Do not use WD-40 on o-rings.

Just for everyone's information, WD-40 is NOT a lubricant. The WD is short for Water Displacement. It is used to remove moisture, loosen rusted parts, protects against rust and corrosion, and it CLEANS most surfaces. You clean stuff with WD-40 (but NOT o-rings) and then put a lubricant on whatever that stuff is. It removes grease, tar, adhesives, and any lubricant that is on those precious o-rings that we all know about. If you put WD-40 on o-rings, it will clean them, but it will also dry them out and eventually ruin them, especially if you do not put silicone grease on them afterward. Use ONLY 100% silicone grease. You can find it at dive/scuba shops or at hardware stores in the plumbing section in either tubes or small, round, coloured plastic containers. If you want to clean your o-rings, just use a clean cloth and wipe them clean with it. Then use the above mentioned silicone grease to put a light coating on the rings. That's it. This simple process will keep your o-rings happy and your expensive illumination tools safe for many years. I hope this helps out anyone who was wanting to know about this. BTW: I have seen the post about teflon lubricants from radio shack... that sounds pretty good too, especially if Arc recommended it.

I still can't get over how many people swear by WD-40 for use as a lubricant. Like you said it is good at cleaning and penetrating, but not at lubricating. I used to work for a garage door company, and we would on occasion have to service garage doors or openers that people had "lubed" with WD-40. What they did was clean all the old lubricant out, and the parts wore out at a very accelerated rate. The only thing we used WD-40 for was to clean out grease and oil out of parts or to try and free rusted parts, we'd then use motor oil to lube them back up, or specialty lubes (like lubriplate) where it was called for. It's good for a reminder like this to be posted from time to time. WD-40 is not a lubricant!

-Keith

True! If you use them on o-rings. The o-rings will become brittle.

Vasoline on o-rings? that's what I use -- I had a tennis ball can/pressurizer that said to use vasoline and it seemed to work pretty good.

Personally, I don't trust WD40 as a lubricant. There was however an article in a bicycle magazine I read about 3 years ago which compared WD40 against other lubricants specifically made for bicycle chains. They performed some very comprehensive tests and believe it or not, the WD40 proved to be better than most of the actual lubricants.

Tests included: penetration of lube, how well it displaced water, protection against rust, how well it prevented wear of the chin after 'X' amount of hours, and others which I can't remember...

Another thing, not mentioned above, is the fact that WD40 is an electrical insulator and you do not want that on electrical contacts like switches and battery connections.

My experience of WD-40 is it's really good fun for neighbour's kids as a flamethrower. They light up a candle and aim the noozle then big balls of fire shoot out.

Regarding WD-40 as a lubricant, it works but only for the first few times. WD-40 is a thin lubricant with high degreasing properties. WD-40 dissolves old grease and other lubricants make them useful again. Use it regulary it works, every time you apply WD-40 you are washing off old lubricant. Therefore you need to apply lubrication to ensure that the cleanout surface does not wear out.

I use WD40 for all kinds of things, but not generally for lubing stuff, long term. I thought I recalled that they claimed that it left some graphite behind to continue to lubricate long term, but I'm too lazy to go look at the can right now to see if thats right or if I"m remembering something else /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Obviously thats not appropriate for something that requires an oil or grease lubricant. No substitute for a little bottle of machine oil for those things, or a little grease gun for your garage door chains or whatever.

For some things though, having a spray application is just so much easier! There are several other spray products out there. Can anybody recommend one that IS for lubrication?

The best spray lube I've ever come across was Slick 50 One Lube (not their engine treatment). It's highly regarded in the world of high power and precision airguns. Doesn't damage o-rings. Problem is I can't seem to find it around anymore. Seems like everyone thinks WD40 when they think lube. Too bad the masses don't know better.

WD40 is a classic. It isn't a fantastic lube, but works o.k. for what it was designed for.

It's nothing more than a petro. based liquid and fish oil (not sure what fish).

Back when I was a kid in Minn., we would spray WD40 on fish lures as an attractant.

-dan

[ QUOTE ]
James S said:
For some things though, having a spray application is just so much easier! There are several other spray products out there. Can anybody recommend one that IS for lubrication?

[/ QUOTE ]
I used Triflow for a while on my bike and inline skate bearings. A spray is actually a disadvantage for those applications, as bikes have lots of rubber to get eaten and spray splatters out of bearings.

I prefer slightly thicker lubes on my bike, since I don't have a dust problem, and I can go longer without maintanence. Triflow was about as slick as the other really thin lubes I was running in my bearings, but they all had to be freshened every week or two.

The thing is, WD40 seems to be a good lubricant, but before too long, whatever you sprayed it on becomes bone dry, and will begin to wear out quickly (or in the case of O-rings they will go brittle and crack). The test on the bike chain only shows that WD40 cleaned the chain of muck and old grease, so it worked better, but I bet the test didn't take into account the long term (ie a week or more), where it would have found the chain siezing and wearing at a greater rate than before.

WD40 is excellent as a cleaner and a water displacer (duh!) but don't be fooled by its short term lubricating ability. Always use a proper lube.

Alright, that's my rant for the day. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I use CLP Break-Free as a general lube as well as a gun lube. You can get an aerosol can of it, so you can spray it like WD-40. Very good stuff.

I have used WD-40 on a couple of MagLites before, but it was just to help get corroded batteries out. As a short-term lubricant, it does a good job, breaking rusted things apart and lubing them enough to get them moving again, but it definitely is not for prolonged use, and definitely not for o-rings!

I once used it on the chain on my trail bike
to find that it had eaten away the protective rubber o-rings
between the links.

I found WD 40 is at its best when used as a flame thrower. Not sure why they didn't give you a steel straw that wouldn't melt though...

I dont' have a can nearby now but doesn't WD40 actually say that it DOES lubricate on the can somewhere? I'm guessing that's prolly why so many ppl think of it as a lube.
I personally have a nice blue tin of stinky plumbers' grease to use on my o-rings

Mr Mimizu - same here! read my previous post! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Silicone grease does not hurt rubber so it goes well with rubber. Plus some silicone grease(read labels) is non-toxic that is why it is being used on food machineries.

Teflon based grease works. I don't know if it is advertising or whatever but all of my teflon stuff are great for their own purpose.

Regarding the bicycle chain and WD-40, bicycle chains like Shimano and Sach chains comes pre-lubed with thick and greasy lubricant. They are sticky and attracts every little gunk that fly pass the drivetrain. Applying WD-40 means thinning the factory lubricant and loosen the dirt. Makes your drivetrain feel 'lighter' thus smoother. Once the factory lubricant dry out you are left with one squeeky drivetrain.

I've used wax based lubricant for the pass 6 years. I warm up the bottle before applying a generous amount on the chain then wipe off the excess. Repeat every 3 days. I ride a total of 50kms on weekdays onroad and 60km offroad weekends. Some people hate wax based lube some swear by it.

Silicone and synthetic based greases work well. I try not to use anything petroleum based, if possible. Kluber makes a grease called Isoflex with a synthetic and lithium base. It worked well as an assembly lube because it was so sticky. I believe it was fairly expensive though--it's actually meant for hi-speed spindle bearings.

Then again you could try the LPS family - LPS1 is a dry lubricant - similar to WD-40, dries to a thin film. LPS2 is a wet lubricant - stays oily. LPS3 drys to a waxy residue - almost like automotive rustproofing.

If use solvent like WD40 in flashlight too much. It's vapor might get into the reflector area and adsorb to the inner lens. So just do it don't too do.