Fireclean Goes Full Retard

[slowpoke]

**Sigh** Are people still worrying about this type of thing?

Okay, one more time. ATF, Mobile 1, and white lithium grease. You can get it all down at the auto store.

Equal parts, or what?

How finely do you have to grate the ATF agent?

I love this place

[Greg]

**Sigh** Are people still worrying about this type of thing?

Okay, one more time. ATF, Mobile 1, and white lithium grease. You can get it all down at the auto store.

Equal parts, or what?

How finely do you have to grate the ATF agent?

I keep thinking of pulling something out of your pocket and grating it on one of those micro graters, like Alton Brown with nutmeg.

BTW, what's the tranny fluid (and doesn't that take on new meaning in our current day and age) for specifically?

[PawPaw]

BTW, what's the tranny fluid (and doesn't that take on new meaning in our current day and age) for specifically?

Heh! I love this bar

Specifically, Dexron II or better. Actually, transmission fluid is the miracle mechanical fluid of our age. It does lots of things very well. Most automobiles today run their whole service life without ever having a change of fluid (while the engine gets the oil changed every 3000 miles). More or less, you understand my point.

ATF is good for cleaning. You can add a little lanolin to it if you'd like, or you can dilute it with acetone. It makes a better penetrating oil than Liquid Wrench. Lubriplate is better, but it's hard to find it in consumer-sized quantities.Generally, Lubriplate is sold in 5 gallon buckets, or 55 gallon drums.

Grant Cunningham has a good article on lubricants. It's worth the read. The simple fact is that there are no "gun oils". The big lubrication firms make oils, greases, and lubricants in large quantities for industrial applications. Think of the amount of oil that just one AutoZone sells each month, and then tell me why any large company would want to make a niche oil that sells by the ounce? It doesn't make sense. All the gun oils we buy are simply re-packaged industrial lubricants, which brings us back to the original thread.

So what if Fireclean was selling Crisco to a gullible public? It's certainly better than nothing. I've used hog lard for lubricant when that's all I could get, and while it made my flintlock smell like bacon, it worked just fine until I could clean it off and use a better grease. I can see why Fireclean is pissed, because Crisco is available everywhere, and it's cheap. If Fireclean was smart, they'dd have bought Lubriplate in large drums and repackaged it to the shooting public.

[Combat Controller]

Yeah, what Paw Paw said. Kinda like how Duracoat is just Sherwin Williams paint repackaged and marked waaayyy up.

[Jericho941]

Various solvents and lube have come under fire before for being repackaged household products with a significant markup. I really doubt anyone would care about Fireclean doing the same if it hadn't been for their ridiculous marketing, like the bit about the extra smoke being carbon fouling removed from the gun on firing.

There is a certain tolerance in any consumer group for BS. If Fireclean was a little bit cheaper, their hype a bit less ridiculous, people would leave the tar and feathers where they were. A lot of people "rattlecan" their guns anyway; Duracoat was never going to be especially scandalous, for example. At least you get some convenience specific to your projects when you bought from them. But when you charge $40 a bottle for a blended vegetable oil and promise magical properties, you're asking for trouble.

[Netpackrat]

Also, while Duracoat is certainly inferior to one of the baked-on finishes, it's not exactly house paint, either. It's an industrial, 2 pack polyurethane.

[Langenator]

Of course, the lawsuit means FC will get the full Streisand Effect.

[randy]

while it made my flintlock smell like bacon

That's a feature, not a bug.

[PawPaw]

like the bit about the extra smoke being carbon fouling removed from the gun on firing.

Heh! Well, smoke is carbon and it is coming out of the gun. I'm not a big fan of the AR, but after 20 years in the Army, I do have a passing familiarity with the platform. In my experience, an AR likes a wet bolt, and once when I was trying a new oil (Made by Lucas, I believe). After a fast 10-round string, I noticed smoke, lots of smoke. By the time I had finished the qual run, it was smoking like a diesel under a load. Clean-up was easy, although messy. Lots of carbon everywhere. I don't fault the oil for that, it performed as advertised. The gun ran great.

[evan price]

Mixing atf and wd40 makes a very good version of ed's red, it cleans well and provides limited lubrication.
Mobil-one 0w20 oil is my go-to general lubricant.
Silicone spray has a lot of uses too.
At work our leadscrew and/or cam driver assemblies come with a syringe of high-pressure high temp grease. Since we replace them often piles of the unused syringes accumulate in toolboxes, and i take a couple home now and then. Great for slides, bolts, etc.
Sig slides like to run wet.