Friday, April 19, 2013

Penetrating Oil

If you've ever had to get a rusty nut off of a rusty machine screw, you know how aggravating it can be to get it to break loose.  So, imagine my surprise when I found this post over at Curmudgeonly and Skeptical

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Imagine that.  A 50/50 mix of ATF and Acetone mix works better than WD40.

I've been using ATF as a gun oil for a while, but I never thought about using it to loosen rusted bolts.  Is there anything ATF won't do?

5 comments:

Rivrdog said...

I had a Department Armorer warn me about using anything but straight gun oil on guns kept loaded (service firearms), and he put it like this:

The better something FLOWS, the more likely it is to flow onto a round, past the bullet or primer, and contaminate the primer or the powder so the round is a dud. Unfortunately, the place this is most likely to happen is the ready round in the pipe. This armorer was a bear about this, to the point that on inspection, he stuck his nose into your empty gun, and if he smelled anything that smelled like brake cleaner, lacquer thinner, or synthetic oil, he would hand the shooter a cleaning rod and some dry patches and order all the oil scrubbed from the gun before it was clear to shoot on the range.

As far as I know, we never had a Deputy who had to shoot for real NOT have his first round go off.

That Armorer died 30 years ago, and is still missed today.

RIP, Walt. Hope you've taught all those saints Up There how to properly stroke the trigger of a Thompson to get one round out of it at a time on Full Auto selector...Sgt Walt Stav was the only tommy-gunner I know who could do that. Most who fired in full-auto selector were doing well to keep it down to 4 or 5 rounds.

Old NFO said...

Rvdrdog is correct...

Anonymous said...

I use corrosionx for most things.

Ben

mostly cajun said...

Ed's Red.

Google it.

MC

Rivrdog said...

The old formula for Ed's Red, which I make and use, has two forms of high-volatility solvents in it, Acetone and Toluene. Both of those will carry lube in through the smallest openings in primer pockets.

The way out of this is to not be in a hurry, and do not load the gun until time has passed for all those volatiles to evaporate. During this time, put the pistol on a peg muzzle down. Drill a hole in your bench and pound in a dowel that is slightly sub-caliber,for this purpose. Also, after you put the Ed's Red away, and fire-safe the area, fire up a little electric heater and warm the pistol while it's drying out.