Not tried it but from past experience if it's 'green it's either twice the cost or no good

Whale oil is very good

What's WD40 good for anyway?

Before I installed equipment heaters on my equipment, I used to suffer dreadfull corrosion (rusting) on my equipment. WD40 helped to keep it at bay, the downside being the smell, the messyness. and having to clean the equipment before I could use it.

It's also reasonably good at softening and helping to remove that sticky muckment left behind by labels etc after one has attempted to remove them.

It's also helpful at removing light corrosion from metal objects.

Like Nick though, I would use parafin in preference to WD40 for shifting oily, greasy muck.

I would point out that it can be bought in 5ltr containers: this being much cheaper than the aerosol versions. Mine, bought perhaps 20+ years ago and still going strong, came with a pump operated spray applicator similar to garden sprays. Unfortunately, they don't seem to last that long, but fortunately, the garden spray type fits the same container and work just as well.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

So . . . How much has the hedge fund that owns the rights to WD40 invested in this little bit of promotion?

WD40 is good as a water dispersant, but not as cheap as the common alternatives, which disperse water better at a fraction of the £price.

Can we carry on & slag off WD40 for the rip off that it is?

No, I think that we're gonna lose that battle. The hedge fund that now owns the rights to market WD40 is omnipotent. It is simply NOT allowed to point out to the 'mug punters' that WD40 doesn't actually do most of what it claims to.

P.S. Anyone who dares to point out that WD40 is nothing more than an overpriced can of 'TAT' is either slagged down or ridiculed.

Wd40 would make a good cleaner if it wasn't so damn expensive, it's expensive because the hedge fund that owns the rights to it . . . . exists solely to 'mug' the punters.

WD40 is good for the clock repair business.

People think a quick squirt into the mechanism will be good for it, initially it does free things up, but after a while it sets like a green wax and bungs everything up worse than it was before.

I have had quite a few clocks through my hands that only needed the WD40 removing and correct oil applied to get them working again.

Phil

Hi there, all,

When I was in my 'Amateur Radio' phase, a fellow Radio Club member squirted the wave-change switch of her communications receiver with WD40 – it never worked again!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

I find that WD40 is excellent as a electrical plug and socket lubricant. It totally transformed the feel of my 110V plugs and sockets. I believe the active ingredient is palm oil, trouble is that most of it is carrier and evaporates away . Its also superb as a ali cutting/tapping fluid.

Frank

If you want to know the formulation of something like WD40 you can always look at the Material Data Sheet.

An old sheet described it as white spirit, light oil and an oderiser. It is interesting that the current sheet uses different terms but I don't think that it has changed much.

WD40 often gets used as a cutting lube however a few people mix up their own from white spirit and multigrade oil. Much less volatile than light oil some kinds of which can quickly evaporate.

Billy.

Try Inox MX-3. It's lanolin based and works very well to protect slideways and is also a handy cutting fluid for aluminium. Of course it's Australian so maybe I am a bit biased, but it's very good.

* Danny M *

Nick, parafin is £10 for four litres in my local Market Hall. But I wouldn't use WD40 for anything even if it was free. I do use GT85 quite liberally though and it is cheaper than both Paraffin and WD40. £3 a tin at Halfrauds at the moment.

graham.

Sorry, Bob; I have to disagree … The stuff sold specifically for that job, by Servisol and Maplin [probably just badge-engineering] is much more effective.

MichaelG.

I've used WD40 since the end of the 60's keeping rust at bay on motorcycles and latterly in my unheated shed full of tools and machinery. The bike also gets washed with hot water with a small amount of paraffin tipped in. The last 5 litres cost £20 and came with a dispenser. I once had a reliant regal van that stopped running at the slightest hint of moisture, a quick spray and it ran like a dream, that is if a 3 wheeled under powered fibre glass bodied van with loose windows and an engine half way into the cab could be called a dream! There is a lot of negative comments about WD40 around but since my father came home from work, MOD, with a can of the stuff I have never had any problems with it, here's a link to the WD40 data sheets

**LINK**