The Japan hobby tool grease no longer seems to be available.

https://japanhobbytool.com/collections/camera-repair-material
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Richard Hawking (not Richard Haw!), in Tokyo

olivierssd

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Re: Quality helicoid grease recommendation
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2022, 08:35:23 »
I have used S10 grease successfully on several helicoils. I had tried S30 grease but it is too thick.

Erik Lund

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Re: Quality helicoid grease recommendation
« Reply #7 on: September 15, 2022, 08:59:57 »
The thickness of the grease; S10 vs S30 depends on how much 'room' there is between the threads and the length of the threads.
Terrible that the grease is separating! Sorry to hear that - What a mess  :o
Erik Lund

Zang

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Re: Quality helicoid grease recommendation
« Reply #8 on: September 16, 2022, 16:58:50 »
The thickness of the grease; S10 vs S30 depends on how much 'room' there is between the threads and the length of the threads.
Terrible that the grease is separating! Sorry to hear that - What a mess  :o

I only have oil on aperture issue with two of my lenses, Nikkor 24mm f2.8 AI and Canon fd 50mm f1.8 S.C. Cannon was a breeze and I have already cleaned the aperture and regreased the helicoids. I do not have time to order another grease so I used the same one but put kind of tracing amount of it on the threads. Even if it turned into oil, I do not think it would be enough to reach the aperture assembly. I did open Nikkor 35mm f2.8 AIS which I used the same grease for and everything seems to be OK. I can see the grease on the helicoid has transparent, liquid like color rather than white, but I do not see running oil. 24mm f2.8 is hell to work with so I have not yet started fixing it. I don't know what else to try so I will probably use the same grease in very small amount. Any feedback or experience shared by you guys are much appreciated.

Cheers,
Zang

Zang

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Re: Quality helicoid grease recommendation
« Reply #9 on: September 16, 2022, 17:05:48 »
This is the one I am using. When I said no longer available at Micro Tools I meant the S10 shown on their side looks different than mine but it could be very well the same one that I got. I paid $32-ish.