Morris Minor Owners Club

Interesting piece in Minor Matters about WD40 and Duct Tape; however, I am sure there was an article about WD40 many years ago in the magazine that stated that WD 40 stood for 'Water Dispersal for 40 days'. After about 40 days WD40 actually attracts water and makes steel rusty. My neighbour has got one of those multi positional ladders; one autumn he sprayed all of the joints with WD 40 before putting it away for the winter. In the spring all of the joints were completely seized up and immovable.

I think 'Water Dispersal for 40 days' is right.

I thought it was because the preceding 39 formulae didn't work!

The company's own website gives a history of the product: https://wd40.co.uk/about-us/ which confirms that it was the 40th attempt that worked.

Maybe stuffedpike20’s neighbour used WD39, mistakenly put in a WD40 can.

All I know is that one time I had some small nails in a jam jar that I wanted to preserve, so I sprayed WD40 into the jar and put them on the shelf. When I came to use them they had turned into one solid lump of rust, and were not recognisable as nails.
IMHO WD40 is highly over rated in every way, and the only good thing about it is that it smells quite nice.

There have been all kinds of stories about WD40 over the years; one of which was that is was a preservative for ladies nylon tights.

One time I bought some freeing oil (I think from Wilko). When applied to seized nuts and bolts it actually SMOKED. Everything came undone. It blew WD40 out of the water. Not surprisingly it was withdrawn from sale a short time later.

The marketing people at WD40 have worked wonders, people swear by the product but its actual use in a garage it fairly limited.
There are better options out there, in fact any of the penetrating fluids on the market available at most motor factors are better than WD40.

Having said that I usually have a tin in the garage but its mainly used to remove tar spots from my daily car or used when cleaning engine parts.

Great for some things but rubbish at others.

good for lighting fires,good for cleaning oil and paint off hands,good as a fish attractor on bait,never found it much good for nuts and bolts.

Good as a fish attractor is it? How did you find that out? If I spray my pike lures before using them, am I going to catch more pike? Fantastic! I need all the help I can get!

I bought the Wilko version of 3 in 1 oil a few years ago, and put it on my bike chain. A few weeks later I went to use my bike, and the chain was completely solid with rust. It could not have done a better job of rusting the metal. Maybe the Wilko oil was actually WD 40.
I think it is better than that now.

I use it as a cutting fluid when milling or turning aluminium, probably more the cooling effect than lubrication but gives a decent finish.

simmitc wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 10:05 pm The company's own website gives a history of the product: https://wd40.co.uk/about-us/ which confirms that it was the 40th attempt that worked.

As I suspected, a US American product heavily marketed world wide, no doubt with a profit margin in three digit percentage proportions but as far as the experience of its users goes, diplomatically put, "giving less than satisfactory results".

I rather like Duck Oil.

Will that help me catch more pike?

Worth a try!

SteveClem wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 9:33 am I rather like Duck Oil.

I don't think it would be any use to me - my ducks don't squeak, they quack.

Well never used it my self ( I'm only a trout fly fisherman and occasional salmon) because any additive to flies is banned on the waters I use , but was bandied about on several fly fishing forums,that keeping flies in a bag of wd greatly enhanced takes. Apparently the main ingredient of WD is concentrated fish oil,so I can see why it would attract. I know of one fisherman who was banned from one of our waters,because he was seen regularly swapping lures from a bag instead of a box,catching one or two fish,then swapping the lure.FOR AN IDENTICAL one same size ,colour and method of fishing . This lead the bailiff to assume that after a few casts the oil washed off and so on went a freshly soaked one,the angler didn't protest when he was challenged so suppose he knew he had been rumbled.

I would imagine, the methods used is dependant on the reason for fishing, if the idea is to kill the fish then I suppose any trick would be used. However for the person who cares to release a fish, perhaps the conventional way is more rewarding.

i've recently bought a can of 'GT85'..not tried it yet,but supposed to be better than wd40..

not sure about it's fishing capabilities either

Guess who owns the GT85 brand? Answer: WD40.
Guess who bought the 3-in-1 brand? Answer: WD40.
Anyone feeling paranoid?