The weather was nice until Christmas day and thus we grilled outside at my brother-in-law's place on Christmas Eve. BIL has a very nice outdoor grill area that includes a stainless steel sink unit that came from a marine supply place. It had a built-in soap dispenser device that it took all my weight leaning on it to get it to work. He mentioned that he thought the pump dispenser would "break in" over time but that is was still stiff after a year.
Later somewhat bored, he and I took the top of the dispenser to see what was going on inside. Piston, spring, o-rings; looked pretty well made. We decided to try to lube it with something. With all the o-rings and seals, I didn't want to use anything petroleum-based and ended up pouring some olive oil down it. It helped some.
That made me think. If I had taken it apart at home, I probably would have lubed the pieces with silicone grease. I know silicone grease can react with some things negatively (natural rubber?), but I have had good luck with it. I don't know that I have a thin "oil"-type (not very viscous) lubricant in my garage that is non-petroleum. I think even Mineral (baby) oil is still petroleum-based. I have some cutting oil that isn't petroleum-based, but I don't think of it as an all-around lube. What sort of lubricant do you use in a situation like that (non-petroleum, but is easily poured or sprayed)?
JNA