As I said, I was cleaning old files off my computer. The date on this one was mid 90's. One thing this thread has done has been to bring out all kinds of gun lubes and cleaners which I find very interesting.
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I tend to stick to the commercial stuff too. while I do dabble in DIY things (case lube for one) I want my guns rust free and in good working condition
no saying the homemade stuff is bad, just I am happy with what's on the shelf in LGS
Synthetic ATF cleans so well, all I have to do is threaten to use it and my gun cleans itself.
Mobil 1 is far and away, the best gun oil I've ever used, I use it in my AR's... To clean, Kerosene and ATF works great for carbon...
I am a beliver in marvel mystry oil 35+years.
I use the Marvel product as a solvent. It's good stuff to have around.
Not putting homemade stuff on my guns; too risky for me.
We’re talking about home mixed stuff, not home made. Guys aren’t refining crude in their backyards. What do you think commercial gun lubes are, some magic formula whipped up especially for guns? Not hardly: the market is way too small for any refiner to develop a bespoke product. Gun oil is just some guy mixing together exactly the same base ingredients you and I have access to. There’s nothing particularly better about paying someone else to do the mixing and then to pour it off in small bottles and sell it for 20X the cost.
I would rather know what’s in my bottle than trust some snake oil salesman. Fire Clean turned out to be canola oil, and Frog Lube is coconut oil. At least my stuff didn’t come from Grandma’s kitchen.
I use 2 parts full synthetic motor oils (0w-20 because it’s what my car uses) 1 part dextrin transmission oil and 1 part STP oil treatment
Works like a charm!!!! I have my friends begging for it and a little goes a long ways!!
Hmmm...I can recall doing exactly that to "break-in" new M60s in SE Asia. Mix a bit of lapping compound with GI lube ('Monkey goop'), brush onto all the moving parts, run a couple hundred rounds downrange, clean in a bucket of JP4, lube normally, and reassemble. Learned this from our company armorer who was already in the Army when some of our door gunners were born.
Bill
You can do worse than straight ATF. A solvent is not needed for oiling after cleaning. I use Red&Tacky as a grease for auto slides and the star on revolver cylinders. If it slides, grease it, if it turns, oil it.
Came across a “car talk” radio show a couple of years ago. They were discussing motor oils. One thing that caught my ear was that Pennzoil “High Mileage” motor oil has higher levels of zinc in it. The zinc aids to fill/seal voids from wear, also provides corrosion protection.
I’ve been using that product in my vehicles ever since listening to the show. I use it on my guns too. Can’t say it works better than anything I’ve used in the past, but I like the point of high zinc content for corrosion protection on my guns.
There is a website dedicated to oils/lubes called: Bob is the oil guy. Interesting reading. Nice to know that Marvel Mystery Oil ( mmo) is well-regarded over there. I use it a lot, including on guns.
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forum.../forum_summary
Goo-Gone is recommended by some in the Air Guns section as patch solvent for cleaning barrels. Apparently air gun barrels are made of softer steel than firearms. I'm new to air guns so I am trying not to do anything to damage my barrel so don't use brushes or rods.
About 5 years ago, I did some research reading about Zinc additives to automotive engine oil. As I understand it, about the time cars were equiped with catalytic converters the automotive manufacturers specified no Zinc additives, due to them prematurely clogging up catalytic converters, I don't recall what API spec that was, but it was probably back in the late 1980s. That was also about the time when they started labeling some motor oil specifically for Diesel engines, as those had Zinc additives. Also, the standard STP oil treatment have a fairly high content of Zinc additives. Which explains one more reason why the "gunshow gunoil" recipe I posted in post #11 uses STP
well after reading all of this heres what i been using for over 25 years i use the old fashioned 3-1 oil on all my guns even the wood and it works great! so does anyone else use this oil on their guns??