Vaseline your balls

In my previous post I wrote about my aquisition of a 90's trackball:

90's Kids Trackball

While it still worked, it did not feel smooth to roll the ball around.

After some investigating I came across a faq, by trackball manufacturer Kensington, describing the process of maintaining your trackball.

I was really surprised to read that they recommend slathering your ball with a bit of vaseline.

Seeing I cycle allot and I have a need to prevent chafing, I'm never in low supply of Vaseline at my home.

So I went for it, carefully applying it and rubbing it around, afterwards I polished it with a towel.

Besides the fact that it's now ultra shiny, the rolling is incredibly smooth, feels like new!

Shiny Microsoft EasyBall

Made me wonder if I discarded some of my old trackballs too early because they lost their smooth roll.

Since I'm a known technology hoarder, I still have many of my old trackballs, including the first one I used:

a Microsoft Optical Trackball ~2000-2005

So I tried the same treatment on that one as well and while it went from absolutely not rolling an inch to somewhat smoother rolling, it still does not feel perfect.

On closer inspection, I see that one of the bearings is missing.

Missing bearing

Apparently it's possible to replace these so I'll put it on the fix-it pile and scour Aliexpress for a replacement bearing in the future.

References:

Kensington Trackball FAQ

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Vaseline your balls was published on 2023-09-02

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