Incredibly thorough test of 46 gun lubes

[Balog]

http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/141077-Results-of-gun-care-product-evaluation

By far the best such test I've seen done before.

[Hawkmoon]

Waste of bandwidth.

1. I use Gunzilla. He rates it as having a strong odor. I'd say it has almost none.

2. His test for water displacement doesn't test anything of the kind. All his test shows is whether the product is more or less dense than water. That tells us nothing about its capability to remove water from a metallic surface and replace said water with the product.


That's as far as I got. People who don't know what they're doing shouldn't try to play scientist.

[Fly320s]

The water displacement test doesn't prove anything, but I think the rust/corrosion test is useful.

[HankB]

At least this test includes results.

About 20 years ago, one of the gun rags (G&A?) did a test on the rust-preventing capabilities of various gun products. They spent PAGES on their methodology, listed the (many) products they tested . . . and left off the results.  

Oh, they had a summary - in general, greases did better than oils, which in turn usually produced results better than solvents - but they DID NOT give a detailed result, or "name names" when it came to identifying the best and worst brands.

I'd say the editor decided to edit out anything that an advertiser might be unhappy with.

[roo_ster]

Better review than most.  Obviously since my preferred products did not beat all comers, there must be a flaw in execution and/or methodology. 

I wish he had some straight synthetic motor oil like Mobil One.

I have switched to mostly synthetic ATF (Valvoline Max Life, at the moment) for a solvent and synthetic motor oil (Mobil One, forget the xxWyy) for lube/preservative for all my milsurp guns and most long guns. 

Social arms still get Breakfree CLP, though. And I also use synthetic wheel bearign grease and brake caliper grease when grease is necessary.  The Brake caliper grease stays put for a good, long, time.

[Scout26]

I use Ed's Red (with lanolin), cleans well and lubes/stores well.  However that frog lube has sparked my interest as a preservative for longer term/not shot much storage.  I've used CLP for that purpose.

 

[geronimotwo]

The water displacement test doesn't prove anything, but I think the rust/corrosion test is useful.

agreed.   i would have liked to have seen a few of the products that i use, ie;  ed's red, crc marine 6-56, and super lube (spray and grease).   i was suprised by the results of the wd-40 specialist, i'll have to pick some up if i see it around.

[Fly320s]

I use Ed's Red (with lanolin), cleans well and lubes/stores well.  However that frog lube has sparked my interest as a preservative for longer term/not shot much storage.  I've used CLP for that purpose.

 

I like Frog Lube because it is non-toxic and smells good.  It has a minty smell.

[Hawkmoon]

Recently I've seen some VERY negative reports regarding Frog Lube and long-term storage.

I've settled on Gunzilla as a cleaner, with 5W50 synthetic motor oil with a bit of moly powder mixed into it as lubricant. For rust protection during storage I use rust-blox wraps and tabs.

[zahc]

Just for fun he should have done regular WD40 too.

[roo_ster]

Just for fun he should have done regular WD40 too.

I thought he did.

[Balog]

I believe frog lube has issues at lower temps. And the friction and corrosion tests are well done, whatever you thnk of the others.

[BobR]

I like Frog Lube because it is non-toxic and smells good.  It has a minty smell.

It is also edible, that just doesn't seem right, maybe lard with a little mint oil thrown in would work as a lube, preservative and biscuit ingredient.


bob

[Hawkmoon]

I'm also going to take issue with his setup for measuring lubricity. His steel sled was not really "weighted." It looks to me like the "weight" is nothing more than a small block of wood. There is really VERY little force pushing the two steel plates together, and this is why he found (and commented on) the fact that too much lubricant resulted in needing more force to move the sled.

In other words, grease (which works better than oil for sliding surfaces) is actually penalized by his setup because grease, which would provide significantly more/better lubricity under high pressures than oil, is initially stickier and this needs more force to start the light sled moving.

WD-40 is basically kerosene. There's simply no way in the real world that WD-40 is twice as good as a lubricant as 3-In-1 oil. Just ... not possible.

It's also interesting that his graph of lubricity omits any values, which means the graph is useless because nothing is quantified.

Nope ... this part of his evaluation was also seriously flawed.

[Balog]

Feel free to do your own tests.

[BobR]

By far and away, the best thing to come out of these type of backyard tests is the corrosion prevention parts. The rest of it I just kind of gloss over.

bob

[geronimotwo]

Just for fun he should have done regular WD40 too.

it's on there

[Scout26]

I'm also going to take issue with his setup for measuring lubricity. His steel sled was not really "weighted." It looks to me like the "weight" is nothing more than a small block of wood. There is really VERY little force pushing the two steel plates together, and this is why he found (and commented on) the fact that too much lubricant resulted in needing more force to move the sled.

In other words, grease (which works better than oil for sliding surfaces) is actually penalized by his setup because grease, which would provide significantly more/better lubricity under high pressures than oil, is initially stickier and this needs more force to start the light sled moving.

WD-40 is basically kerosene. There's simply no way in the real world that WD-40 is twice as good as a lubricant as 3-In-1 oil. Just ... not possible.

It's also interesting that his graph of lubricity omits any values, which means the graph is useless because nothing is quantified.

Nope ... this part of his evaluation was also seriously flawed.

I take issue with your taking issue.  

The fact is that most of the sliding and moving parts on a gun are NOT operating "under pressure".  The slide of just about every semi-auto is only supporting it's own weight.  Even the BCG of an AR isn't all that much.  Not 5,000 lbs, not even 5 lbs, more like it's own weight of ~5 ounces.  Therefore, a sled of ~5 ounces is a fair test.    And slowly pouring water into a bucket is fair way of determining how much weight is need to overcome the coefficient of friction for each lube as applied per the manufacturer's instructions.

Is it perfect?  Probably not, but it is a damn sight better then anything else I've seen.
  

[Hawkmoon]

I take issue with your taking issue.  

The fact is that most of the sliding and moving parts on a gun are NOT operating "under pressure".  The slide of just about every semi-auto is only supporting it's own weight.  Even the BCG of an AR isn't all that much.  Not 5,000 lbs, not even 5 lbs, more like it's own weight of ~5 ounces.  Therefore, a sled of ~5 ounces is a fair test.    And slowly pouring water into a bucket is fair way of determining how much weight is need to overcome the coefficient of friction for each lube as applied per the manufacturer's instructions.

Is it perfect.  Probably not, but it is a damn sight better then anything else I've seen.
  

And I take issue with your taking issue with my taking issue. 

I knew someone was going to advance this argument. The problem is you're only looking at the slide rails, which may or may not be subject to fairly high pressures when the gun is fired. How about the other parts? I'll use the 1911, since those are what I mostly tinker with.

How much pressure is the tip of the sear subjected to as it presses against the hammer hooks, and has to slide as you pull the trigger?

How much pressure are the barrel locking lugs subjected to as the gun fires and the barrel is dragged back and down by the recoiling slide and the barrel link?

And, even if the slide rails aren't subjected to a lot of compressive force, there is still plenty of axial force to start the slide moving and to overcome any small, initial resistance caused by stiff grease. Once the slide is moving, we still want the best, most slippery stuff between the two surfaces, and typically that's grease. Oil works, but for serious work I use Lubri-Plate on the slide rails as well as the sear tip and locking lugs. Other folks like specialty products like Tetra Grease or Slide-Glide.

The fact that oil allows a block with almost no weight on it to start sliding easier than grease doesn't in any way prove that oil is the best lubricant for those mating surfaces.

[zahc]

I think static friction is a good metric for a gun lube. After all, most guns will cycle even completely dry, so lower dynamic friction just means more energy is going into a shock buffer somewhere. The bigger issue is getting the parts moving in the first place, although I guess a proper test would include months in a holster or in a gun safe to test "anti-gum-up-ability".

[griz]

I thought it was interesting, especially the lubricity and corrosion resistance parts.  I too would be more comfortable with the actual weight of the water, and the fact that the results varied somewhat when he changed the setup slightly seems to indicate that the results aren't totally repeatable, even though he did multiple runs.  My biggest gripe is he mentioned that the control sample did better than some of the lubes in one of the corrosion tests.  Logically that means that some lubes are corrosive, but I believe it is more likely pointing out that there is some flaw in the methodology.  It's still an interesting test.  I've never heard of that new WD40 product, but I believe I will look in to it.

[RoadKingLarry]

Feel free to do your own tests.

After 40+ years of gun use/ownership I've evaluated quite a few gun products. I've used/use everything from Murphey's Oil Soap to Mobile1 synthetic. Also MMO, several varieties of Hoppes, Kroil and a vew homebrew mixes with ATF as a base and I also use plain ole waterproof wheel bearing grease.

[KD5NRH]

The test on polystyrene also strikes me as a bit silly, but then, even my basic after-a-range-trip cleanup includes stripping the gun down to the point where no wood or plastic is still attached to metal.

[geronimotwo]

I thought it was interesting, especially the lubricity and corrosion resistance parts.  I too would be more comfortable with the actual weight of the water, and the fact that the results varied somewhat when he changed the setup slightly seems to indicate that the results aren't totally repeatable, even though he did multiple runs.  My biggest gripe is he mentioned that the control sample did better than some of the lubes in one of the corrosion tests.  Logically that means that some lubes are corrosive, but I believe it is more likely pointing out that there is some flaw in the methodology.  It's still an interesting test.  I've never heard of that new WD40 product, but I believe I will look in to it.

some sheet steel products come with a light oil on them from the manufacturing process.  it's possible that some of the lubes removed that and didn't do as well at protecting the metal.

[KD5NRH]

My biggest gripe is he mentioned that the control sample did better than some of the lubes in one of the corrosion tests.  Logically that means that some lubes are corrosive, but I believe it is more likely pointing out that there is some flaw in the methodology.

Well, he needed to use a more active sample.  How much is potassium in sheet form?

New product idea; lithium lube test strips.