Is Vasilene OK to lubricate O rings?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Rick Hughes" saying something like:

The durty bastards!

[Steve]

Thanks to all for the advice I have ordered some potable silicone grease online. Only a 50g tube, but it will last me several lifetimes.

Steve

[Usenet Nutter]

And they can give you a bad bite if you don't do it right ..lol

[Gib Bogle]

That's interesting. All I know about garlic is that is contains sulphur compounds.

[Gib Bogle]

Basterds.

[Huge]

And that's probably the issue, since sulphur is used in vulcanisation in order to promote cross-linking between rubber molecules & hence harden the rubber. If that goes too far, the rubber becomes brittle.

[Andy Dingley]

Yes. As does wool and especially wool felt.

So either of them need to be kept well away from silver, or (to a lesser extent) from natural rubber. If you're lining a jewellery box, use silk, cotton or synthetics (and a few of those need to be avoided too), never wool or felt.

I have an old coat, which I'd guess at being around 1890 or so. It's a felted woolen fabric (Loden) and has patent moulded rubber buttons. These are perished quite badly (shanks are breaking) and unusually they're worse on the back, in contact with the cloth, rather than the front that was in the light.

[Steve]

If you need any of this stuff I recommend farnell.co.uk. I ordered it online about about 5pm. It cost about £4.50, with free delivery. It arrived via UPS (in the east of Scotland) around 10:30 the next morning. I call that impressive.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Andy Dingley saying something like:

Now that's interesting. I recall coming across rubber buttons that had gone exactly the same way, on similar aged garments and had just assumed it was the rubber ageing process, through being exposed to atmospheric pollutants and heat, cold, etc. Every day's a schoolday, in here.