The beginners dilemma

SirNickity:

Grumpy_Mike:
Just like this:-

I am going to print a modified copy of this and hang it in my garage, with arrows pointing down to the requisite items on a shelf.

]:slight_smile: And what if someone switches the items ]:smiley:

WD40 is not oil. Too many people treat it like it is.

Correct.
And the "WD40 company" thrives by that, as you will need to reapply it over and over again, until something is dissolved too much, and fails forever.

Hi, now if it wasn't for the nuclear industry we might not have WD40.

Tom....... :slight_smile:

WD40 RP-7 one of many CRC products

polymorph:
WD40 is not oil. Too many people treat it like it is.

That's not what the Wikipedia link says.

"WD-40 is primarily composed of various hydrocarbons."
"The long-term active ingredient is a non-volatile, viscous oil which remains on the surface, providing lubrication and protection from moisture."

They state the MSDS sheet says "<25% petroleum base oil, presumably a mineral oil or light lubricating oil."

You have other information?

My experience has been that there is so little "long term" ingredients in it, that for 99.99% of the purposes, it might as well not be there.

Why go to Wikipedia to read what someone else says about the MSDS?

http://www.wd40company.com/files/pdf/msds-wd494716385.pdf

I've seen hinges destroyed with it, because it washed out the original grease and what it left was insufficient. I've seen rotating bearings destroyed for the same reason. I've seen potentiometers and switches ruined by it.

It has its uses. But in my experience, it sucks as a lubricant except only temporarily.

Hi, its great Water Dispersant/Displacer, hence WD.

I've been told by mechanics that they regard it as a dry lubricant, great to get something stuck moving again, but no long term advantages compared to good oil or grease and regular maintenance.

Tom..... :slight_smile:

Jantje:

SirNickity:

Grumpy_Mike:
Just like this:-

I am going to print a modified copy of this and hang it in my garage, with arrows pointing down to the requisite items on a shelf.

]:slight_smile: And what if someone switches the items ]:smiley:

That reminds me of the old joke about the couple who didn't know the difference between putty and vaseline.
All their windows fell out.

You mean:-

old joke about the newly wed couple who didn't know .......

Oh my god! What did they do with the putty?

I think that WD 40 is a manly scent that should be made into a cologne. Hoppe's #9 would be even better.

Heh.. I showed the engineering flowchart to my GF. Her reply: "WD40 isn't a lubricant, it's a solvent." I was so proud... :sweat_smile:

(Shortly followed by: "...what? I know stuff.")

Jantje:
For instance why does my sliding door slide lots easier when I spray "the hard to reach nearly fully enclosed wheels" with WD40? :astonished:

Collected dirt/dust that the WD cleans out.

Also don't oil bicycle chains except to soak them overnight once a year if you haven't stretched it past usefulness by then. For everyday or weekly cleaning, run the chain through a kerosene soaked rag. Oil on a chain catches dirt and grit that wears the bearings. This from someone that did stretch chains and snap teeth off cogs from a year or less of constant wear.

Collected dirt/dust that the WD cleans out.

And that is, indeed, one of the things it is good for.

I had a car with a sticky seatbelt latch. OK when the weather was really dry, but bad when it was damp. Which was a lot of the time, 30 minutes south of Seattle, WA. Sniffing it told me it was some kind of cola spilled in it, probably multiple times.

So I hosed it out with 409 (water based cleaner/degreaser) on stream to wash it out, then WD40 to rinse out all the water. No oil added. Worked great.

GoForSmoke:
Also don't oil bicycle chains except to soak them overnight once a year if you haven't stretched it past usefulness by then. For everyday or weekly cleaning, run the chain through a kerosene soaked rag. Oil on a chain catches dirt and grit that wears the bearings. This from someone that did stretch chains and snap teeth off cogs from a year or less of constant wear.

I've been using this stuff on my road bike and am pretty happy with it:
http://www.finishlineusa.com/products/chain-lubricants/dry-lube

A couple times a year, I'll take the chain off, give it a thorough de-greasing and cleaning and and also clean what I can off the sprockets by working a rag between them. Just finished a fairly complete tear-down plus replaced the tires so it looks almost factory-new ATM :smiley:

First port of call, Wikipedia.
Second Snopes Can WD-40 Really Do All That? | Snopes.com :smiley:

When I worked in a gun shoppe, we used to get guys that went shooting "once in a blue moon", they'd come in with their pride and joy that had been sitting in the cupboard for months, the pre-storage treatment was WD-40/RP-7/CRC .

The poor rifle would be gummed up tight as a

That wasn't too bad, you could normally free up the action with a good soak in turps or diesel.

The real worry was Greek or Italian blokes who had LIBERALLY applied olive oil!

Once the volatile bits of olive oil have evaporated what you're left with looks and behaves like epoxy!!

I had to boil a semi-auto .22 every day for nearly 2 weeks before I could get the thing apart!

cyberteque:
When I worked in a gun shoppe, we used to get guys that went shooting "once in a blue moon", they'd come in with their pride and joy that had been sitting in the cupboard for months, the pre-storage treatment was WD-40/RP-7/CRC .

The poor rifle would be gummed up tight as a

That wasn't too bad, you could normally free up the action with a good soak in turps or diesel.

The real worry was Greek or Italian blokes who had LIBERALLY applied olive oil!

Once the volatile bits of olive oil have evaporated what you're left with looks and behaves like epoxy!!

I had to boil a semi-auto .22 every day for nearly 2 weeks before I could get the thing apart!

This is why my "once in a blue moon" gun is a Mosin Nagant. Whenever it sticks, I just have to hit it with a hammer. No solvents required.

  1. Lubricates noisy door hinges on vehicles and doors in homes.
  2. Lubricates and stops squeaks in electric fans.

Bullshot Crummond. In both of these instances, in my own experience and that of other people I've known, this is only true very temporarily. My father destroyed the door hinges on my car because, unbeknownst to me, he was hosing out my door hinges with WD40 every time I came to visit. I kept regreasing my hinges, not knowing why it kept disappearing, but WD40 washed out all traces of the grease and got them grinding again. After around a year of this (I don't know when he started doing this), I could only close the driver's side door if I lifted it up.

I've used it to lubricate squeaky door hinges, only to later have them get even worse. A couple drops of 3 in 1 oil fixed it.

I tried it on some stiff fan bearings. Sure, it clean them out, but left them basically dry. In a relatively short time, they started squalling. A little 3 in 1 oil extended the life. For those fan bearings, I've found a good light spray cleaner to work well, let dry, then followed by a few drops of 3 in 1 or sewing machine oil.

I've repaired electronics that people have sprayed WD40 into. Pots that have seized up, sliding pots especially. Cassette decks with swollen rubber and no oil in the bearings. VCRs that stink of WD40 because someone just opened the door and hosed it down due to a squeak, or because someone told them to clean their VCR heads that way.

It has its uses, but a lubricating oil it is not. It bugs me when people treat anything as a panacea.

BTW, if you have someone working on your furnace or ducting and you see them using cloth fabric "duct" tape (actually duck tape) on it, fire them on the spot because they don't know what they are doing. Hire someone else in, ask to see his/her roll of duct tape. Only if it is actual aluminum tape, have them check the other person's work and complete the repair.

What everyone calls "duct" tape is really duck tape, invented to make quick, temporary waterproof repairs to things like ammo cans and such for WW2. As anyone who has ever used it on anything outdoors knows, it breaks down quickly in heat and cold. As anyone who has used it or had someone else use it to tape down an extension cord knows, it becomes this sticky mess that is nearly impossible to entirely remove. That's why roadies use gaffer tape, even though it is much more expensive.

If there are no moving parts to stick, olive oil is great! I use it on my fencing blades, very thin coat.