Lubricate track of straight line tracking tone arm

Thanks to everyone who offered an opinion.
For now, all is working well, so will hold off doing anything.
If the time arrives when the arm no longer moves smoothly, then the suggestion to use an alcohol dampened lint-free microfiber cloth may be the safest approach to take, as per Thom_mackris.

I stand corrected.

Yes, yes, yes to everything Doug and Rwwear wrote.

As far as cleaning, you might use alcohol. Microfiber cloths (any decent hardware store) work great. They don't leave any lint residue.

I'm not familiar with this arm. I take it that it's not an air bearing? The above principles still apply however.

Cheers,
Thom

It occurs to me that graphite might be an appropriate non-gummy lubricant. I just Googled the Sony PS-X800 turntable and found it on vinyl engine where you can download the service manual. I just did and couldn't find anything about lubricating the bearing.

Strongly agree with Rwwear. Straight line trackers and conventional pivoting arms both rely on finely machined finishes to reduce bearing friction, not lubricants. Anything that leaves a residue on your arm's track will lead to problems, which rules out lubricants by definition.

FWIW, WD-40 would be among the worst choices. Inspect any part you've "lubricated" with WD-40 after a time and you'll discover a gummy residue. That's the last thing you need on the track of a super-sensitive device like a tonearm. Oil- and silicone-based lubricants are also undesirable in this application. With respect to Timrhu, a tonearm is not a CDP drawer.

If the track feels rough to the touch or the arm's motion isn't smooth you may need to polish the track a little. The proper polishing material or cloth will depend on the material the track is made of, please don't go at it with sandpaper. ;-)

Otherwise, just keep it clean and keep it dry.

I would not use anything that would make dust stick to it. Just keep it clean by wiping it down with a lint free cloth.

Try a product called Tri-flow. I believe it't an oil based lubricant with a silicon additive. I had a nasty squeak on my cd player's drawer which this stuff cleared up.