Anyone tried greasing their n64 control stick?

[Grizzmeister]

lol quote from that same link

"Finish Line’s Ceramic Grease features an Inherently Biodegradable formulation which means that between 20% and 60% of the product’s base oils will degrade within 28 days."

how can it be good then? LOL.

Since the ceramic nanoparticles permeate the plastic to provide the lubricant the oil itself is unnecessary. It's amazing how advanced this stuff is.

Watch this video to learn more about nanotechnology.

 

[bloodpeach]

Ceramic nanoparticles are also used for grinding down metal. Don't trust something just cause it has nano in the name. Also if the nanoparticles permated the plastic that would actually have an anti-lubricating effect, so lets hope that's not it.

Anyway, the lubricating effect is dependent on ceramic particles with a fluid inbetween them. So the oil may still be important. There are other fluids in the grease tho so it's hard to say.

 

[Han Solo]

So when you open up a control stick, and you see a ton of gray dust, where is that dust coming from? The bowl or the the actual plastic stick or both?

 

[Timotheus]

So when you open up a control stick, and you see a ton of gray dust, where is that dust coming from? The bowl or the the actual plastic stick or both?

the bowl. that's what you need to greese the most!

 

[SheerMadness]

Both I believe but the tip of the stick is far more durable and wears a slower pace. So most of it is from the bowl.

The bowl is the weakest point of the stick IMO.

 

[Karajan]

I'd bet its mostly from the black things

 

[MrMarbles]

After reading this thread i decided to grease my controllers with the white lithium grease like....2 months ago. after 2 months of hard use the joystick of my most used controller was starting to feel a tiny bit worn so i opened it up to see what it looked like and was dismayed to see that the grease was completely gone and the powdery residue from the inner bowl being worn down was present. so i re greased the bowl and as an experiment just spent like two solid minutes moving the joystick all around in every direction to see what effect that would have on the grease. when i opened the joystick back up almost all of the grease i had just applied had been pushed up around the sides of the inner bowl. Keep in mind that i only used a very slight amount of grease like you recommended, like just enough to visibly see it on the plastic surface after it was spread out. so it was disappointing to see that it was just pushed aside after only 2 minutes of use. IDK if the ever so thin layer that remained is even enough to prevent significant wear. Now i'm curious if other types of grease with react in a similar fashion or if there is some magical solution that can solve all of my problems.

So after trying white lithium grease which seems like an okay option (as long as you regrease frequently) i decided to try Grizz's magical Ceramic grease.

Right away when i opened the ceramic grease i noticed it had a more sticky texture than the white lithium. After applying the grease it seemed to actually adhere to the plastic parts as opposed to the white lithium which kinda got pushed off easily (refer to my quote). Even though it was sticky it was still a good lube at the same time and the stick felt really smooth after i put the joystick back together.

After 2 months of hard use i popped open two of my controllers that i had applied the ceramic grease to and to my surprise the grease was still present! It was diminished but still present and there was virtually no "white dust" inside the bowl which indicates plastic wear down.

in conclusion ceramic grease > white lithium grease. I still don't know about that stuff Knitephox uses tho

 

[KnitePhox]

i recently REGREASED a stick that hadnt been greased since during apex 2013, there was still grease in there and 0 white dust. since the grease was clear, it did get greyish. that's because the only present wear after using it for 9 months+ as my online controller, was from the black elbow peices

thank you.

 

[Grizzmeister]

So after trying white lithium grease which seems like an okay option (as long as you regrease frequently) i decided to try Grizz's magical Ceramic grease.

Right away when i opened the ceramic grease i noticed it had a more sticky texture than the white lithium. After applying the grease it seemed to actually adhere to the plastic parts as opposed to the white lithium which kinda got pushed off easily (refer to my quote). Even though it was sticky it was still a good lube at the same time and the stick felt really smooth after i put the joystick back together.

After 2 months of hard use i popped open two of my controllers that i had applied the ceramic grease to and to my surprise the grease was still present! It was diminished but still present and there was virtually no "white dust" inside the bowl which indicates plastic wear down.

in conclusion ceramic grease > white lithium grease. I still don't know about that stuff Knitephox uses tho

Vindication!

Yeah, ceramic grease works really well for me so I make it a point to lube any N64 controller that I find which still has a tight stick with the stuff.

 

[Mupen64Man]

I want to thank you guys for the advice, I ended up picking up Lithium grease that was black instead of white, is there anything wrong with that?