Tip: Trackball mouse getting a bit sticky? Rub your nose or forehead with the finger or thumb you use to control it and presto! That trackball will be rolling like new.
I have a MS Trackball Explorer that is controlled with the index finger. Sometimes it gets sticky, I think due to hand perspiration or dryness. In any case, after thinking about where I could find some lubricant that would get that ball rolling smoothly again but having no actual oil around, I realized faces are full of it. Sure enough, it worked! So, if you have a stickyness problem with your trackball, try this and it will blow your mind.
Alan
NASTY.
Anyone who decides to sell theirs on eBay afterwards, please post a warning so that my pristine fingers need not stroke your head- or nose-grease. :{
January 31st, 2006 at 11:32am
It's weird, but work!
It’s not that nasty, it worked for me a bit!
January 31st, 2006 at 11:45am
adsims2001
Wow, this works pretty well. I don’t see how this is ‘nasty’ as using your trackball with your fingers will get the same kind of oils on it, only in lesser amounts… Thanks for the tip.
January 21st, 2007 at 3:46pm
Jaymze
I’m using an Explorer Trackball too…once its rolling its fine, pretty much, but it sticks getting it in motion – I tried WD-40, helps a little but doesn’t roll off perfectly effortlessly at first touch…any idea what would be the best trackball to use for doing graphics work?
November 30th, 2007 at 8:19am
Darryl Gittins
Another option is to clean the ball using hand soap, dry it off, and then rub it into your hair. The oil from your hair is an ideal lube. While you have the ball out, clean the seating for it. Just wipe the gunk off the tiny rollers that the ball sits on.
A more lasting solution is to use something like Burt’s Bees Beeswax Lip Balm. Rub a very thin film on the ball and it will glide so smoothly, you won’t believe it! You may have to repeat the procedure a few times, depending on how much you use the thing.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:25am
Chef Boyardee
I have the same problem. It starts to drag or otherwise feel sluggish. The friction is audible.
Start by unplugging the trackball from your USB port. Take a soft cloth and very warm water (about 160 is ideal but don’t burn yourself) and go to town cleaning the ball, the inside track, and the exterior if necessary. No soap! Just hot water.
Clean off any dirt or fluff which may have accumulated around the 3 silver support pins. The pointy tip of a push-pin works nicely.
As for lubrication, olive oil works great. Dribble a very light amount onto a paper towel, then wipe around the 3 silver support pins. Don’t lube the ball, just the pins.
I thought about WD40 but stopped at the last second… olive oil is edible, so if you accidentally ingest it, no worries.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:09pm
DaddyB
I found this thread because my ms explorer trackball was sticking so bad that I could barely use it. I eschewed the icky face oil fix and tried instead a few strokes from my chapstick, and voila! It’s as free as a bird now! In fact, it hasn’t rolled so freely in years (going on eight since I got it.)
November 10th, 2008 at 1:30pm
Sliverchair
The roundup: As the hardware Tech at a large CAD center, I have tried all of the following with NO success. Olive oil, 3-1n-1 oil, WD40, spit (no comments here, was done in the name of science), KY (again, for science), Astro Lube (science?), silicone grease, veggie oil and face oil.
What works? Blistex (provides some grab to the fingers as well when it is dry out), Burts Bees, Chapstick and Sortwick (stuff you put on your fingers to count money).
The wrap-up:
The three points the ball rests on are PTE and chemical resistant, you can try about anything you would like on them. The ball is machine polished acrylic and can resist almost anything as well. DO NOT use solvents of any kind, they will melt the plastic casing around the ball and pads. Why is my trackball slowing and making noise when I roll it? Micro-fine scratches on the ball surface and flat spots on the glide pads. There is no going back to new, treat the ball and pads until you cant stand it any more and then get a new one!
SC
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:30am
Michael Bradford
This isn’t as “nasty” as y’all think. If you look at the page for Logitech’s Edge trackball, you’ll see that they coat the ball with lanolin from the factory to serve as a lubricant. Lanolin, as we all know, is a waxy secretion squeezed from sheeps’ wool. Yeah, chew on that!
November 27th, 2009 at 4:58pm
Jaymze
It would be great if someone could make replacement balls. I don’t know anything about acrylic, and then there is the pattern on the surface… Its been 3 days short of 2 years since my last post…I’ve been using Burt’s Beeswax since it was first suggested on this post…carry a little tube with me everywhere (I have MSTB Explorers at work and home) and that has been getting me through quite well. Does not overcome the static-to-kinetic friction problem, but in those instances where that level of control is critical perhaps a trackball is not the appropriate tool. I’m going to give olive oil a try…not as portable Beeswax but a small vial could be stored at each location.
November 27th, 2009 at 6:11pm
Darryl Gittins
Burt’s Bees Beeswax Lip Balm in the little round tin is the ticket. I tried Olive oil and it didn’t work.
November 28th, 2009 at 1:09am
beejaydee
After you’ve cleaned the three metal pins of any residue, just spray a little Pledge on a cloth and wipe down the cavity of the unit, as well as the trackball itself. I was amazed at how the ball glides around after this treatment.
December 26th, 2009 at 3:35pm
Jacob
WOW
had a stick of burts bees lipbalm around, CANT FIND IT!?!
AND THEN i remembered i had a stick of toystory lipchap(heh) and tried that,
freakin miracle cure Darryl Gittins!!
thanks muchly
all seriouslyness; you easily cut my overall computer frustration by 50% across the board
January 28th, 2010 at 5:03pm
Jaymze
Dear Jacob,
Had you tried Burt’s Beeswax and if so is the toystory lipchap a better solution ?
Still hoping someone someday will be able to build replacement balls for the MS Trackball Explorer. I work in the school of engineering in a LARGE university – maybe I can get a senior to take it on as a senior project or something….Ha !!!
Thanks – Jaymze
January 28th, 2010 at 5:41pm
Jacob
naa i haven’t tried the burts, couldn’t find it,
it will probably work better, better quality materials
and i don’t think it’s the ball that needs replacing,
this is the second trackball explorer i’ve had(dropped the first one after about a year, maybe two)
i think it’s the tiny metal supports that becomes worn down,
getting right in there close i can see that they’re flat across the top now, and they dont spin, completely fixed, seems like a design flaw, should be mobile?
last one was the same, but i forgo the extremely fine control and slow detail in favor of the far superior speed and ergonomics these give me,
but now the only time it rides up or stutters or sticks (in the few hours since i found this article) is when i’m pressing too hard
January 28th, 2010 at 9:08pm
Darryl Gittins
The Beeswax in the little round tin works best. The stuff in the Burt’s Beeswax tube (lip balm) is different, and while it works, it’s not as good. Interestingly, I haven’t done another application for about 6 months. It’s like the beeswax has left a permanent residue.
It’s just the ticket!!
January 29th, 2010 at 1:27am
Jaymze
Darryl – thanks for the heads-up on the round tin/tube difference – I’ve been using the tube for some time now and it does work well. Now I’m excited to try the tin – they sell both at the bookstore of the university at which I work.
January 29th, 2010 at 6:31am
reallyfatasiandude
great tip, worked awesome, im gonna have to stop washing my face so i can collect trackball grease and sell it on ebay
April 29th, 2010 at 9:16am
Chuck
WOW….worked great!, my trackball is fast once again…big thanks!
April 29th, 2010 at 11:27pm
Rico
This does work, I had just finished cleaned my trackball with Simple Green, and the trackball well has suspension points that needed cleaning as well. Afterwards, the ball rolled like it was meeting lots of resistance. After googling “lubricating logitech trackball”, I hit this blog., and tried rubbing the ball on my forehead, and replaced the ball into the well, and Voila, smoooooooooooth rolling!
Sebum is an oily substance secreted by the sebaceous glands in mammalian skin. Its main purpose is to make the skin and hair waterproof and to protect them from drying out.
So, as a natural lubricant, its water proof too…
Kew-El !!
May 13th, 2010 at 9:33am
michael
Just put a small dab of Vaseline in the palm of your hand, rub your hands together…. and then rub the track ball as though massaging it. Coats it with a very thin film and works fine for weeks at a time.
June 5th, 2010 at 12:35pm
Richard
Wahahahahah! I could NOT believe it! I tried the forehead idea and it worked!!! I’ve tried like a million things with no luck before this. Seems like the best thing to use is the bees wax lib baum according to ya’ll on here. Gonna go out in a few min to buy some and try it. I thought my Logitech trackball was trash!
July 3rd, 2010 at 11:04am
Cazimius
I tried all the oils, chap-tubes, sprays, and they helped ….but never thought of lanolin. I had some old liquid lanolin stored in a cabinet somewhere, found it, tried it, and I think it’s superior to anything I used so far. I no longer experience even the tiniest of catches on my Logitech Marble Mouse. Lanolin has my vote.
August 7th, 2010 at 12:10pm
Carlos
Tried that on my Logitech M570, because I was having issues when executing small and precise moves: the friction would bother me a lot! And yep! It definitely it works!
July 14th, 2011 at 11:46am
platatomi
I am about to give this a try on my Kensington Orbit trackball, I will report back soon.
August 9th, 2011 at 12:43am
adave
Are you all mad?
Just clean it and put a few coats of car wax on it. Polish it up with a soft cloth, and it’s good.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:35am
Shawn
Those that suggested wd-40 make me laugh. It is not a lube. It actually removes rust and greese. What would be better would be a teflon spray, but use a very little in a cloth. Triflo woul do the trick…
WD-40…. *shakes head*
October 5th, 2011 at 4:08pm
Darryl
No kidding (about the WD-40)! WD-40 is also a carcinogen (I know, what isn’t?). I don’t want my thumb permanently saturated with that crap. The car polish idea seems plausible, but again, I’m not sure about the chemicals.
FWIW, I bought the new M570 Logitech trackball, (with the blue ball), and so far, I’ve noticed no stiction at all. I’ve been using it for maybe 8 months. I still need to pop the ball out to clean the gliders occasionally, but I haven’t done anything yet to the ball. It’s a very nice unit.
Cheers!
October 5th, 2011 at 4:40pm
nerdmaiden
I tried cleaning my track ball with soap and then alcohol and it just got worse. Hmmm – face oils? I’m not wearing any makeup today, morning and my face is clean – I’ll try it.
And it works like a charm. Thank you!! (Oh – get over it. Your face is cleaner than your hand and that’s on the trackball all day!)
October 18th, 2011 at 1:25pm
jump manual
Using my forehead as lube. Brilliant. I have a lot of that on my face. And voila. My trackball works great again.
November 2nd, 2011 at 2:28pm
justaguy
I have a logitech mouse with a thumb trackball. All I did was pop the ball out using moderate force and clean the dust and gunk that had built up over a number of years. The trackball worked like new after that.
December 14th, 2011 at 12:42pm
Malcontent
I have a Kensington Expert Mouse wireless that has seen heavy use and over time has developed quite a bit of drag.
I popped the bearings out and rotated them then replaced them altogether. That didn’t help. I also tried various waxes and lanolin oil. Those helped a little but also reduced the friction between my fingers and the trackball so they would sometimes slip instead of moving the ball.
Last night I got a microfiber cloth and some polishing compound and gave the trackball a good polishing. I also washed all the lanolin off the trackball. It started off draggy but after picking up some skin oils is working better than ever now.
December 27th, 2011 at 6:09pm