Thread: WD-40 cool story

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http://www.wd40.com/about-us/history/
In 1953, a fledgling company called Rocket Chemical Company and its staff of three set out to create a line of rust-prevention solvents and degreasers for use in the aerospace industry, in a small lab in San Diego, California.

It took them 40 attempts to get the water displacing formula worked out. But they must have been really good, because the original secret formula for WD-40®—which stands for Water Displacement perfected on the 40th try—is still in use today.
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Great story and Great Product also - - - - one of the main ingredients of WD-40 is DMSO and that is why some people got relief from their aching joints by using WD-40 and altho it does work and is much cheaper than DMSO, it is NOT RECOMMEND for arthritis or inflamed joints because of being a petroleum product that could be absorbed thru your skin into your blood stream. Sorry I got so wordy but I wanted to be sure and clarify myself.

We use so much of it we have started buying it in the gallon size, a much better deal than the small spray cans. (like $ 12 a gallon) I also never knew it could be used as starting fluid until I saw a guy using it to fire up a vw bus one time.

Don

yes indeed - - - I've used it on chain saws, weed eaters and lawn mowers

I thought it was a pretty cool story of how it got popular. Just bought a new can today with the fixed straw since my other cans are missing the straws. Don your right about the gallon size, much cheaper. Mellow Yellow I remember hearing that about the joints from an old uncle's friend.

It also work's Like Starting Fluid to fire up hard to start engines ? I do Like that stuff But it's costly .

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

We use so much of it we have started buying it in the gallon size, a much better deal than the small spray cans. (like $ 12 a gallon) I also never knew it could be used as starting fluid until I saw a guy using it to fire up a vw bus one time.

Don

We used it all the time starting up our Snowmobiles which needed lub in the fuel

The first time I recall using WD40 was when I was stalled in a parking lot on a rainy drizzely day back when I was in High School with my first car. The 1970 Olds, with the Rocket 350 engine had a problem with the cap getting damp and my brother knew it. When I couldn't get the car started, he said "wait here and DON'T do anything." He walked across the street to the hardware store and returned with a can of WD40. I thought NO WAY would this work. He sprayed the distributor cap, popped it back on, then said... "Lets go home". It started right up.

WD-40 works great as a lubricant when milling,drilling and tapping aluminum- good finish & tooling doesn't clog.

I've read that before. I don't remember just when I first came across WD-40, but it has been a part of my supplies ever since, both for it's intended purpose, and many others.

In the 70's when I was in the reserves our weapons would be turned into the armory after a weekend drill. They would be cleaned, inspected, and a light coat of oil would be applied before they were turned in. The next month upon checkout they would be coated with surface rust and needless to say our C.O. was anything but happy. After a couple of months of this is was discovered that the armorer was spraying the weapons with WD-40 after they were turned in and it was promoting the surface rust. The use of WD-40 was stopped immediately and since that time the only thing I've used it for is help in breaking loose rusted bolts and nuts.

Yep. A bunch of people think it's an oil, when it's not. It's great for cleaning and a million other things, but, it evaporates quickly thus not a good replacement for oil!
Since you brought up guns, have you tried Gunzilla? It is a synthetic cleaner and lubricant which has eliminated alot of problems for US troops In Iraq and Afganistan. It can be used as a wet coat or dry film depending on where you use it. Our local gun shop just switched to using it for all their cleaning.

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!

Great story, WD-40 is not the cure all that so many people think that it is.

10-4 - - - - glad someone mentioned that fact and like Glenn said - - -it is not a good protective coating or long term lube but it will displace water like a ?banshee? (new word for me )