You know what eats Cosmoline??

[jlpskydive]

WD-40 eats it like acid!!! How bad is it to put WD-40 on a rifle and what should you do after you have put it on it?

[cetme]

short term your OK. Long term if WD-40 is all you use it will build up and glue parts together. I'd wipe off the WD-40 with a rag and lude as normal.

[jlpskydive]

Thanks this stuff just crushes cosmo and wipes off how great is that?

[turbothis]

huh? i will try that next batch of cosmo i get.

[A.D.A.]

Never heard that WD-40 will eat cosmoline. I have heard that WD-40 is good for arthritis, will cure your dog of mange and is a good scent for fishing bait. For firearms, however, I would definitely wipe it off - it collects dust and will gum up your parts if left on over time.

[okie shooter]

Its proably the propellants and light solvents that allow the small amount of oil to penetrate, wd is mainly solvent.

[Darkwatch]

I know it works great to get off the sticky residue left by stickers ot tape!

[okie shooter]

Just remember when you buy WD-40 its mainly solvents and propellants. If you want you can buy wd-40 by the gallon or it might be cheaper to buy what ever solvent is in it(naphta or kerosene or such) and use the solvent to disolve the cosmolene then oil the metal when done.

From the MSDS of WD-40

Aliphatic Petroleum Distillates, CAS number 8052-41-3, 45-50%
Petroleum Base Oil, CAS number 64742-65-0, 15-25%
LVP Hydrocarbon Fluid, CAS number 64742-47-8, 12-18%
Carbon Dioxide, CAS number 124-38-9, 2-3%
Non hazzardous Ingredients, <10%

The bulk is the same less the CO2, and I imagine alot cheaper to buy. A gallon of the stuff is 12 bucks at lowes and I imagine thats alot of small cans (12-16 depending on size of can)

The sovlent is Naphtha, we use lots of stoddard solvent to clean stuff up here, oil, grease, residues etc.


CAS Registry Number: 8052-41-3
Names (NTP)
Naphtha, Solvent
White Spirits
Stoddard Solvent


The LPV Hydrocarbon fluid, is just kerosene, the oil is a light paraifin oil(solvent neutral oil).

So you are buying a mix of oil(25%), kerosene(12-18%), and naphtha(45-50%), all of which you can buy at the hardware store alot cheaper than wd-40. I imagine the naphtha does the work.

I remember as a kid useing naphtha for cleaning model paint brushes, didnt even know it at the time but lighter fluid is naphtha. I think white gas(coleman fuel) is too.

[SteelCore]

Yes, WD-40 (Water Displacement-40) will eat cosmo, but it is no lube. it does not leave a protecvie layer of oil behind. Any time you treat a surface that can rust with WD, lube as normal.

WD is also good for displacring water if you use water in your Mosins (when you fire that corrosive ammo, use windex or h2o) to remove the corrosive salts. CLean with wate,r then use the WD to float the rest of the water out the bbl, then lube as normal.

REPEAT: WD is a solvent, not a lubricant. If you want one substance that does it all, I recommend CLP.

[Amegalops]

TCE from Brownell's works very well also. It comes in an aerosol, pint and possibly gallon. Strictly a degreaser. The aerosol is great cleaning out the firing cassette without taking out all the parts.

[MK ULTRA]

real hot water works good too.

If you pull the receiver and barrel off the wood and have a small tank of water you can heat up the cosmo will melt right off. A small park tank on a coleman stove works real well. I've melted lots of cosmo out of old C&R SKS's and Mausers

Pull out the hot metal and it will dry real fast.

Later when the water is cold you can break the cosmo off the top of the water like fat of a pot of cold soup.

There is still a light coat on the metal so it won't rust.

[RandyCOG3]

A couple of thoughts.... penetrating oil is designed to...penetrate, and will get in tiny little places, such as between the primer and brass of a cartridge, ruining it. Don't know if it's true, but I've read that you can dump ammo into liquid WD and leave it there, to, hopefully, render is dead....
I had a maintenance man studiously wipe down a 12 year old electrical panel near swimming pool equiment, i.e. chlorine and acid fumes had left surface rust on it after that amount of time. In less than a year, it crumbled into flakes of rusty, oily metal, and had to be replaced. Not only does it not lubricate, it doesn't protect, either; under some conditions, it accelerates destruction, so I won't leave it on anything I care about.

RandyCOG3

[MID]

I put it on my sandwiches.

[SteelCore]

I think WD gets a lotta positive advertising, waay past its due.

[gunkgy]

I have used it to remove cozmo, it works great.

[okie shooter]

The reason WD-40 works is how "wet" the solvents are that the Parrifin oil is disolved in, the wetter it is the better it will flow into small cracks and penetrate(kinda of how water washes better with soap, it has far less surface tension flow into smaller places and pick up the dirt) The oil in wd is just like lamp oil, not really a good lubricant but in the pinch it works, sticking around after the naphtha and kerosene evaporate. I would suggest trying the other two solvents in the mix, naphtha and ultra pure kerosene, but even most kerosenes have some other waxy oils too.

To be really degreased you need a ultra pure solvent without waxy or oily parts. The CFC's used to be common for this, they would disolve the oils and then evaporate the residues some what away.

[86thecat]

Cheap Wally world hurricane lamp fuel that would hardly burn on a wick ate the cosmo right off a Yugo.
WD40 is IT if you do maintainence on seaplanes, but not so great around the house.

[Perro]

damn this proves that nobody listens to me :D

ive been advocating the use of wd40 on cosmoline for about 6 years now everytime the topic has come up

it is a solvent, not an oil
it will dry up in short order leaving no protection on your firearm, and ive even seen it CAUSE things to rust more than those not treated with it.
since it is a solvent and it evaporates, it will leave your metal less protected than metal that was treated a long time ago with a good oil.

just wipe it dry, and reoil it with break free CLP, or any other really GOOD oil
i wish i remember the name of the guy who did the tests on gun oils.
he sprayed many clean bare metal panels down with each different type of oil, and put them in a humidity chamber tester thingy, and it showed which ones were the best by how much it had corroded.

break free CLP was the best
and WD40 was the worst if i remember right.

[Anthropy]

WD-40 also works great as a universal instant bug killer. Sure they might kick around for a minute, but they will be dead for sure. Wasps, bees, ants, all dead.

[MicroPilot]

...
just wipe it dry, and reoil it with break free CLP, or any other really GOOD oil
i wish i remember the name of the guy who did the tests on gun oils.
he sprayed many clean bare metal panels down with each different type of oil, and put them in a humidity chamber tester thingy, and it showed which ones were the best by how much it had corroded.

break free CLP was the best
and WD40 was the worst if i remember right.

http://www.thegunzone.com/rust.html

Is this the test you were thinking of?

Here's another test. http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/GunTech/NewsletterArchive.aspx?p=0&t=1&i=503

VPCI's seem to be the sheeit when it comes to protecting metal in a closed environment (like a gun safe).