Lu brick cation

[Tinbucket]

The subject of lubrication is often brought up but never resolved, just more confused.
I have some grease I use on my Lawnmowers that is right at 20.00 a tube.
It is impossible to wipe or wash the stuff off it seems unless you use gas or something.
There are all kinds of soaps in greases, which I fear might not be the best thing for firearms. However I use this grease on hig rpm spindle bearings. The Snapper now 12 years old.
I have nickle Colt Lawman MkIII snub nose, I originally though stainless, that my Uncle carried two tours in Nam.
I don't wand to damage it but still shoot it and of course several other guns.
What is the best grease for a firearm to date?

[tangolima]

There is no such thing as the best. That's why there is no solution to the question often asked. I can only tell you what I use.

I only apply grease where there is heavy load. There are not many those points in a firearm. For that I have super lube synthetic grease.

The rest I apply oil. I use breakfree.

-TL

[Oliver Sudden]

Read this.
http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/...uct-evaluation

[Minorcan]

I like CLP - stands for Clean, Lubricate , protect. I do use light oil for first clean and then finish up with CLP. I use synthetic grease verrrrrry sparingly.

[Gunplummer]

I was in the military when CLP came out. They handed out tiny bottles of the stuff to the .50 crews. We had guns just seize up from heat. Never had a problem with good old LSA. I would never spend money on that crap for an auto rifle. For some reason people like to spray WD-40 (A water displacer) into the actions of guns. That stuff turns to glue in a few days, but it did generate some business. I was always a fan of transmission fluid. I have never had it freeze up on me. It pretty much comes down to personal choice.

[JoeSixpack]

I use eezox and slide glide "lite".. and that's about it.

I've got some frog lube for testing but haven't got around to it yet.
#1 most important thing to me in any lube I put on my gun is corrosion protection.

I occasionally do salt spray tests and most lubes and oil fall far short in that area.
Some of them do no better then a control (no lube at all)

I can't say for sure but CLP while doing excellent in my salt spray tests I have a theory may actually cause rust long term.. I suspect maybe it absorbs moisture?
I can't say for sure but I don't trust it anymore.

[g.willikers]

Another vote of ATF.
Very high quality stuff.
Thinner oils seem to work very well, but they do need to be renewed occasionally.

[Dfariswheel]

Revolvers work much smoother with a little grease on the hammer's double action strut, hammer single action notches and the trigger sear area.
Thin lubes tend to run off, dry up, or evaporate.
Grease stays put and working for a very long time.

I also used Super Lube grease and oil on all customer and my own revolvers.
These are synthetic Teflon bearing lubes that work very well.
The oil is a thick oil-thin grease consistency that stays put like grease.

In fact, most any good grade of grease will work fine.
As long as it's heat and water resistant it works just as well as the gun shop expensive stuff in tiny jars.
Many M14-M1A and AR-15 Match shooters just buy a tube or can of Lithium grease at Walmart or any farm or hardware store.
That's what was used in the M1 Rifle and it's still a great grease.

[Bill DeShivs]

WD 40 does not turn to "glue."
It contains mineral oil-just like 95% of the other gun oils.

[Tinbucket]

I have four bottles from 1969 of LSA.
Everyone has put it down but it is good lube.
Don't store it long as it seems to separate.
The one bottle I have used from always gets shaken before use.
About lithium grease on the M1 and M14.
I think this grease for the mowers is Lithium complex two.
Lithium grease is, I understand, to hold any moisture in suspension.
Never the less I use in spindle bearings. Not sure if it is recommended by either Dixie Chopper or Snapper.
It sticks on whatever it gets on and is incredably hard to clean off.
So my thought was clinging on rubbing surfaces would be greatly minimized.
Still guns and mowers are different creatures. I use ClP. Spray it let it set and carbon etc comes of easily.
I used Ezzox but can't find it anymore. When it dries it really protects surfaces.
On working surfaces it will kind act like glue if let set for a long time, on working parts and it softens with heat and friction.
First shot from the revolver I though it was jammed but everything was fine fro then.
I use Rig+P on rubbing surfaces too but it doesn't stick around.
Teflon greases don't seem to work well. The Teflon doesn't stay on anything.
It just rubs off with the grease.
Moly Sufide Mil Surplus aerasol stuck like paint and the longer it sat the harder it got.
Applying it to small surfaces was a problem and it does build up.
Sticking to rubbing surfaces, slick and shedding junk even under high velocity recoil of slides etc, is the thing I guess I'm looking for

[Gunplummer]

WD-40 most certainly does turn to glue. I used to ship disassembled and stripped guns to a plating outfit for hot bluing. Their instructions were to coat the parts with WD-40, let them sit a day, wrap and ship. It gets like glue. I worked with somebody that got the idea to spray WD-40 in he spindle of a bridgeport mill. In a day or two it was binding. Then he would spray more in to cure whatever was wrong with it. The new WD-40 "Melted" the old stuff and it would work again for a day or two. Eventually we pulled the spindle out.

I have often thought about trying anti-seize, but it is so messy. When I turn big shafts with a lot of dimensions I use it on the steady rest posts. Sometimes I am turning for hours and it never gets past warm at that area.

[natman]

I've heard the "WD-40 turns to glue" myth many times, but I've never been able to get it to do it.

I once posted a challenge for scenarios where it would happen. One guy said to spray WD-40 in a padlock and that after a couple of days it would be impossible to open. I tried it, waited a week and the lock worked fine. I wasn't surprised since I'd been lubricating locks with WD-40 since well before the internet and never had a problem.

That was two years ago. I just went out and tried the lock again and it works as if it were well lubricated. Which it is.

Now there is a LOT of solvent in WD-40 and I suppose it's possible for it to be interacting with something else to form a sticky substance, but I've never had it happen.

[4V50 Gary]

At the Remington Armorer School at Illion, NY, they cautioned us not to use WD-40 on Remingtons. They were sued once by a fellow who used WD-40 for decades and it developed a film which disabled the safety mechanism on his M700. Excercising poor muzzle control, he shot himself in the foot and sued Remington for it.

I use lithium grease.

[Bill DeShivs]

The lubricant in WD 40 is mineral oil-just like 98% of the other oils out there. I have a little squirt bottle that I filled with WD 40 4 years ago. The carrier has long since evaporated, and what is left is simply a light oil. I have used WD 40 as a gunsmith, cutler, steam & refrigeration engineer, hand engraver, and even as a musician (on my strings) for 45 years. If it gummed, I'm sure I would have seen evidence of it by now.
WD 40 is also a solvent, and it dissolves some of the other old oils/greases on items. If the remainder of these old lubricants is not completely removed, THAT can turn to sludge or varnish.

[natman]

The lubricant in WD 40 is mineral oil-just like 98% of the other oils out there. I have a little squirt bottle that I filled with WD 40 4 years ago. The carrier has long since evaporated, and what is left is simply a light oil. I have used WD 40 as a gunsmith, cutler, steam & refrigeration engineer, hand engraver, and even as a musician (on my strings) for 45 years. If it gummed, I'm sure I would have seen evidence of it by now.
WD 40 is also a solvent, and it dissolves some of the other old oils/greases on items. If the remainder of these old lubricants is not completely removed, THAT can turn to sludge or varnish.

Exactly. Some combination of WD-40's solvents and some other element may have formed a "glue" on some object at some point in history, but to say that WD-40 turns to glue after a few days simply isn't true and is easily proven wrong.

WD-40 sells many millions of cans every year. If it made things stick together people wouldn't buy it.

[Bill DeShivs]

I duplicated a post.
Try spraying some WD 40 into a container that is reasonably sealed-but not necessarily air tight. If you leave it in an open-topped container it will collect dust and dirt.
You will soon have a light mineral oil- no gum or glue.

[Unclenick]

We actually had a thread on this topic in January that brought up a lot of tests and suggestions. I suggest a read-through there.