Melting point

[Bchild]

Hello,

It's an odd question I know. I was wondering how much heat can my M&P Shield polymer frame take before it damages it? I've read other forums and heard MANY answers. The lowest I read was 284 degrees and the highest was around 500.

I'm asking because I was going to use a heat gun to prep my Shield for Froglube (I'm also very curiouse to know the answer just for the sake of having the knowledge). I've also herad that 120 degrees is optimal for Froglube. Not sure how true that is but I've read and seen it a few times.

Any info and/or tips are greatly appreciated.

 

[TahoeDust]

Just use a hairdryer or sit it out in the sun for a while. A heatgun is overkill IMHO.

 

[Maddmax]

Hairdryer works just fine. ALL you need is very hot to the touch. I also keep it "hot" while the Frog Lube is "doing it's magic" soaking into the metal for 45 min. to an hour.

 

[AR-Getsome]

So. You need to heat your gun up to lube up with frog lube? Does not make any sense to me. Whats the theory on that?

 

[shawn mccarver]

Hello,

It's an odd question I know. I was wondering how much heat can my M&P Shield polymer frame take before it damages it? I've read other forums and heard MANY answers. The lowest I read was 284 degrees and the highest was around 500.

I'm asking because I was going to use a heat gun to prep my Shield for Froglube (I'm also very curiouse to know the answer just for the sake of having the knowledge). I've also herad that 120 degrees is optimal for Froglube. Not sure how true that is but I've read and seen it a few times.

Any info and/or tips are greatly appreciated.

Huh? A heat gun for your Shield to use "Frog Lube," whatever that is???? I have seen it mentioned, but never bothered to look it up. If it requires a heat gun to apply, then it sounds like a bad idea.

Sounds to me like a solution to a non-existent problem.

Get yourself some Break Free CLP and call it a day.

More guns are ruined or damaged by unnecessary or ill-advised cleaning or cleaning methods, disassembly or other owner handling or attempted "improvements" than by shooting. By a long shot.

 

[3hounds]

There's a lot of videos on you tube on this.

Personally I think it's just bullet lube repackaged at a CRAZY price.

3

 

[OKFC05]

Your pistol frame is similar to nylon, and can be damaged by prolonged exposure to a heatgun, which is overkill for your purpose, or for anything you should be doing to it.

You want to test the heat source on something, use a toothbrush handle as a cheap stand-in.

 

[M29since14]

Get yourself some Break Free CLP and call it a day.

Or some LSA.

Nothing on an ordinary sporting arm requires "heroic" lubrication. Nearly anything will do. I suppose if you shot a very finely fitted pistol very quickly for many rounds in a short span of time, as in some of the less-than-realistic "combat" shooting venues, being a little more selective with your lube might be important. For a factory-tolerance pistol like an M&P/Shield, goofy, expensive lubes are not needed.

As to the question about operating temperature, I would not routinely subject my pistol to any environmental conditions I could not handle myself, which generally is somewhere around 120-degrees. The gun might handle 160 or 180, but why bother?

 

[Bchild]

Thanks for all the replies and advice. It is all appreciated. That still leaves me with the question...what is the melting point of a polymer frame?

I'm not asking for the sake of froglube at this point. I'm genuinely curious to the answer. Not sure a toothbrush being melted by a heat gun will give me accurate results. I could be wrong but it seems like my toothbrush is made of a much "softer" blend of plastics/polymers that aren't formulated to withstand harsh enviroments.

 

[OKFC05]

Not sure a toothbrush being melted by a heat gun will give me accurate results. I could be wrong but it seems like my toothbrush is made of a much "softer" blend of plastics/polymers that aren't formulated to withstand harsh enviroments.

Industrial formulations of Nylon melting points range from 220C to about 265C. Toothbrushes are the cheaper nylon 6, which melts about 220C. So if the toothbrush is safe, so is your gun.
I rather doubt you have any of the 6,6 scrap lying around to sacrifice in a test.

By the way, nylon starts to soften well before the melting point, and can be reshaped at temp only a little above 100C.

 

[Nframecollector]

Don't have any problem lubing any of my non polymer guns!

 

[Rastoff]

So. You need to heat your gun up to lube up with frog lube? Does not make any sense to me. Whats the theory on that?

No, you don't need to. It just works better that way.

The idea behind heating is to open the metallic structure. The lube then gets down in the metal and leaches back out as the gun is shot.

 

[BIGMAC116]

I use a heat gun on mine for frog lube application purposes also. I do, however, remove the slide from the frame first. The theory behind heating the metal up first is to open it up (on a molecular level) which allows the FL to get in there and do what it does. You still need to be careful because the striker sleeve is nylon.

I don't think you can get the polymer to a failure point by simply firing the weapon. Maybe if you left it on your dashboard in the summer....

 

[OKFC05]

I don't think you can get the polymer to a failure point by simply firing the weapon. Maybe if you left it on your dashboard in the summer....

Not even then. That is a common question here with 110 degree summer days (along with "will my ammunition go off in the heat?), and the answer to both is "Not unless your truck is on fire!!"

I have seen some trucks that burned with pistols in the glovebox, and the polymer frame looked about like the plastic dash: ruined. Don't think I'd trust a steel gun that had been heated that hot either, due to loss of temper.

If a vehicle is hot enough that the water bottles are boiling, then I would worry about my gun, and I sure would not want to be in the vehicle!

 

[AwfAxis]

The frame is pretty resilient. I ran 500 rounds in my CORE yesterday, to the point that the slide release was too hot to touch (where my weak hand thumb rests when firing). Couldn't stand to have my thumb on it for more than a second.

I would image the whole metal trigger assembly was just as hot, yet no issues. I had to let the CORE cool down for a while before continuing practice.

 

[SmurfHunter]

The poly can handle far more then the interior of a hot car. Consider how hot barrels get on AR's. the hand guards are also made of similar polys and you have zero issues

 

[Doug M.]

I have a friend who assisted in shooting a full auto AR pattern rifle to failure, which started with the barrel getting soft and drooping. Took a lot, and would be hard to do with semi-auto fire. The frame is not exposed to the same heat, and you are not likely able to shoot that fast, either.

I am not a cleaning fetishist. The military paradigm is based on several things that do not apply elsewhere, one of which is the training needs for indoctrination of recruits. It also is influenced by generations of folks still traumatized by corrosive ammo. Frog Lube has been well reviewed by some hard guys I respect, and if you want to use it, do. Whatever you do, don't use CLP or its ilk except in an emergency. It does none of the tasks well.