NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: C. Plath Sextants Mirror Adjustment
From: Jared Sherman
Date: 2003 Sep 17, 11:16 -0400
From: Jared Sherman
Date: 2003 Sep 17, 11:16 -0400
Kieran- I am not in the sextant business but have some experience with lubricants and cleaning. Careful use of a toothbrush (or smaller brush) and q-tips together with most common solvents or some Liquid Tide laundry detergent will remove most older greases and lubricants. They will not harm the typical enameled metal finish on a sextant although I would take care around plastic parts, etc. Once clean I would suggest using either a lubricant or an anti-corrosion material. The latter would include tefgel (a gel with teflon in it) or NeverSeize (a petroleum compound with copper and nickel in it) both sold in chandleries and intended to prevent corrosion between different metals. I wasn't so worried about corrosion but was bothered by the way old grease congeals in the cold and makes a sextant useless in the winter. So when I cleaned mine out I relubricated everything with DuPont Krytox, a totally synthetic light white grease which is chemically related to Teflon. It comes as a white oil and a grease, each about $5
