Okay – here’s a great WD-40 story. Years ago when I did some construction on the side there were a lot of guys who just couldn't buy a good worm drive so they would buy cheap circular saws. They were about 25-30 bucks but the down side was they used a bronze bearing on the shaft and it just didn’t stand up to a lot of framing work. We all knew that they were “disposable”.

One day at a job site one of the younger guys found one of these cheap saws in the dumpster and pulled it out stating, “Wow - this thing looks pretty good.” I told him it probably had a bad bearing as that was what went out on them. Sure enough, he plugged it in and the bearing chattered pretty loud. Not being one to give in easily, this kid proceeded to grab a can of WD-40 out of his truck and announced that all that the saw needed was a, “shot of WD-40.” I warned him against doing such but he insisted that he’d done this before and saved “lot of tools.” I stopped short of calling him a liar, but stood back as he doused that bronze bearing and pulled the trigger.

The flame shot out about two feet, he dropped the saw and I laughed till I cried. The young man excused himself to “go home for a minute” as I believe he wizzed his britches. The saw was returned to the dumpster….

I like WD-40 for cleaning off sticky tags and cleaning stuff, but never use is as a protecting coating or long term lube. I have also used it for starting fluid – it burns like a banshee!