Comment by jonway
11 hours ago
Fun fact: WD-40 is not a penetrating lube/oil!
Iirc WD-40 = Water Displacement, formula #40
It was originally designed to displace water for corrosion resistance and cleaning. (Edit I think it was originally used for de-icing in an aerospace context?) You probably will never need a single can of WD-40 in your life. Try PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench!
Which one's better for making my doors stop squeaking?
3-in-1 oil. PB blaster and liquid wrench are more for breaking apart rusted together bolts and pins and stink too much to want to use in your house. You really don't want any kind of spray can for door hinges because door hinges need less than a single drop of oil to be fully lubricated.
What about graphite powder? Isn't that what you put inside the lock, would it work on the hinge too?
I use Shell Rotella 15W40, same as goes in the tractors, same as goes in my Range Rover, same as goes in my mum's Fiat.
In the corollary of the hammer/nail thing, when what you have are 205-litre barrels of Rotella, everything that needs oil gets a dose of it.
A dry lubricant like graphite
Lithium grease.
Petroleum oils aren't really good for hinges (which I assume is what is squeaking) for a variety of reasons. If you use wd-40, you find that the squeak goes away and quickly returns, sometimes worse. The reason for this is that WD-40 will wash out any grease or oil in the hinge as well as attract whatever dirt or dust is around, both worsening the squeak.
3-in-1 (in the dropper can) is a good, effective lubricant but it has an important drawback that is shares with WD-40, it will wash out any grease already in there as well as attract dirt. 3-in-1 (tin dropper bottle) is great for light mechanical duty like a bike chain or as cutting oil and even some gears, but it wont work well as a deck lube, way oil, or hinge grease because of its very light weight.
Here's a brand and type that I recommend for doors. CRC is an excellent source of this type of chemical, and my personal go-to. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30286616 ) to protect/shine them up. It will work totally well on your tires, but I don't like that idea because it might fling onto your paint or transfer to your rotor if you touch it while swapping wheels. Seems it might work well to prevent dry-rot during storage, now that I think about it. I feel like basically nobody does this though.
Thank you for this opportunity. I had a lot of fun thinking about one of my favorite lubricants, which is of course silicone, and I expect that it will add much value to your life!
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[edit: all the references to WD-40© in the More Suggestions part are true, but also jokes used to illustrate the marketing genius of WD-40©. You don't need it, and there's a decent chance that what you're about to spray it on will only get worse, but yeah, it does work really well. I also just think its pretty funny to have a can of WD-40© while knowing its true purpose, so that when some jerk like me comes along with his or her "AKTUALLY, WD-40© is a solvent not a lubricant!" you will then be free to utilize whichever form of verbal jui-jitsu you desire in dispatchment of this interloper as you reply, "Yeah! I use it every day … !"]
I'm not shooting WD40 or dripping oil onto a hinge, garage door part, etc, etc because it's the best. I'm doing it because I can do that a hundred times before coming close to the time and effort expenditure required to disassemble the item and lube it with grease.
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