all around lubricant

[db4570]

I learned a lot from this article, which seemed very well thought out:

http://www.grantcunningham.com/lubricants101.html

After reading it I got the kit from this guy:

http://www.lubrikit.com/gcspecial.html

I just received it, and tried it on my Beretta 92. Probably just my imagination, but the gun seems a little smoother. It's a nice kit, with quantities of both oil and grease that should last me a long time.

David

[shootniron]

I mostly use CLP and it seems to do a pretty good job.

[jib]

I've been playing around with Froglube lately and so far I'm happy. It works as described and my wife does not hate the smell.

[zbones6]

I use CLP to clean/lube for a short time, but i find a grease of some kind is best for me. White lithium grease and Hoppes No. 9 gun grease

[Glockgreat23]

This is a crazy sickness which I have been as guilty as anyone for years. I've been obsessed with cleaning my pistols but I doubt I have ever shot more than 250 rounds in one session. The guns just don't get that dirty and unless you are a very heavy user, I say any name brand lubricant will work and be just fine. Believe me, I have enough product in my garage to last several lifetimes, and what do I do now? I clean with hoppes 9 and and lube with pro shot gold grease. Works just fine

[KEYBEAR]

Gun Oil 10/12.00 Dollars for 4oz. A can of motor oil 3 bucks 32oz.
Buying GUN OIL is just plain nuts .

[JohnKSa]

A 16oz spray/pump bottle of BreakFree CLP costs about $25. Let's assume a hypothetical shooter uses 4oz of gun oil a year. Over the course of the 4 years it would take to use up a $25 bottle of CLP, this hypothetical shooter would save $23.50 by using motor oil. Less than $6 a year.

From my perspective what would be nuts would be using a makeshift product to avoid an "expense" that works out to about a dime a week.

KEYBEAR, If spending $6.00 a year on gun oil is a hardship, send me documentation to prove that fact in a PM, along with your shipping address, and I'll send you a bottle of good quality gun oil at no charge. My choice of oil, but what do you care? It will be better than motor oil--and cheaper.

[mehavey]

And 5 quarts of Mobil-1 Full Synth costs that same $25.
Good for your lifetime
Your son's lifetime
Your grandson's lifetime
Your Great grandson's........

I could go on... but there I go being misogynistic again



(Actually -- the way things are going -- that 5 quarts may likely outlast Ben Franklin's Republic as well)

[JohnKSa]

And 5 quarts of Mobil-1 Full Synth costs that same $25.
Good for your lifetime
Your son's lifetime
Your grandson's lifetime
Your Great grandson's........

Even with an infinite supply of free motor oil, it's impossible to save more than it costs to buy the gun oil. Which means the "savings" is a few bucks a year, at most.

By the way, those who are bent on using something other than gun oil can definitely do better than motor oil. According to Grant Cunningham, ATF beats motor oil in every category. Here's his quote:

I recommend staying away from motor oils; if you must use something from the auto parts store, ATF performs better for firearms use on every count...

[volkstrm]

Well I have been using Mi-comm TW25 synthetic oil & TW25B synthetic grease for years. I think it is the best out there.IMO. It is also what our military uses & I can see why.I use the oil on everything but the rails that I use the grease some grease on the bolt's on my AK's & SKS,etc. Use rem oil on the outside of the guns then wipe them down. Does the trick for me gun's run great stay lubed.

[natman]

I use Triflow. It penetrates fairly well and then thickens slightly so it stays were you put it. I used to use an aerosol can, one would last about a decade of use. Now I use a 2oz bottle that comes with a plastic straw so I can put a single drop exactly where I want it. IIRC, it was about $5 at the local hardware store.

[KEYBEAR]

If you print on the can of Mobil-1 (Gun Oil) your all set .

[Unclenick]

Just be cautioned by the Grant Cunningham article linked-to by Db45-70, that there are benzene compounds in motor oil additives, so you don't want it on bare skin, and especially don't want those carcinogens on children's skin, as they're the ones most likely to live long enough to suffer the consequences. This is something I did not know before. Also, note his comment about motor oils having poor corrosion resistance. That's probably because they have to flow and clean themselves off surfaces, so they can't stick too ferociously.

[JohnKSa]

If you print on the can of Mobil-1 (Gun Oil) your all set.

Grant Cunningham's article explains why motor oils aren't a great choice for gun oil.

There is one reason and one reason only to use motor oil as a gun care product and that reason is to save a few dollars a year. (I didn't say there was a good reason. ) If one takes any of the other considerations into account motor oil loses out to any decent gun oil and even to some other readily available products such as ATF.

Just to be clear, this topic shouldn't be viewed as being a primer on how to avoid screwing up your gun. With careful maintenance, practically any oil can be made to work adequately. But that's not the same thing as saying that they're all the same. Theyre' not--not by a long shot.

[mehavey]

Someone's going to have to parse out the acute problems with Full Synth Mobil-1 HERE:
http://www.msds.exxonmobil.com/IntApps/psims/psims.aspx
(insert "Mobil-1" on the Product Box

I'm not seeing it.
(I also noted that Cunningham's 11-year old article simply referred to things as "motor oil". The fact that there was no differentiation/mention whatsoever of the explosion of fully synthetic lubricants of late caught my eye)



But I guess I'll throw some bare metal out into the grass with about 30 different that lubes I've collected over the years and see what happens.
(oops... someone else already did: https://forums.1911forum.com/showpos...98&postcount=1 )


.

[JohnKSa]

Someone's going to have to parse out the acute problems...

That's a strawman. There are no "acute problems" with motor oil. It's just that there are many better choices for gun maintenance. I tried to make that clear in my last post.

...someone else already did...

Did you actually look at the results? Pretty typical of what I've seen from other tests involving motor oil, synthetic or otherwise.

From the test results: "Mobil One ... does very little for rust prevention."

I also noted that Cunningham's 11-year old article simply referred to things as "motor oil".

Well, we know that synthetic motor oils have been around for a little bit longer than 11 years. PAOs, the basis of synthetic motor oils were invented 80 years ago and Mobil 1 has been on the market in the U.S. for over 40 years.

After reading the article, I was not left with the impression that maybe Cunningham totally forgot about synthetic motor oils and never tested/considered any of them. But it is true that he doesn't explicitly mention them. I suppose if one chooses to assume that's what happened--and can ignore the poor performance that's been demonstrated again and again in corrosion tests--then they're good to go.

Here's some more information from Mr. Cunningham.
http://www.grantcunningham.com/2012/...-on-your-guns/

Last week I got a great email from a fellow who works for one of the major oil companies as a lubricant specialist. ...

He related the tale of searching for lubricants for his shotguns, and found that none of the many oils or greases his company makes (a huge oil company whose name you would instantly recognize) were suitable for the job.

[mehavey]

Originally Posted by JohnKSA

Did you actually look at the results? Pretty typical of what I've seen from other tests involving motor oil, synthetic or otherwise.

From the test results: "Mobil One ... does very little for rust prevention."

That was my point John.
I just hate it when data disagrees with settled science.

[JohnKSa]

I guess I'm not following. How is the data disagreeing with the settled science?

From what I can tell there's consensus amongst those who have studied the topic that motor oil is a poor choice for corrosion protection--which agrees with the data from various informal tests.

[mehavey]

It's like the "settled science" of man-made global warming... great press until you look at climate chemistry, the actual data, and meteorological processes in light of gross geophysical history.

(Tongue firmly in cheek, it is...)

[Unclenick]

If you look at page nine of the Mobil 1 0W-20 MSDS, the additives include PHENOL, 4,4-METHYLENEBIS(2,6-BIS(1,1-DIMETHYLETHYL)-, which has two benzene rings in it. Probably mainly an issue post combustion, where the benzene has been broken out. I note that benzene is mainly mentioned as a used motor oil component issue, so contact would occur during cleaning of a bore that had previously been cleaned with this oil.

I understand from board member Hummer70 (aka, Humpy) that the Army Marksmanship Unit uses Mobil 1, having found it good for cleaning (carbon removal in particular-most motor oil will do this to some degree—just let it sit in the bore for awhile before patching out, as it is not a fast penetrant—but apparently the carbon detergent additives in Mobil 1 are superior). So if you don't have small kids around, the benzene exposure idea may not bother you. The lack of corrosion resistance is, however, plainly visible to the naked eye. The AMU weapons are not subjected to hunting conditions, much less combat conditions, so corrosion resistance simply may not be an issue for them.

For the sake of full disclosure, I should reveal that I have a quart of this oil that I got on Humpy's recommendation. As a former 2-time US Palma champion and former Aberdeen Proving Grounds Test Director and Incident Investigator, his knowledge is reliable. In this instance, though, knowing I have a good number of guns that see infrequent service, I am more comfortable having some degree of known good corrosion protection on them.

It has occurred to me before that air tool oil includes corrosion inhibitors and might be a good inexpensive thin oil for firearms for that reason. These oils also get misted into the air around users, so I expect they don't have much by way of toxic compounds in them. Maybe not as good as food grade in this regard. The Endura brand includes this in part of their description:

"…a unique combination of special base oils and additive treatments which virtually eliminate the normal rusting, gumming, and wear problems. They provide: emulsifications of moisture in compressed air, detergency and cleaning action to keep the tools clean and the air passages open, anti-wear, superior adherence, rust and corrosion inhibition and oxidation resistance."

They make several weights.

There are, BTW, some other interesting things out there. I've mixed Mil-Comm TW-25b with JB Bore Compound and a little bit of light gun oil to make a slurry. You put this mix onto any surface that slides and work the parts back and forth a bunch of times until becomes very smooth. This is a version of the old S&W armorer's trick for making double-actions "buttery smooth". I just caution you not to use the PTFE type products in a barrel. It probably won't mater to a pistol barrel, but in a rifle barrel the fact PTFE properties change with temperature has proven to cause POI to drift as the gun heats up.

I've used Shooter's Solutions Moly-Fusion, which is a thin conversion coating with a synthetic lube in the matrix that is really slick and waxy and permanent and dry. It does, however, darken the surface of steel, so you don't want this where it is visible. On aluminum is it white and clear and may be used without any apparent change in color that I can identify, but certainly makes it slick. I took apart and treated my whole Lee Hand Tool press with this stuff, and now dies just glide in and out of the top threads and the handle just falls open when I pick it up. It attached to the links without removing the black oxide finish, which surprised me. I will be trying it on some blued steel at some point, but haven't got the experiment organized the way I want it yet. It provides a small degree of corrosion resistance, sort of like super thin Parkerizing might do. Not great, but a little help.

Sprinco's Plate+ Silver is a NASA patent lube that bonds electrically to valence electrons on the surface of steel and stainless steel (does not work on aluminum) and has a colloidal suspension of micronized, acid-neutralized moly to provide a barrier lubricant that settle in the metal's microscopic surface imperfections over a period of about 3 days. You can wipe it as dry as you can, but it still lubricates. I've applied this product to a number of tools, like the steel parts of my Dillon 600 primer pocket swaging tool and the thing is so slick it falls open. The company's Machine Gunner's Lube is a higher viscosity oil that contains some of the Plate+ to build up a barrier lube over time.

[mehavey]

Now Air Tool Oil.... THAT's an interesting idea that I hadn't thought of...
...for just about every reason I can think of now.