WHY IS THE WD-40 SO BAD?

[Warden Smith]

the old water dispersant 40th attempt. i thought most things can be fixed with 2 tools in your kit...wd40 and a hammer. seriously tho, if brass is self tarnishing, then it lubricates itself so wd40 is hardly going to kill your metal parts. i love the stuff. get your little red straws out lads, attach to can and spray away ! i suppose its a bit like Marmite, you love it or you hate it.

[Warden Smith]

couldnt resist, so had to add this for all you WD40 fans http://www.hold-it.net all credit goes to Poff ...(http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=50036

[popded]

Actually it depends on the type of problem. WD-40 or similar products (I use one by Wurth) are good if the lock hasn't been used for a long time, was outdoors or something like that, where corrosion and/ or rust may be the problem. Graphite is better for a better pin action on an already working lock but doesn't have smooth motion because ie. the lock is very new or not very well made. To make it simpler: WD-40 helps bad stuff to go away, graphite is like microscopic ball bearings between two metal surfaces.
Athens Locksmith

[Northwest1]

I like the GT spray, with ptfe...I use it on bullet locks and it seems to last well.

[loather]

WD-40, while technically not a lubricant, does have an amount of lubricity to it.

WD-40 is made up primarily of kerosene, Stoddard solvent (yup - dry cleaning fluid), and mineral oil. It originally used propane as a propellant, but I think they use something else now. Anyways, the Stoddard solvent was designed to quickly evaporate, leaving a deposit of kerosene (dissolves gums, greases, etc.) and mineral oil. Wiping off the residue usually picked up the grease and grime dissolved by the kerosene. A small amount of mineral oil would be left on the surface to disperse water. Mineral oil is a lubricant (albeit a poor one).

The original use for WD-40 was at Rohr Industries and General Dynamics in San Diego to coat the electronics in missile guidance systems. They were having difficulty with condensation forming on the electronics when the missiles were at altitude, and this caused failures in guidance/control. Hence, WD-40 was developed.

The people working on the missile systems quickly realized its potential in other areas (e.g. stuck bolts, removing labels, etc.), and we've still got it today because of this.

Anyways, as a lubricant it's not the best for long-term usage. Any liquid lubricant will attract dust, dirt, and grime. Graphite, while having lubricative qualities, is basically dust itself. I won't use it in locks for a variety of reasons mentioned already in this thread.

Your best bet is to get a dry lube with a penetrant. So, it goes on in liquid form, but leaves a layer of a dry lubricant on the interior parts. Something like Medeco's Poxylube or the nearly identical Liquid Wrench L5 are good choices. These are polytetrafluoroethylene suspended in fast-evaporating solvents and penetrators. It works extremely well.

[KristopherW]

I use powdered graphite to lubricate a lock but I'm wondering if WD40 is the best for cleaning and flushing a dirty lock? It seems most people would not use it to lubricate a lock which I understand but what about cleaning a dirty lock? What if the customer gummed up the lock with graphite or oil or something else? Is WD40 a good way to flush out and clean a lock?

[GeneT]

I use powdered graphite to lubricate a lock but I'm wondering if WD40 is the best for cleaning and flushing a dirty lock? It seems most people would not use it to lubricate a lock which I understand but what about cleaning a dirty lock? What if the customer gummed up the lock with graphite or oil or something else? Is WD40 a good way to flush out and clean a lock?

WD-40 is a decent cleaner, particularly where the contaminants are oil soluble (lots of gummy contaminants are), but it will leave a residue. The residue is slight and will probably never matter in a lock that is used regularly, but if you put WD-40 in a lock and leave the lock unused for a few weeks or months the residual WD-40 will form a lacquer and potentially seize up pieces. I'm a rookie at lubricating locks, but I've been a firearms instructor for a long time and seen plenty of firearms gummed up after being 'lubed' with WD-40.

GsT

[Rissa]

I like LPS #2 because it's a bit foamy and it seems to expand and more evenly coat the inside of the lock.

Not to mention, if I recommend WD40 or graphite to my customers, they will buy it at the grocery store or gas station down the road on their way home. If I recommend LPS, they will buy it from me

[AMSEC]

I'll use wd to clean a lock and to lube it before I pick it.

Then I hose the piss out of it with a silicon based lube. I wont leave a lock with wd in it.


Graphite is a bad idea unless you have he lock taken apart, which most customers dont. They just blast a ton of it into the keyway making more problems for the lock.

I much prefer LAB lube for locks I have taken apart, that stuff is golden. Costs about the same as gold too...

[Cringe]

I've been locksmithing in western canada for about 15 years and will not even attempt to pick a lock on an outside door until I've puffed a very tiny amount of quality powdered graphite into it and then worked the pins thoroughly by running a key blank in and out a few times. using a blank ensures that you are moving the pins up to their fullest height and hopefully freeing up any stuck or frozen ones before you get started and mistake a stuck pin for the first set one. For all of my industrial customers with large buildings and hundreds of doors and hospitals schools etc I make a gift of a couple of two dollar tubes of graphite and show their maintainance staff how to use it as part of a preventitive maintainance program. As soon as I smell wd40 in a lock the customer is warned that if I ever smell that road apples in a lock again the price automatically doubles. In the most extreme conditions graphite will lube a lock for 4 or 5 months In the most ideal conditions wd40 will lube a lock properly for 4 or 5 days until the propellant evaporates and everything gets gummy. I do not reccomend liquid graphite in any form on anything however, as it is the messiest, nastiest, dirtiest, crud on the planet.
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