Brownells Busts WD40

[BrassMagnet]

I have had two memorable bad experiences with WD40.
I also bought a gallon and I still have some left.

I lubed an Op Rod with it. It ate the op rod and my rifle had to have extensive repairs.

I stored many steel reloading items in WD40 including a Forster Trimmer. Enough WD40 that it was wet in the Ammo Can. When I removed it all from storage, the Forster trimmer had a lot of aluminum eaten away. The spinning handle really looked terrible.

Never Again!

[DDriller]

Only thing I have found it good for is removing bugs and road tar off my truck.

[BrassMagnet]

Only thing I have found it good for is removing bugs and road tar off my truck.

My Grandmother used kerosene to remove bugs and road grime including asphalt from her 61 Falcon.

[gwpercle]

It's a Penetrating Oil ...it's thin and it will dissapate over time . That leaves a little rust protection .
Another plus is I've never had it go Gummy on me ... Break Free CLP have gummed up several ... but maybe I used Too Much .
WD40 - Thin light and dissapets , not a great long term lubricant .
Good for cleaning rusty stuff and soaking rusty things in ... but so is Kerosene !
Okay ...got it ...not a great lubricant but useful for squeeky door hinge and sticky door locks !
I still keep cans of WD40 all around ...house and shop ... along with the roll of duct tape .
Gary

[waksupi]

I think it was Felix who posted here on the board many years ago, that WD40 also had bad interaction with barrel steels.

[waksupi]

How long does it take to gum up? Years ago I used it on numerous guns without issue.

Watch for a brown discoloration on your metal.

[Scrounge]

To me WD40 is the same as Marvel Mystery oil. Lots of people use it, but what is it really? The sad truth is it is not good, I don't buy it at all anymore. It's ok for de-icing locks and such in the winter, but just about anything in a can will.

The water displacement? Worthless. I have never sprayed WD40 on something that didn't rust. The two most notable being my Benelli Nova after a rainy duck hunt. Sprayed with WD40 to "displace" the water, and about 30 minutes later it was covered in rust. The other was a brand new dirt bike chain, those things aren't cheap, some are over $200. A guy I ride with kept on me about how after he washes a bike he uses WD40 on the chain. Well I did it, and I sprayed WD40 on it, and it rusted bad. I was irate that time, guy swears he never had an issue with it. Well come to find out he uses a ton, follows it with a towel dry off, and then another ton.

Its crap. If something is wet, dry it off with a towel and use a real oil once it's dry. WD40 wont displace water, and it wont protect against water. Don't have a gun oil? Use a motor oil. Seriously, the motor oil in your car is one of the best gun oils there ever was. As far as I can smell, WD40 is mineral spirits mixed with some other junk that serves no purpose but to separate a dollar from a wallet. If you need to clean something, use mineral spirits.

I think you're misunderstanding the Water Displacement part a bit. To get rid of the water you have to flood it with WD-40. Can't just spray a little bit on. Where it shines, or at least used to, was when you got water in a distributor cap. Hose that sucker down, and you could start the car/truck again. It's gotten me back on the road again more than once in the past 48 years.

There are a few things it's good for. There are a bunch it is not. There is one guy who wrote in to the WD-40 folks to tell them that it is a great treatment for his arthritis. I am NOT going to try that.

Bill

[andrew375]

WD40 is just silicone waxes dissolved in a light oil. It's the waxes that work to protect metal surfaces but gum up fine mechanisms. It was never intended as a lubricant. I have had several opportunities to open locks seized solid as a result of WD40, in all cases a good dose of WD40 re-dissolved the waxes and I was able to open lock.

Clock repairers like the stuff. A regular occurrence is a customer comes in with an old clock and the story is "it wasn't running, I sprayed it liberaly with WD40 and it worked, now it won't " . Clock repairer tells them it's a difficult costly repair, come back in a fortnight. Repairer simply drops the clock mechanism into a bucket of white spirit, paraffin or meths and leaves it to soak. A few days later there's a ticking sound coming from the bucket. The clock is taken out, hung up to dry followed by a proper cleaning and lubrication. Not a lot of effort required so its a nice little earnerl

[alfadan]

Its a great cutting fluid for aluminum and a good gentle tool and machine cleaner. Supposedly, grandpa would wash his hands with it for arthritis.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I won't pay full price for WD40, but I'll find it at garage sales for cheap or the HHHW free store.

I do like WD40 for two things.
When I get a gun that hasn't been cleaned in eons, I prefer to spray the crud with WD40 (and let soak if necessary), than something more aggressive like Gun Scrubber. Once most of the crud is softened and removed, then clean with Ed's Red.

Also, it's great for removing adhesive labels.

[John Guedry]

ATF works pretty good on my guns. That and a little CLP.

[Char-Gar]

Back in the early 60's, cops would spray their service revolvers with that crap and wipe them down after every shift. This stuff kills primers as well as gum up the action with time. Didn't take but a few years for that to stop, but seem like it takes some folks a very long time to get the memo.

[Wayne Smith]

We are gardeners - it works great on preserving shovels, trowels, rakes, etc. I have gardening tools that are over 30 years old and, while they are worn they are still rust free. Wash off the dirt and spray with WD40 and put away. I've gone through a gallon and bought a second and it has never touched any of my guns!

[Handloader109]

wd40 isn't an oil, it isn't a penetrating oil, it ir really worthless for either if those functions. Get a can or sprayer with kroil if you want the best penetrating oil for loosening nuts and bolts. Wd40 is superb at helping metal rust and deteriorating plastics and some metals. It is amazing what false advertising can sell. There many great products out there, but wd40 ain't one of them

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[Scrounge]

wd40 isn't an oil, it isn't a penetrating oil, it ir really worthless for either if those functions. Get a can or sprayer with kroil if you want the best penetrating oil for loosening nuts and bolts. Wd40 is superb at helping metal rust and deteriorating plastics and some metals. It is amazing what false advertising can sell. There many great products out there, but wd40 ain't one of them

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

Beg to differ. I've been using the stuff since it came out, and it is useful. It is not a miracle cure for everything, though there are people who think so. And they're just as wrong as you are.

I've been a mechanic on home and industrial appliances, high performance fighter jets, mainframe and microcomputers, automobiles, military satellite communications systems, and a bit of audiovisual equipment, among other things. Seems to me you prefer Kroil? Kroil is a solvent with mineral oil, solvent, and some other additives very similar to WD-40. Not exactly the same, but not too very different. I don't doubt it works better for some things than WD-40. But I wouldn't expect miracles out of it, either. There are dozens of such technical chemicals because there are many many folks who think that they can do better. And in some areas, many of them can. PB Blaster is a better penetrant, but it will damage the finish on blued parts. It's mostly solvents and oils, too. It's natural to have preferences, and just about everyone does. One of the advantages to WD-40 is that in its class, it's relatively cheap, and I'm a cheap bastrich. Which is one reason I like it. I've not tripped over a can of Kroil or I'd probably try it, and like it, too. When I'm not in a hurry, WD-40 is perfect for my needs as a penetrant, and I've used it a lot as a water displacer for electrical equipment. I spent the last five+ years of my working live keeping industrial washer and dryers and associated equipment running, and WD-40 was one of the chemicals we used frequently. That doesn't make it perfect, either. I also like PB Blaster, and buy it. And when I want what I think is the best penetrant, I mix acetone and auto trans fluid. It works pretty well, better than WD-40 when I'm in a hurry, but it's a PITA to keep around.

I'm told if you really want to protect metal from corrosion, you need Boeshield. I've never tried it because it's expensive. An 8oz pump spray bottle is about $11. That's a couple of cans of WD-40 for short term, or a quart of most any good oil. There are lots of chemicals that will damage or destroy plastics. Kroil contains some of them, too.

Gotta be careful about what you use where, and what effect it has. Compare the SDS data sheets for WD-40, Kroil, and PB Blaster Penetrant. Lots of similarities, and a few differences. I'd say which one is best depends on exactly what you need to do. None of them are good for everything, as I think I've said before.

Bill

[higgins]

It is good for what it was designed for. Decades ago I got the inside of the distributor wet at the car wash when washing the engine of my car. It wouldn't start. Sprayed the distributor and cap with WD40 and it started. I've used it for 50 years as an exterior wipe down for guns and have never damaged anything with it in that application, but I don't use it as a lubricant or preservative.

[poppy42]

My Grandmother used kerosene to remove bugs and road grime including asphalt from her 61 Falcon.

Was it a Falcon Sprint, or a plain Jane Falcon? Ah doesn’t matter I still wouldn’t mind having a car right now! Great gas mileage. I guess I’m gonna have to build my own electric car for my wife. I already got an old washing machine motor. Anybody know where I can get about 40 miles worth of extension cords really cheap?
Oh wait this thread was about wd40 oops!

[JWFilips]

Like that Video!

[725]

I use WD-40 on ML's used in a summer camp program for kids. After a session, I clean with water & soaps and them wash 'em down with WD-40 or PB Blaster and put 'em in the rack knowing in 2 days we'll be at it again. At the beginning of each session, I wipe the WD-40 away and start all over again. When stored between seasons, they get washed and oiled with either Fluid Film or Boeing's T-9. 20 plus years of hard use and they are all running strong.

On my bench, I use 20 weight synthetic motor oil or sewing machine oil. Good stuff. No WD-40 for me.

[jimlj]

I think WD-40 gets a bad rap, just like Fram oil filters. They are both the big dog and have a bunch of detractors trying to take them down. Are there better alternatives available? Most certainly. But are they the zit faced red headed step child they are made out to be? Nope. I have WD-40, PB Blaster, Marvel Mystery oil and a few others in my garage. Some work better than others for a given task, but I've not had a catastrophic failure from any of them. BTW, I don't use any of them on my guns.