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Oils and grease


JakeG

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I use a variable temp bearing grease on the plunger/trigger bar connection, very light amount, as well on the rails during the summer time, but not the winter, slows down my slide too much in the cold, a little bit of Lucas oil on the barrel and locking lugs and a small amount on the sear housing. Never had any issue yet other than the cold, which I use oil instead of the grease, 

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After a lot of testing.
I settled on Rotella T-6 for any sliding/moving bits, and Corrosion X on the rest.

I found most CLPs suck at preventing wear, grease traps heat, and dirt, and doesn’t stay where you really want it to stay... especially on slide rails.

In the end, does it really matter? I don’t know, but I know I am not paying more for some CLP, that doesn’t prevent wear or Corrosion as good as the Synthetic oil I already have or Corrosion X that still costs a lot less than “gun lube”.
And I’m not using grease on reciprocating parts, or parts I want to try to keep cool.

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I use the lucas gun oil and just top off the rails, lugs, and barrel after each session. After about 1,000 or 2,000 rounds it is usually dirty enough that I decide to clean it up. 

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I use synthetic oil, 5w-30. Light coating and it works well. Grease does a good job of preventing wear but can slow things down, especially when it gets real cold. I used to be all into the "gun" lubricants until one day I considered the price per quart vs. motor oil 😮

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What you can see from the different recipes that seem to work is Any grease on the rails and any oil where needed and to keep her running.  LOL

 

I can not tell you how many times my firearms lube meant nothing more than going to the automotive section at Walmart. LOL   Hell I bet I could get away with the filtered lard we just rendered from the cow we butchered for the yr.

 

Personally what I prefer because it makes me feel better in low temps and all conditions is Xf7 grease and Slip 2K EWL oil.  Its the combo that works great in all my guns handguns and ARs bolt alike.  In the ARs and other gas guns it makes cleaning up bcg and pistons a breeze.  No chipping away at high rd count carbon build up.  Just swipes off when I put that light base coat of grease.

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As mentioned, it is possible that none of this really matters.

That said, if it does, these are the results of my wear testing.


6a129dfec126e297c859e1249b3fd2c3.jpg
c664cc9b588953123f3bc41ade14e293.jpg
d58dddc02d8d175c91183889779a7588.jpg

If you are not familiar with some of these lubricants, ask me and I’ll give more detail.

Tests were done with a rotating smooth steel rotor on a section of steel bar stock. All had the same amount of pressure and ran for the same amount of time (I have to find my notes, but I believe it was 5 minutes) at 700 RPM.

This is different from some other tests as I did not maintain a supply of oil or grease to the parts. Parts were wetted, what stayed stayed, what didn’t didn’t... just as it would on a gun.

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On ‎4‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 6:50 PM, George16 said:

What weight is the Rotella T6 you used? 

I thought T6 only came in 5W40.

 

So According to this chart T6 performed the best? I know it is highly recommended for Direct injected turbos but it might be a little too smelly for those to use on their firearms, LOL.

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31 minutes ago, himurax13 said:

I thought T6 only came in 5W40.

 

So According to this chart T6 performed the best? I know it is highly recommended for Direct injected turbos but it might be a little too smelly for those to use on their firearms, LOL.

Not according to shell. They also have 5W-30.

 

Rotella T6 5W-30

 

 

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On 4/13/2019 at 4:20 PM, IronArcher said:

As mentioned, it is possible that none of this really matters.

 

Or that the data is misleading due to the difference between the test method and the desired application. 

 

Still interesting though.

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The test method was designed to closer replicate what is going on with a gun. Specifically, a semi auto.

Most wear tests use an oil reservoir. Guns don’t (cars do).

It tests wear resistance, and how well your lubricant will keep working without a constant supply.

 

Take it for what it is worth, for some that means nothing.

 

For me, it is a reliable and repeatable test that closer represents wear in firearms.

 

For the above question, the T-6 was the 5w-40, and did do the best. One other feature of the T-6 (that I don’t know how to test) is that it deals well with soot.

Mobil SHC 634 was very close, but this is a very thick industrial oil that probably isn’t best for keeping fast moving parts moving fast.

 

As for the results and what they mean, again, they might not mean much. I have used CorrosionX exclusively for years without any signs of failure.

It didn’t do great on the wear test, but it did OK.

 

Surprises were Frog Lube and XP222 grease. Both did poorly. When applied as directed, the Frog Lube was low friction, but high wear... it didn’t last.

Using it like oil, it did better, but I’m not sure how long it would stay put... it’s very thin.

Xp222 was the worst grease, hardly any better than nothing.

Thinner greases faired better.

Kroil was another surprise. I didn’t expect it to do as well as it did. Others have sworn by it, so I added it to the test.

Clearly, synthetic oils worked the best. So that’s what I use on wear probe parts. CorrosionX on everything else.

Your mileage may vary.... or not.

 

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2 hours ago, IronArcher said:

The test method was designed to closer replicate what is going on with a gun. Specifically, a semi auto.

 

It is interesting, I think the bias in results for thin lubes (as noted) may not be real world due to it being durn difficult to design a perfect apples to apples test and due to the fact that many shooters make it a point to relube guns before they get dry. When you consider lube loss constrained by channels & limited by human actions it may be more realistic to do something like running 30 second intervals & lubing rather than 5 minute intervals. 

 

Or not, it is fun to ponder. 

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That’s a good idea.
I may well add that to the test.
Might look at it like the guy that cleans and lubes every trip to the range, vs. the guys that clean after more than a few thousand rounds.

Do note though, the thickest oil performed almost identically to the thinnest synthetic auto Lube.

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As mentioned, it is possible that none of this really matters.

That said, if it does, these are the results of my wear testing.


6a129dfec126e297c859e1249b3fd2c3.jpg
c664cc9b588953123f3bc41ade14e293.jpg
d58dddc02d8d175c91183889779a7588.jpg

If you are not familiar with some of these lubricants, ask me and I’ll give more detail.

Tests were done with a rotating smooth steel rotor on a section of steel bar stock. All had the same amount of pressure and ran for the same amount of time (I have to find my notes, but I believe it was 5 minutes) at 700 RPM.

This is different from some other tests as I did not maintain a supply of oil or grease to the parts. Parts were wetted, what stayed stayed, what didn’t didn’t... just as it would on a gun.
Great test. Pretty shocked on the results you came up with not going to lie. I know frog lube is absolute garbage and tell everyone I see with it to stay away from it...now I have something to back it up.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

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When I use straight oil on my Tanfo's it seems to disappear from the rails. I don't know where it goes but they appear dry. When I add a little grease, Lucas red and tacky, Magnalube or Lubriplate, they seem to stay wet.  I use Mobil 0-20 or any other gun lube I have around.

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When I use straight oil on my Tanfo's it seems to disappear from the rails. I don't know where it goes but they appear dry. When I add a little grease, Lucas red and tacky, Magnalube or Lubriplate, they seem to stay wet.  I use Mobil 0-20 or any other gun lube I have around.
I've never had any issues with my Tanfo using regular lube staying wet (clp, rand, Mobil 1, slip, or even Remington oil) I frown upon grease as it collects way to my dirt debris and carbon in areas where I dont want it at all. I reload my ammo and use Titegroup which is a very dirty powder and grease was the worse in any of my firearms.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/16/2019 at 6:02 PM, IronArcher said:

Edit: time of wear test was 2 minute, not 5.

Next tests will be 30 second intervals x5 rounds at a speed as close to 20 FPS as possible.

Last test calculated to only around 12 FPS.

 

Cool test, and thanks for sharing the results. As a professional test and development guy myself, I dig this kind of stuff. The Kroil results really surprised me. Like you, I've been using CorrosionX for a number of years with good results.

 

Have you tested any other lubes since posting this? A couple I'd be interested in seeing results for:

- Lathe/mill way oil such as Vactra #2 or #4

- STP, Lucas, etc oil additives

- synthetic ATF (take your pick)

 

Vactra #2 is hard to come by in small quantities (usually sold in gallons or larger), but I have a gallon of it and am willing to send you some to test (depending on mail regs, not sure) if you're interested. Way oil is specifically designed for sliding surfaces, and is intended to cling to vertical surfaces for long periods of time. The thicker grades might make a gun sluggish, but the light grades might work pretty well on the slide rails, barrel, etc.

 

I've done some similar testing for corrosion resistance rather than wear, but didn't document it as well as you did so I should repeat it. That test was one of the reasons I've been using CorrosionX. Kroil didn't do well at all in that test, and regular Rotella T 15-40 (non-synthetic) actually resulted in rust pits, I think from the detergents in the oil. I didn't test T6, and will include that next time along side Mobil 1. 

Edited by Yondering
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