My mouse for my PC has a seriously hardened scroll wheel. Its happened over time, its like pushing and pulling in molasses. I wondered about lubricating it, maybe with my bicycle oil or my food oil. Does it sound doable to you guys?
I realize that too might cause a short circuit, but what about a very small amount?Just like drip a few drops onto the wheel and let it sink in?
I dont really dare right now.
Probably opening the case and cleaning out accumulated gunk would be a better approach.
Ill try that
If it’s not a financial hardship, buy a laser mouse. No balls to get dirty.
Here’s one to look at.
As long as the surface is not featureless, like perhaps glass, they work very well.
Had a sticky mouse wheel, developed over time as you describe. Gave it a spritz of electrical contact cleaner, and the plastic wheel rim swelled to completely jam the mechanism.
Be prepared to buy a new mouse.
Dan
I second the advice to buy a laser mouse. You can probably make your mouse work by removing the ball and cleaning it and the contacts. But mechanical mice get dirty, skip, and just don’t work as well as laser mice.
Perhaps slip an exacto blade along each side of the scroll wheel? It’s probably just got a bunch of skin cells and gunk on it.
Since ball mice haven’t really been on the market in 20 years, I’m going to reiterate for the OP that they’re talking about the scroll wheel.
I do think you’ll get better results taking it apart and cleaning/lubricating just the axle, especially since you don’t want the wheel itself to get greasy.
Agree with the recommendations to clean it out first if possible. However, if you do think you want to try lubricating it, I would definitely NOT use any sort of food oil - they will degrade over time and gunk up your mouse even worse.
Thank you. I thought I had entered a time warp of some sort where ball mice were still being used and laser mice were state-of-the-art technology.
Absolutely no on the vegetable oil – I’d open it and try to clean it out maybe with rubbing alcohol but, most likely, I’d just go to Target and drop $10-20 on a new mouse.
ETA: Here’s a tutorial I’ve found for Logitech mouses to see what’s involved.
Yes, this is a ‘clean out the gunk’ and not an ‘add more goop’ issue.
I wouldn’t have thought that someone still uses a mechanical mouse, but as others have said, when they became wonky, I always took out the ball and cleaned the vertical and horizontal wheels from gunk, with my fingernails. But I’m in the camp of those that recommend getting a new mouse, my good and reliable optical, cableless Logitech mouse cost around € 12 or so.
I’ll second that. But if you decide you really really want to keep this mouse, and really really want to lubricate it, use an oil designed for lubrication. Most food oils (all food oils?) will oxidize and create a hard polymer that would protect your cast iron, but make your mouse wheel worse.
My scroll wheel stopped working reliably. I confidently opened everything up and removed a bunch of lint and similar gunk. I also got too aggressive and dislodged some springs and smaller components that I couldn’t figure out how to put together again.
So clean, but be gentle…
I’ve had success restoring mouse wheels by opening the mice up and cleaning out the gunk. Like Folly said, though, be gentle and patient.
I think the OP means the wheel on top of the mouse that allows you to scroll pages. Do they still make the ones with the roller ball on the bottom? I don’t think I’ve seen any non-optical ones for a decade, or maybe two.
You are correct. I missed the word scroll in the OP. 
Damned, me too 
, so sorry to the OP for my misguided post above.
Ah, If only. A Pipe-Dream, I assure you!