On Saturday, September 10, 2016 at 1:21:41 PM UTC-7, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Sat, 10 Sep 2016 12:20:06 -0700, Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot)
wrote:

The devil is in the details......

WD-40 can be great to dry out some electrical bits, as well as loosen
dried lube (grease and/or oil) or loosen rusted iron bits.
It has, basically, NO lubrication in it, so......it can get things
moving, but likely NOT keeping them moving.

I use about 12 different lubes, depends on the application, currently I
like "fluid film" as it sticks, works well and is limited in negative
effects due to temp.
Silicone spray when I'm dealing with rubber or similar.
LockEze for cables, locks or small parts since it's basically graphite.

Yes, WD-40 can free it up, but it WILL fail again due to lack of a real
lube.

Taken from a "mechanical guy" of over 40 years, doing facilities
maintenance and auto/aircraft during that time.

Thanks for the explanation.

My past use of WD-40 has almost entirely been limited to blasting dirt
out of clockwork timers and/or engines after a free flight model has
dethermalised onto a mega-dusty place. Its invaluable for that - but, and
I'd forgotten this, at the end of the day its essential to strip and
thoroughly clean any timer that has been washed out with WD-40 because
the stuff will dry out and make the timer unreliable, the only cures
being another blast of WD-40 at the start of each future flying session
or the aforementioned strip/clean/re-lube to get rid of any remaining
WD-40 that was in it.

Engines are OK: the WD-40 blows the assorted crap out of the engine so
its clean enough to run, and the next run and flood-off gets rid the
residual WD-40.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Interesting, The WD-40 manufacturer labels the non-lubricant assertion a myth. http://wd40.com/cool-stuff/myths-legends-fun-facts

Regardless, my personal experience with WD-40 as a lubricant is that it's inferior to something like LPS-2 for long-term lubrication. Stuff I've used WD-40 on tends to seem gunky / rosin like after an extended period of time.

ymmv
7Q