Lubricants

[BLR]

Non toxic or not, I think it's best to wear gloves. The stuff that's mixing with your non-toxic cleaner, like primer and powder residue, are probably toxic.

Lead and barium compounds FTW!

[TR675]

Non toxic or not, I think it's best to wear gloves. The stuff that's mixing with your non-toxic cleaner, like primer and powder residue, are probably toxic.

Really good point, and in case anyone reading this isn't aware, latex gloves are not good enough to resist a lot of the chemicals you're probably using.

Nitrile is the way to go.

[joshs]

Emphasis mine - That's only true if there is a flow of oil. How long do you think that condition exists? How many cycles before the oil has spread out and you have a rapidly diminishing film lubrication condition?

Oil definitely lasts for fewer rounds than grease, but it is much easier to add more to restore the flow. Adding grease usually requires field stripping the gun, which is too much like cleaning for me, so I just stick with oil. I do use grease for FCG components though because it sticks so much better, and I pretty much never detail strip FCGs in the guns I shoot a lot. Based on your advice in an older thread, I've been using a polyurea NLGI grade 2 grease for this purpose, and it seems to work really well. It doesn't smell like mint though . . .

[JV_]

I lube with grease. If the gun gets sluggish, or just needs more lube, I just add a drop or two of oil.

[KevinB]

Non toxic or not, I think it's best to wear gloves. The stuff that's mixing with your non-toxic cleaner, like primer and powder residue, are probably toxic.

YUP.


Dave J -- TW-25B, We shipped it with all the SOCOM Mk11 guns as that is what they wanted -- it is a decent lube for certain applications - it does dry out - and cakes with carbon into a new large carbon block fused to metal.
It like any grease also sucks in dirty dusty environments.




Admittedly I am on the FIREClean bandwagon (I'd buy shares if I could), it just in my experience works better than anything else I have tried (and if its out there odds are I have tried it).

Carbon sticks to carbon very well, so if you have a lube than can ensure that carbon never affixes itself to the gun that's a win.


Handguns are often not great lube testing platforms (other than suppressed .22's and 1911's).

I am firmly in the camp of having a good base coating - and then using a good lube.

I need to get my LAV 1911 refinished - but I am waiting for someone to get a blacker coating.

[KevinB]

Also as I near 50 (ugh) I get more and more concerned about what I am putting on my guns - as years ago I basically bathed in CLP in the Army. Now the original CLP with Teflon was removed from service for being a carcinogen...
A lot of the bore cleaners and lubes had significant health causing material in them.

So a non-toxic lube is on my must list -- the advantage is a lot of the bio lubes preform way better than the "legacy" petroleum (OR WORSE) based products.

[ToddG]

I've spent many an evening recently wondering how much my ungloved work with cleaners and solvents and gun oils over twenty years might have been unhealthy.

[Joe in PNG]

After 4 years as a mechanic, the mere touch of brake fluid makes me ill. I'm beginning to like the idea of using food grade lubricant on the gats.

[justintime]

When I was like 12 a friend and I were playing with some clutch dust from a worn out kart part. We were building clutch dust snow men lol. It wasn't until years later that I found out that dust was highly carcinogenic. I'm paranoid as crap now from all the harmful chemicals exc I have played with

[Sigfan26]

Been playing with Rand CLP... The stuff makes slick mud as well (if not better) than Slip2000. I think that the Rand is the better overall lube, but EWL30 would be my overall choice to lube my rifle with initially... Ewl30 is just a bit thick to apply to contacts without disassembling the rifle/bcg. You can just drip the Rand into the action.