GatorFarmer
Member
Break Free or - hate it all you will - WD40 which I like for being only moderately toxic, cheap, and universally to be had.
I actually have used olive oil. It works.
I actually have used olive oil. It works.
No doubt about Kroil...I've never used anything short of brake disc cleaner (on old Mosin-Nagants) that cleans a bore better. I always clean the bores with brush and solvent, run a wet patch of Kroil through the bore, wait an hour, and start pushing crud out of the bore. Hoppe's Nitro and Kroil, great way to clean any gun. Even though Kroil is an oil (penetrating), I usually finish off the bore with a heavier gun oil.Kroil. The oil that creeps. It works as a fair-to-middling solvent too. I used and liked Break-Free for years, but prefer Kroil.
Break Free or - hate it all you will - WD40 which I like for being only moderately toxic, cheap, and universally to be had.
I actually have used olive oil. It works.
Break Free or - hate it all you will - WD40 which I like for being only moderately toxic, cheap, and universally to be had.
I actually have used olive oil. It works.
Gator,
I am surprised that someone of your intelligence and experience would not mention WD-40's
tendency to form a hard build-up on moving parts. Before going overseas and leaving my
my guns at a relative's house for almost four years I field stripped them and sprayed the innards with WD-40. When I finally retrieved my guns I found that several of them now had
very heavy trigger pulls, particularly my Browning FN Mauser-type bolt action 30-06. I finally ended up boiling the action. It never did completely regain it's original trigger pull. Other guns with perhaps looser actions, or greater tolerances, were not so adversely effected. Still, WD-40 is something for bike chains as far as I am concerned.
RKO
Gator,
I am surprised that someone of your intelligence and experience would not mention WD-40's
tendency to form a hard build-up on moving parts. Before going overseas and leaving my
my guns at a relative's house for almost four years I field stripped them and sprayed the innards with WD-40. When I finally retrieved my guns I found that several of them now had
very heavy trigger pulls, particularly my Browning FN Mauser-type bolt action 30-06. I finally ended up boiling the action. It never did completely regain it's original trigger pull. Other guns with perhaps looser actions, or greater tolerances, were not so adversely effected. Still, WD-40 is something for bike chains as far as I am concerned.
RKO
I've never had a problem with WD-40 causing anything to become gummed up or have it form any sort of build up or gunky residue (such as 3 in 1 oil is notorious for). I've heard anecdotal reports of such, but haven't seen it happen, even on things that I've let sit around for quite some time, though I have not used it for long term storage. I don't know if WD sometimes leaches out other products or gunk if left to sit for a long time. It seems that for every thread where several folks report to have used WD40 for years without incident, another reliable individual will report a problem that they attribute to it.
Ed Harris said:## What are the drawbacks of using WD-40 in cleaning and lubricating guns?##
Degrades in the presense of ozone, which can cause surface rusting such as
when you have an arc welder in the shop. When I was at Ruger we once had
to reblue a week's worth of production after somebody rinsed guns after
bluing, and they were stored on open racks near an arc welder. Guns may
also rust after a severe thunderstorm. The stuff oxidizes and gums after
a few years and gives no protection. When I was at NRTA and we had to
pack up museum guns and put in storage for 2 years, EVERY gun treated with
WD40 had rust on it, whereas none of the ones treated with ordinary ATF
rusted.
The biggest problem is that it is too high in chlorides, because it
contains chlorinated paraffins. This contributes to stress corrosion
cracking in stainless steel alloys. According to FAA WD40 may not be used
in aircraft applications, nor is it permitted in military or nuclear
applications. When I was at Ruger we wouldn't allow a can of the stuff
inside the plant gate.