[Niceguy74]

i use spray on white lithium grease.

[Maj Tom]

Well Teflon sprays don't leave a hard coating, it leaves a powdery Teflon residue after it drys.That is the "lubricant" in that product, same with triflow, or and graphite lube. The liquid is just an application medium.

[Violator]

Indeed- real Teflon coating like on pans and such is an involved process involving chemicals and heat, so that's probably why we haven't seen it in any internals (yet.) It would work, just like the pans do with a little oil, but I imagine the cost and difficulty are a bit too much, especially if the marker has any plastic parts.

For now, your best bet is polishing and a good quality lube/oil.

[Violator]

It's not as durable as the real thing- more like a glorified spray-on lube. Notice it said, "resists rub-off" which means it will wear off, just not as fast as other lubes. I imagine it would wear off quicker in the high-stress environment of a marker's internals, but it could be a decent in-between solution. I'd just be careful about temperatures that it works in, as you don't want to create clog of frozen crap in your gun, if you're running CO2.

Looks like it's worth investigating, though.

This post has been edited by Violator: 13 February 2009 - 02:45 PM

[josef_k]

While PTFE (what most people know as Teflon) is very "slippery" it isn't the most effective material for all applications. If the goal is a low-friction mechanical surface, the grade of machining/tolerences has to be improved first (i.e. putting a baked-in/fused teflon surface on a Tippmann receiver is asking for failure) but there's no reason a powder lubricant couldn't be used for some applications. However, I very much doubt anybody would see any improvements (if even any improvements that were signficant enough to be measurable) given the typical duty cycles and usage of any given paintball marker product. Atop that, PTFE lube could interfere with gasket sealing and if improperly used could give you some nasty air leaks (I've seen it happen on an Ion). POM (acetal resin), also commonly known as Delrin, is more than a good enough change from using a nylon or HDPE as a mechanical bearing surface and is immensely cheaper than bothering with PTFE. Using a UHMWPE (a step beyond HDPE) is technically superior to PTFE though and typically easier to implement.

This post has been edited by josef_k: 13 February 2009 - 08:27 PM