WD-40 again

[MSD MIke]

Never really used it on firearms but it works great for cleaning motorcycle chains. When I lived on the coast we would hose down metal parts on tackle that had been exposed to saltwater. It has its uses.


Mike

[44man]

I was involved in fixing TV and radios for years and had to clean pots all the time. Same with radio control airplanes. I had a special grease made just for the lube of pots. I would take them apart, clean and lube instead or replacing them. NEVER WD-40 inside one.
The best pot wipers were carbon and I replaced the brass ones with carbon. No lube needed. Lube of the proper kind did no harm though. Once done, never a scratch again.
To have WD-40 gum up the carbon film the wiper ran on was not in the cards. Most pots can not be lubed from the outside anyway. You need to remove them and bend the tabs and take them apart.
Funny to compare WD-40 to DMSO that I have and use. Not much of anything will penetrate skin like DMSO and I laugh at all those pain relieving products that says DEEP PENETRATION, get off my back. TV ads are crazy. Same as all the junk that smooths wrinkles. Water is better. Water might go deeper but DMSO is the only thing that reaches bone.
You don't taste fish oil on your hand or diesel fuel or motor oil or grease. I would be awful slippery inside from being a mechanic!
All my guns were paid for by fixing TV and radio years ago, I was good and also cheap but made a ton of money. I charged $20 for parts and labor to fix a lightning strike while the TV guy charged $79. Every TV that left my garage looked better then when new. Pride in work, like my gun smith work. I would come home from work at United Airlines to find 15 TV's in my garage, some from half the state of Ohio away.
Tell me to use WD-40 on a fine guitar!
I won't stop you that love it, the way it is but it is like making pure lead shoot 2500 fps from a rifle.
I do have some around but it is only used here and there like a coolant or flush when cutting. Then parts are washed after.

[Elkins45]

I think the popularity of WD-40 basically comes from the efforts of the Madison Ave. advertisers and most folks' lack of real interest in knowing anything beyond the very minimum necessary for "right now." Add in the Wal Mart/Burger King "have it your way" mentality of wanting things to be cheap AND universally applicable, and presto! You have a decent product that has become the icon that WD-40 has become. The old jokes about rednecks using duct tape to stop things from moving that want to move, and WD-40 to make things move that don't want to, kind'a reflects this mentality that pervades our culture today.

Only you could turn this into a discussion of moral decay

And I know some who use it on their knees and joints for arthritis! And claim it's the best thing since sliced bread! I guess some folks are TOUGH!?! Some say it's great on fishing lures and baits, too! I've never tried it because I'd be afraid somebody would be watching me!

One of my uncles swears by it as an arthritis palliative. He's a mechanic and says that's the only thing it's good for.

It cleans and quiets scratchy guitar and amp knobs! Not too bad a guitar cleaner either!

The other thing it does REALLY WELL is smooth up cuts made in the lathe or milling machine.

Good to know the thing about lathe cuts. Back when I was learning to play guitar in the 70's I couldn't afford new strings as often as I would have liked. The local guitar shop was actually a side business of one of the mechanics in the Chevy dealer and he sold little beige cans of an aerosol spray that was supposed to make your strings last longer. I can't recall the name but it might have been called String Saver or something like that. I bought some and it really worked, and IIRC it smelled a lot like if WD-40 and TCE had a love child. I don't know if it still exists---it probably causes cancer in California.

My dad had a High Standard Citation 22 target pistol he kept under his bed. Ever so often he would give it a good hosing down with WD-40. After he died I retrieved it and brought it home with me. Even though I doubt he ever fired it 100 times it has a brown patina like it had been carried in the war. I will pass on WD-40 as anything other than what it explicitly is supposed to do: displace water.

[BrentD]

I will pass on WD-40 as anything other than what it explicitly is supposed to do: displace water.

you must not have read the test article that actually evaluated water displacement.

[Mal Paso]

WD-40 was designed To Sell. It does that too well.

Time will tell if it's as long lasting as Threadkiller.

[RugerFanOH]

I found this through Google:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/wd-40.asp