Lube Advice

[Lord Voldemort]

My cube is a store bought, and I want to lube it so it turns better.
Currently, I don't know what to use. I'm willing to go buy something Silicon, but I have a question: Does a Silicon Spray have to be pure Silicon, or can it be some random spray for something else with silicon? I have a Silicon Grout Sealer, (probably won't work, considering that it's a SEALER) but I do have other stuff.

And also I was looking at this one other thread, and he/she was talking about using Silicon Oil rather than Silicon Spray. Is there really a difference? And is one better than the other on some cubes? I looked on the Wiki and I don't think they mention anything about Silicon Oil.

Thanks in advance

 

[deco122392]

haha ok things ive use as lube (do not recomend) 1 vegitable oil olive oil and lastly something my mom "got for me" (she got it for her self) some oil to help with frizzy hair. and for somereasone the hair oil worked really well but i have to cleane my cube like every 300 or so solves. but ive also used crc heavy duty silicon oil. and now i have to great cubes.both store bought. but im not sure what the difference between oil and spray if there is any...

 

[Lord Voldemort]

Nice that you bring that up, i was considering using J & J Baby Oil

 

[Stanley]

I've used 3 in 1 Silicone on my standard rubiks cube and it made it 10x worse than when i first bought it. I also used Petroleum Jelly, which worked well but i hear it eats your cube so i wouldn't recommend using that.

I'm currently using a Type A DIY without any lube and its pretty nice, guess its just a lucky buy. I'm trying hard not to try out 3 in 1 Silicone on it until i can find crc heavy duty silicone in a store near me.

 

[waffle=ijm]

jig-a-loo...apply with caution or else http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoa8xG69INk

 

[Unknown.soul]

To name a few non-silicone based lubricants:
Dry graphite lube (never tried it before, it's a good lubricant from what I have read)
Hair cuticle coat (this stuff is pretty good, I found out about it on pinoyspeedcubers)
Armor All Original Protectant (Okay I lied, this contains Silicone Emulsion. It's similar to Puzzleproz lube, just doesn't last as long)

 

[n00bcubix]

meh, CRC first couple of times, Jig a loo, then CRC

Non silicone products- I've used vasiline, didn't melt cube
PAM, or pan, not rly recommended, very slippery
BABY OIL-erm makes cube gunky and heavy and yeah x(

I've used this weird silicone with petroleum dislates, rly bad, just watch out for the dissilates

 

[PCwizCube]

I've used this weird silicone with petroleum dislates, rly bad, just watch out for the dissilates

You do know that ALL silicone lubricant sprays have petroleum distillates, right?

And if you want to use pure silicone, you're out of your mind. Pure silicone is the element, and you can't use that for lubrication. All silicone lubricant sprays have more than just silicone, including petroleum distillates.

 

[deathbypapercutz]

Pure silicone is the element, and you can't use that for lubrication.

Silicone is not an element:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicone

But yeah, pure silicone is solid, the kind of stuff they make dildos out of. The stuff you'll get in cans is not pure.

 

[deco122392]

well the post before this one is interesting... but ya all silicone has additives to it. just be care full with what you use....

 

[pelnied]

ive tried Vaseline first and felt fine for a few weeks or so until the cube got real greasy and just was all gunky then i got some CRC Heavy Duty Silicone from the local hardware store and that works wonders!

 

[eragg0]

I personally use CRC silicone spray.That is very good for me so far. I used CRC oil before but that did destroy my cube slowly.

 

[PCwizCube]

Pure silicone is the element, and you can't use that for lubrication.

Silicone is not an element:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicone

But yeah, pure silicone is solid, the kind of stuff they make dildos out of. The stuff you'll get in cans is not pure.

Oh I should have been more specific about that. I didn't know someone would catch me

Good job, and thanks. I'll point that out from now on.

But yeah, pure silicone is solid, the kind of stuff they make dildos out of. The stuff you'll get in cans is not pure.

Oh, now I caught you. Technically, you're wrong. Pure silicone can appear in all states of matter (not including plasma).
http://masterthecube.com/forums/index.php?topic=294.msg30943#msg30943

 

[skwishy]

What exactly is the "CRC" in the silicone spray you guys use. Is it a brand name or something or did i buy the wrong stuff?

I have some silicone spray lubricant but I dont see CRC anywhere on the label and Ill be honest the stuff i have kinda sucks... it basically lubes it where you want friction and leaves friction where you want it to be lubed. This stuff really pisses me off, im tempted to go back to Vaseline again.

 

[ShadenSmith]

What exactly is the "CRC" in the silicone spray you guys use. Is it a brand name or something or did i buy the wrong stuff?

I have some silicone spray lubricant but I dont see CRC anywhere on the label and Ill be honest the stuff i have kinda sucks... it basically lubes it where you want friction and leaves friction where you want it to be lubed. This stuff really pisses me off, im tempted to go back to Vaseline again.

The can says 'CRC' in large red letters.

 

[Hadley4000]

Pure silicone can appear in all states of matter (not including plasma).

All excluding plasma? So silicone can be in Solid, liquid, gas, Bose Einstein Condensate, Fermonic condensate, a Neutron Star core and Gluon?

 

[Unknown.soul]

I have some silicone spray lubricant but I dont see CRC anywhere on the label

Then what is the company that makes it and the name of it?

 

[FrankLZ]

Hey everybody, when I use CRC silicone spray my cube gets really hard to turn until some of the excess fluid evaporates. This is almost surely the harmful petroleum based distillates that are evaporating (the hexanes and such) and not the silicone. So a simple solution to preventing the hexanes in silicone sprays from making your cube hard to turn initially and eating away at your cube is to spray an amount of the silicone spray in a glass container/cup (glass won't be affected by the hexanes) and then let it sit out so that the hexanes evaporate. Then when you come back the next day you will have 'pure' silicone in the cup and you should be able to apply this without the worry of it eating away at your cube or making your cube really sticky at first.

I haven't tried this yet, but it makes sense to me.

 

[MichaelErskine]

Pure silicone can appear in all states of matter (not including plasma).

All excluding plasma? So silicone can be in Solid, liquid, gas, Bose Einstein Condensate, Fermonic condensate, a Neutron Star core and Gluon?

I doubt very much that silicone can be held in the state of a fermionic superfluid - only Helium 3 and Potassium can to my knowledge

Joking aside, if anyone's interested in developing a silicone lubricant for cubing, there are a plethora of raw materials available at Bentley Chemicals in the UK.

 

[Burwell423]

Hey, I have 2 cans of silcone spray with me right now and don't know which one to use, one is called 5 Star silcone Spray and the other is Helmar silcone spray (food grade silcone [yummo]) so yeah advice would be awesome thanks.