WD40...solvent or lubricant?

[Chief Sapulpa]

As far as chains, they should be cleaned with hot solvent, allowed to dry, and cleaned once again in fresh hot solvent, allowed to dry and then put in hot 80W90 gear oil, then hung to drip the excess.
Back in the ATC racing days, one of our sponsors was Tsubaki chain. This was their recommendation.
They gave us cases of chains to give away at races.

Geez Dennis, it's not 1957, lol. Just use a new o-ring chain and lubricate with Boeshield T-9 ( Boeshield T-9® | Corrosion Protection and Waterproof Lubrication )

 

[Aku]

Started using Ballistol several years ago, and have never used WD40 since. I believe the WD stands for water displacement, its a light oil, rust inhibitor.

 

[Hangfire]

When I worked part time for a couple of local gunsmiths they both loved WD40 because it was a quick money maker.

Guys would bring in their guns and state that it wouldn't function correctly and after peeking inside the action they'd ask the customer what kind of lube they were using and 9 times out of 10 they'd reply WD40.......a patch or two saturated down the bore, spray inside liberally and wipe it down outside, all done with WD40.

Disassemble......clean all the gummy WD40 and filth out of the action and reassemble lubed properly = $50.00.

When the customer picked up their gun both smiths were honest and would tell the customer to save the WD40 for gate hinges and never use it on their guns......some may say that they've used it for years and never had a problem but I've never used it on my guns and won't.

 

[WoodsCraft]

WD40 was developed for the military to keep rust and corrosion off of missile parts true story . Its not intended as a lubricant. As a kid we used 3 in 1 at home for gun lube , I used LSA and CLP for a long time because the army used it and it works great. Pro tip for you though A quart of Mobile One makes fantastic gun lube and will last you the rest of your life.

 

[User_3155]

Works great for getting bugs and tar off your vehicle.

 

[ssgrock3]

Water Displacement.

This, and for many years I did use it for guns, it works, other things just work better

 

[Shadowrider]

We protected the ways on machine tools in storage by mixing solvent and gear grease. Mixed until really liquid and used paint brushes to cover all surfaces. The solvent evaporates and leaves a fine coat of the grease to protect the bare metal. Some of those machine tools stayed in storage for years with zero rust.

I should have added that we used it for daily cleanup after shift. After cleanup we’d wipe way lube on.

Brushing on grease like that would keep rust at bay for a good long while!

 

[Bigdawg90]

In my understanding almost anything can be used as a solvent for something else as long as it dissolves.

WD-40 works as a great solvent for other greases as its lightweight and can be wiped up once the heavier grease is dissolved.

For me WD-40 is the great jack of all master of none. It does nothing really well but man does it do so many things “eh, I guess that works.”

I just switched to using PB blaster for all my rust prevention issues. Put it on my smoker for smoke season, and put it on pretty much any metal part I can think of. It stays a lot longer than WD-40, but doesn’t destroy paint.

 

[Catt57]

 

[Snapshot2022]

As far as chains, they should be cleaned with hot solvent, allowed to dry, and cleaned once again in fresh hot solvent, allowed to dry and then put in hot 80W90 gear oil, then hung to drip the excess.
Back in the ATC racing days, one of our sponsors was Tsubaki chain. This was their recommendation.
They gave us cases of chains to give away at races.

I lay chains in a pan with news paper under them and spray them with brake cleaner, oil and dirt gos on news paper chain quickly drys.
Then i drag a old tooth bruch with chain oil on chain that is it.