Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What is WD40 good for anymore?

WD40 is good for something where every few years you say, "chit that needs oil"

Garage doors, locks, etc. Also good for cleaning bugs off the front of cars.

Barbarian Dan suggested Ballistol once for black powder guns, and I've started using it more often. It seems to have many of the benefits of WD40, but is said to never gum up.

Things that absolutely, positively have to work, like guns - use stuff made for them. Or Mobil 1.

The reason the halibut etc. fishmen like it is that it is made from menhaden oil. Fish oil is the ingredient that lets it displace water. WD-40, water displacement 40 th formula. It is really poor for just about every other use.

How do they do around open flames?

I used a lot of WD-40 when I lived on Florida's Atlantic shore.

Seen that happen with LSA & Ballistol. I think Ballistol is known to do that, but then go back to a liquid state when it starts warming up.

I like Ballistol better than WD-40 for guns, but use a lot of WD-40. Ballistol won't gum up with BP like WD-40, it's a non petrol product unlike WD-40.

One great use of WD-40 not mentioned so far is as a cutting fluid when drilling, etc. I use the red spout hooked to the nozzle to flush metal chips when drilling steel. It also keeps the drill bit cool and keep it from galling.

Places I do NOT use WD-40 are fine parts such as gun triggers, locks. etc. NEVER spray WD-40 into a lock, use graphite.

Like Redneck said, I've had to remove WD-40 "varnish" from friends gun parts and it's not an easy job. It's hard to dissolve that stuff with solvents and usually means full disassembly with manual cleaning of each part.

DF

Lots of truckers use it routinely, especially in winter. A shot in each end of the light cord cleans the contacts and prevents a lot of lighting problems. It's recommended for all trailer light cords, not just trucks. Repeat occasionally if you're driving in rain or snow...or especially on salted roads.

Not gummy if you are meaning sticky, but more like a grease instead of an oil after it sits awhile in my experience.

Been using it close to 20 years(including some Lowe's Home Improvement stores clearanced for cheap after apparently not going over well in that market), but never really was happy with it's performance until I read about using it in a manner similar to seasoning and caring for cast iron. In the past, I would use various cleaners along with it and it didn't seem to do anything better than anything else. About 2 years ago I followed the advice and cleaned the bore and everything else down to bare metal and used Ballistol only after that and have been very impressed to say the least.

The greatest thing about WD-40 is that it's cheap. It's a decent enough penetrating oil, but there certainly are better out there. It's not a good preservative for preventing rust, but it's damn good at displacing water. It's a decent lubricant in very cold weather, because it won't start getting gummy until about -20 degrees.

I also found that it's a very good cutting oil for aluminum.

That was BS the first time it was posted and disproven, and it's still BS now

It's amazing how people can be connected to the greatest source of information ever known to man, but they still don't bother looking anything up before posting misinformation

http://wd40.com/cool-stuff/myths-legends-fun-facts

I use it on my dirtbikes. It works great for removing grease and chain lube and exhaust spooge. It even gets that stuff of decades old vintage dirt bikes. I use Shout laundry pre-spotter after that to clean the WD40 off.

Here's a link to the MSDS for WD40. No menhaden oil, no fish oil, no truth to the myth.

www.wd40company.com/files/pdf/sds/mup/wd-40-multi-use-product-aerosol-sds-us-ghs-7-20-14.pdf

From the WD-40 website:

Myth: WD-40� contains fish oil.

Fact: Consumers have told us for years that they've caught some of the biggest fish ever after protecting their fish hooks and lures with WD-40�. We believe this legend came from folks assuming the product must contain fish oil since it appears to attract fish. Sorry Charlie�, it just ain�t so.

And, there are those who swear WD-40 helps arthritis...

And, did someone say it was cheap...??

I've zapped wasps with it, sprayed squeaky swivel chairs in box blinds.

If carried it in a pack, put it in a zip lock bag. That stuff turned loose in a pack with binoculars, etc. leaves a lot to be desired...

DF

I use WD-40 on wasps for preference. Squirt a flying wasp with wasp spray and he just might get you. Hit him with a tiny bit of WD-40 and he will lose interest in everything, right now.

It just ruins a nest, fast.

Missed the posts that beat me to it.

Dang.

It's like a 16 oz hammer, if it's the only tool you own, every problem looks like a nail. When I was a kid and didn't know any better I used it on everything as I didn't know any better.

About the only thing I use it for anymore is combined with 0000 steel wool as a rust remover.

My ex wife!

JD338

And here's a prime example:



Customer brought in two guns late last week - wanted 'em checked over and cleaned.. Started on this M700 15 mns ago.. The rifle - on the outside - looked like new. Then I tried to remove the bolt.. The bolt stop wouldn't budge.. Removed the stock and noted this crap all over the trigger group, the bolt stop and receiver.. It took a powered brush to clean up the bolt stop. Then I recalled this thread and stopped to take a pic of the rest..

When I drove out the pins, the sear barely moved - while, under normal, clean circumstances it pivots easily and the spring drops out.. I had to grab that with a needle-nose to remove it..

This guy is lucky he didn't try to chamber a round..

And here's the firing pin... No wonder he complained a bit of 'light strikes'...



Between that gummed-up trigger and a gummed-up firing pin - it's a wonder it worked at all..

FWIW...