Ball Head Lubrication

SantaFeJoe wrote: There's a counterintuitive trick to loosening up an Arca-Swiss ballhead. Tighten the main knob much harder than you would normally tighten it. Then loosen it. If that doesn't work, I usually rotate the ball against a cloth moistened with alcohol to clean it. Then I  lubricate it with teflon powder.

Joe

SantaFeJoe wrote: Here's a link to some more info. Note that in various sites, Precision Camera Works was highly recommended.

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/1514523

neverspook wrote: I used an Arca-Swiss B1 for years. I occasionally had the lock up problem described in SantaFe Joe's response and the turning the knob clockwise counterintuitively always worked.
But I am thinking maybe you have the more concerning problem I had that had nothing to do with locking up. After being very happy with it for over a decade of hard use, the Arca-Swiss just became very stiff, hard to pan with it etc. And when I was in the Arctic in winter, it became so stiff that I could not really use it at all, especially panning. l sent it to Precision Camera Works and they re-lubricated it for me. It worked for a while but the same problem recurred within a year.
I replaced it with a Markins ballhead that does much better in the cold. For me, the RRS ballheads have such large knobs they are not comfortable to carry with camera attached with tripod over my shoulder. The Markins is more akin to the Arca-Swiss. 
I use a ballhead with a Sidekick attached to serve as a gimbal for my big glass and the Markins works well for that (and the Arca-Swiss did, until it didn't). I personally don't care for the Flexshooter though I know many people like those and for me, a full Wimberley is a bit heavy. What I also like about the Sidekick is I can take it off the ballhead and then use it for lenses without a tripod collar. The Markins has been great for that.
But of course it is expensive to replace a tripod head so if your Arca-Swiss is sticky rather than locked up, might be worth seeing if Precision can improve its performance.

Roberta Olenick
Vancouver, BC

SantaFeJoe wrote: This may be helpful:

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1537609/

Joe