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When WD-40 isn’t WD-40 it can be really good

For this installment of the Badger’s Den, I’d like to discuss WD-40.

But first, let me assure you: We are the same people delivering the same simple effective solutions as always. So if a web search brought you here looking for solutions for your muzzle loader, gun cabinet/safe storage & organizers, tool organization, etc. You are in the right place, and probably just a click or two away from finding it (try one of the links in the prior sentence), or try the menu in the side bar (if you are on a desktop computer… or scroll down if you are on your phone). Or just click here to go to Our Products.

But I hope you stick around and read my thoughts on WD-40.

What is WD-40? Now-a-days, that’s a tricky question. For many years, WD-40 was just the light oily stuff in a blue and yellow can that seemed to be on the shelf in every store. It got used on everything. And it got a bad reputation for drying out and leaving a cruddy crust that seemed to jam stuff up more than fix or lube it.

But now-a-days, WD-40 is still that same oily stuff in a can, and it’s a company, with an entire “WD-40 Specialist” product line. To keep it simple for this post, I’m going to address “Traditional WD40” as just “WD40.” The “WD-40 company” will be called “WD-40 company”. All the other “specialist” products the WD-40 Company sells, will be addressed by what I commonly call them: “WD-40 Dry lube” “WD-40 Corrosion Inhibitor” etc.

We don’t sell any WD-40 company products. But I use three of them, and you might too. Seeing they are available just about everywhere, effective when understood, and typically reasonably priced, it’s understandable that you’d have some on the shelf and use it. But the question is, are you using it correctly?

WD-40 actually does stack up ‘OK’ against many other products commonly used in automechanics: grime removal, rust penetrant, etc. It’s rarely the best, but it’s typically OK.

When it comes to guns, if you listen you will find lots of different opinions on WD40’s usefulness. Many will have horror stories, and tend to be negative. You probably heard stuff like: “Absolutely never use WD-40 on a gun.” If you did a little research you’d find statements claiming WD-40 products are in use in most gunsmithing schools. Can both be true? Is there more to this?

L to R: Specialist Corrosion Inhibitor, Specialist Dry Lube, and aerosol/trigger Traditional WD-40

Let’s start our discussion with the Traditional WD-40. My understanding is that:

  • WD-40 was formulated as a “Water Displacement” product while trying multiple formulations, and as it was the 40th formulation that was tried, it was named WD-40.
  • The US Air Force was the largest of WD-40’s first purchasers. The USAF prescribed it as a metal treatment for it’s Titan Missiles. It was rubbed on the outer bare stainless steel skin to protect it from corrosion. On things like missiles, paint has weight and weight adds up. The missile can fly farther with a heavier payload the lighter it is, so they omitted paint and had the missileers rub them with WD-40.
  • The Air Force guys got used to using WD-40 elsewhere and also seemed to be in the habit of bringing it home and using it on more stuff there. They wanted to buy it commercially, so it hit the shelves. It got used on all sorts of mechanisms, and became the ubiquitous can of lube on most folks shelves. WD-40 became so universal, that the company that made and sold WD-40 changed it’s name to “WD-40.”
  • Please note: Traditional WD-40 wasn’t specifically designed as a lubricant, nor a penetrant. However it does seem to work pretty well in those regards… at least until the carrier evaporates and leaves a crusty crud that can jam up mechanisms.

So what does this mean for us gun owners? To me its pretty simple: I use WD-40 to clean crud off guns all the time. I find it especially useful in neglected black powder rifle bolts (something I work on regularly). If one of my guns takes a dip in the water, or hunts in the rain, I’ll hit it heavy with WD-40 too. But WD-40 is never the only thing, nor the last thing to touch one of my guns.

And again, I’m talking traditional WD-40 here. I see it as an effective, inexpensive way to remove moisture and heavy grime. Once that is gone, I remove the WD-40 with something else, and then lube and protect with a final more expensive product designed for the job: like gun oil (Rem-Oil, CLP, etc).

Don’t confuse WD-40 (traditional) with the Specialists. The “Specialists” are entirely different animals. Like WD-40 the “specialists” are reasonably priced, and readily available. They have specialized focuses. I use two of them daily, and pretty sure I have a third on the shelf somewhere. Mostly I use WD-40 Specialist Dry Lube. I use it often to remove the Traditional WD-40 I just doused something down with. The evaporative carrier in Dry Lube does a great job of carrying everything left behind away, and leaving it dry but lightly lubed with small PTFE balls. This dry lube feels slick, and leaves a surface that won’t attract dust, hold grime, and most of all doesn’t gel in the cold. I love to clean out shotgun magazine tubes with WD-40 Dry Lube and let it stay slick for feeding shells. Gun actions, trigger packs, and the interior of bolts get heavy doses of Dry Lube. The grime is allowed to float away. Then these mechanisms get drops of gun oil (Rem-oil/CLP) or small dabs of grease where needed.

Like it says on the Dry Lube can: this stuff works great on things like table saw blades, miter saw blades, and other stuff you want to keep dust free. I’ve seen a noticeable difference in how my saws cut after applying a little bit of it.

When I get metal that’s exposed or I need to store something and not worry about corrosion, I’ll hit it with WD-40 Specialist Corrosion Inhibitor. Frequently old antique guns that get stored more than shot, get cleaned, get whipped down with the WD-40 Specialist Corrosion Inhibitor, and then put away. The stuff is pretty greasy. So If I’m going to shoot a gun I coated with Specialist Corrosion Ihnibitor, I remove it and lube it properly with standard gun products. But that gun stays lightly coated with the Corrosion Inhibitor most of the time its in storage.

Small metal parts that I stock and sell get hit with Corrosion Inhibitor too. If you buy something from us, like Small Ruger Screws, they will arrive with a coating of this stuff.

The third one I have sitting around is Specialist Electric Contact cleaner. I’ve used it to blast gunk out of automotive electrical connectors & parts… just can’t find the can right now. Maybe I used it up and it’s time to buy another?

So is WD-40 good or bad? Well what WD-40 are you talking about? What is the application? I’d say WD-40 company products, are pretty good values, when you understand them and use them correctly. Like anything: if you want success, you need to be smarter than what you are operating. Start by reading the instructions!

The gallon can I refill my “trigger pro” from

Are the Specialists the best at what they do? Maybe? The real question to ask is, “Are they effective enough and can you get your hands on them?” To me those are both “YES” answers, so I use them.

As a farewell, I’d like to point out that I rarely buy and use the aerosol version of Traditional WD-40. I get the “trigger pro” and refill it from gallon jugs. The can seems designed to prevent refills, so it does take some creative use of pliers, exacto knives, and funnels. I cannot find a more simple effective manner to clean all the grimy Remington 700 ML/MLS bolts sent to me. But those same bolts never leave with just Traditional WD-40 on them: its all Dry Lube, a drop of oil, and 3M molybdenum disulfide grease when they go.

Traditional WD-40 is never the only thing, nor last thing I use on any firearm component!

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Tool chest organizing widgets are changing my workshop

I’m embarrassed, but I’ll admit it: I’m disorganized and inefficient compared to what I expect of myself.

I like to work on all sorts of things, but I don’t invest the time and thought I should into organizing and cleaning up. I frequently finish a project, but fail to really ‘finish’ it by putting all the tools that got drug out back where they belong. Eventually when I need those same tools, I then cannot find them. Along the way I’ve bought a bunch of different sets of box end wrenches, and frequently grab more onesie-twosie at swap-n-shops. I occasionally have to cut weld or bend one to make a custom wrench for a specific job. So I have multiples of the same size in all sorts of lengths. When I need one of them, I typically have to stop and think about the last project I completed with that tool, and then begin searching the locale where that project was done. Or dig through the pile in the respective tool drawer.

I have resolved to do better. I know that the foundation of being organized is having a place for everything, then making sure to put everything back in its place. And to that end, I went around the shop and started gathering all the loose wrenches, screw drivers, pliers etc. When I pulled out the drawers of my tool chest and tossed them all in, I realized I had only just begun.

The ‘before’ pic of my wrench drawer after I tossed in the wrenches floating around the shop

That’s when inspiration hit me. I wanted to get started organizing, but of course, I had a whole bunch of other things that I had to get done before I could act on that inspiration. I turned those obligations into opportunities to continue working out in my mind what I was thinking of doing. Where I wanted to end up. Once I’d cleared my obligations out of the way, I rewarded myself with some time ‘CADing’ out what I had in my head for a tool drawer organizing widget:

Tool Drawer Organizing Widget
This little widget interlocks with other widgets and has a magnet in it to hold tools in a tool chest drawer

At first I realized I had to keep it simple: just tackle all the box end wrenches that continually floated around. I knew that I didn’t want to make an investment into designing a “perfect” large organizer that I’d have to change and reprint once I bought new tools, or a different tool chest. I needed something flexible, that would adapt with changes in the work shop. So I decided a small flexible modular approach was best. I knew I wanted a magnet in the organizers to help hold the tools in their proper place. That’s what I “cadded.”

Then once I had the widget in my hand and I began to use it, I realized that I needed more than one size, that I wanted to follow the convention of metric-Blue, inch-red, and that these same widgets could organize many different types of tools. Along the way I think I got my box end & flare nut wrenches the way I want (at least for now):

This is the “after” picture for the “before” picture above: MUCH BETTER! Even have room to spare!

Now I just have to make myself put these wrenches back in their proper place when I’m done with the project that draws them out of the drawer. I also want to come up with a flexible labeling system, but really I’m not sure I’ll invest more time to that end: Just knowing where the 10mm and a few other sizes are by setting them off with different colors, seems to do enough that I’m not spending all the time I used to digging through the drawer looking for a specific size. I find what I need fast now.

So how does all this affect you? We’ll I’m glad to explain it to you! First I’m offering this tool organizing widget solution for sale here at Badger Ridge. You too can organize your tool chest drawers in an effective and flexible manner. First you need to appreciate that these widgets have magnets in them. They want to stay where you put them in your tool chest drawer. You’ll be best served if three or more are snapped together to get much greater stability than a single widget. Also with the magnets, metal tools want to stay in them, but aren’t so stuck that its work to get a tool of of them. Second the widgets snap together and apart if you need to re-arrange them, and again for stability, you probably want to plan on having 3 or more widgets snapped together.

Also, before you buy you probably want to understand what sizes are available and what purpose they will probably serve. Let’s start with the standard widget:

Standard tool drawer organizer widget
Profile of standard tool drawer organizer widget

The standard widget holds wrenches smaller than 1″ (25mm), and does great with screw drivers with smaller shafts. However I’d plan on wrenches over 3/4″ (19mm) to fit better in a “large” widget:

Large Widget Profile
Large Widget Profile

Also I’ve found that standard screw drivers sit better in the large widget.

When I moved on to my drawer of ratchets I realized I needed a couple of different larger widgets. The standard and large widget have the same foot print, only their mouths had different profiles. But to hold the larger shafts of my 3/8″ and 1/2″ ratchets (bot standard and telescoping), I needed to make two larger widgets. I called them XL & Jumbo (see below)

Extra Large Widget Profile
Extra Large Widget Profile
Jumbo Widget Profile
Jumbo Widget Profile

The jumbo is double the width of the standard/large widgets, it holds my telescoping ratchets & 3/4″ drive ratchet. The XL widget is in between the Jumbo & the Standard/Large and holds my standard 3/8″ ratchets well.

So ignoring wrenches, if stuff to be held is under 5mm in diameter, use a standard widget. If its over 5mm but under 8mm, a large widget. Between 8 and 17mm, use and XL widget. Over 17mm, but un 26mm use a Jumbo.

In summary, let me break it down for you like this. If I was organizing a tool chest I’d count things in the following manner. First I’d go through and count all the wrenches. I’d break them down into two groups: how many below 19mm (3/4″) and above 19mm. I’d then break those into metric counts (for blue), and inch counts (for red). You might want to adjust these for using grey for 10mm etc… color choices are up to you.

For each wrench smaller than 19mm (3/4″) get a Standard Widget

For each wrench 19mm (3/4″) or larger get a Large Widget

Then segregate and count your remaining screw drivers, nut drivers, ratchets, extensions, etc, measuring at the diameter of the portion that would rest on the widget. Sort them by under 8mm, over 8mm, but under 15mm, and over 15mm.

For each screwdriver/nut driver with a shaft under 8mm driver get a Large Widget.

For each extension, and ratchet handle under 8mm (probably only 1/4 drive) get a Large Widget

For each screw driver, nut driver, etc., with a shaft 8mm (5/16) or larger get an XL Widget

For each extension, and each ratchet with a shaft over 8mm up to 17mm get an XL widget

For each extension & ratchet over 17mm (but under 26mm) diameter get an Jumbo widget

For each telescoping ratchet and 3/4″ ratchet (certainly will be over 17mm diameter) get a Jumbo

For each hammer handle (over 17mm diameter get a Jumbo

This has been an effort that had yield great rewards in organization and efficiency. I hope you have a similar pleasant experience making your tool chests do more for you. To get started putting these widgets in your cart please click here.

If you have a 3D printer and would like to purchase a personal use license to print our tool widgets, please click here.

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