Chemicals: Time tested goodies

[bonneyman]

Greases

Most greases are basically oils with added thickeners. Makes sense! 
Alot of times the thickeners employed are some kind of soap. soaps are themselves quite slippery, being hydroxides of reactive metals - typically calcium, aluminum, and lithium. Depending on the application, manufacturers will play around with types of oils and soap bases to get the desired qualities. Also, they may add certain additives to create a specific property.
A few of my favorite greases:

SuperLube Synthetic grease
The SDS's are not specific and vary a bit, so here's my best guess.
70% synthetic polymer
20% white mineral oil
8% fumed silica
1% teflon
remainder proprietary

Since the majority of the compound is a synthetic compound, its temperature resistance range is pretty wide (-45 to +400). And unlike most naturally based greases, there's no separation of the components. It doesn't deteriorate and become "old" and stiff.

Plastilube gun grease
80% residual mineral oil
15% bentonite clay
3% molybdenum disulphide

If you have ever had an old WW2 rifle, you may have noticed the little plastic grease "pots" that were stored in the buttstock. The brown grease in there was plastilube. Designed to be extremely heat resistant and water proof - obviously you don't want your gun jamming during combat! Bentonite is a clay they used in the construction of the original Twin Towers to seal the trenches and prevent water seepage in from the Hudson river while they poured the concrete foundation. It's available as a superfine powder from the health food store. And being a mineral makes it about the highest temperature resistance rating you can get. BMW uses something similar in their brake grease.

CRC boat wheel bearing grease
86% paraffinic and other oils
12% aluminum and other soap
2% titanium dioxide and other

I used to use another grease, but it is no longer made. This current one listed is probably as close as I can get.
The waxy oil helps to repel water and hold contaminants without a drop in the greases lubricity. The TiO2 is a dry component/stabilizer.

[bonneyman]

Some more info on Marvel Mystery Oil.

There's seems to be ALOT of debate on this product, with fanatical adherents and caustic deniers. But in the mayhem of discussions people pulled out charts, chemical listings, and other tid-bits that I grabbed and will post here.



I copied this entry from a discussion over at Toyota Nation forum. https://www.toyotanation.com/forum/156-avalon-3rd-generation-2005-2012/1515138-marvel-mystery-oil.html

70% Light Aromatic Oil (Pale Oil)
- It is a Naphthenic Oil, so while it oxidizes faster than a Paraffinic oil, it does clean and dissolve sludge and carbon well and cleans up after itself from any oxidation. serves as base oil as well. [Naphthenic oils have more solvency and are more polar (they are attracted to metal more), but oxidize faster.

29% Mineral Spirits
- Cleans Varnish very well. General cleaner. Also acts as an antioxidant.

38 parts per million (ppm) Boron
- AW/EP agent, friction reducer, antioxidant

900 ppm Phosporous
- AW/EP agent

1/2% 1, 2 ortho-Dichlorobenzene
- EP agent as it interacts with Iron to form an Iron chloride barrier under any ZDDP or other AW additives. Also very good cleaner/solvent, and friction reducer

1/4% 1, 4 para-Dichlorobenzene
- EP agent as it interacts with Iron to form an Iron chloride barrier under any ZDDP or other AW additives. Also very good cleaner/solvent, and friction reducer

Oil of wintergreen - for the scent
- Not just for the cent, is also a cleaner. may aid lubricity.

Red Dye - for the color
- well this one just colors the stuff



This story was copied from the Jalopy Journal forum. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/marvel-mystery-oil-uses.31302/

Here just may be how this stuff was invented.

Story about Marvel Mystery Oil: During the summer of 2000 we were cruising through the Central Adirondacks of New York State in our mostly original '23 Touring. We stopped for gas at a local station, and a gentleman who appeared to be about 80 yrs old, in coveralls, came out to the pumps. I noticed he had a thick New York City accent. He admired the T, and we talked about old Fords for a few minutes. I finished gassing up, and topped off the tank with a 4 oz. baby-jar full of MMO. He said, "Why do you use that stuff?" I replied, I'd been using it(I'm 53 yrs old) for over 30 yrs in all my flathead V-8s, Model As and Ts, good upper cyl lube, etc, etc. He said, "I'll tell you a story: During the Depression, when I was in high school, I worked as a mechanic in a sewing shop in the Garment District in NYC. Those old sewing machines had visible oilers on top, and when it got hot the oil would stink, and the ladies who ran the machines would complain. The owner, whose name was Marvel, (pronounced Mar-VELL) told me to go down a few doors to the candy factory-I think it was a 'LifeSaver' type candy- and get a couple of gallons of Oil of Wintergreen and some food coloring. We mixed it with the 10 wt. sewing machine oil to make it less offensive to the ladies. It became popular with the other shops, and Marvel made more money with that oil, than with the sewing. Whenever anyone asked what was in the oil, Marvel said, 'Don't ask... It's a MYSTERY!' and that's how the name came about!"



The wikipedia entry on MMO has a reference to an aircraft accident that was attributed to the owners use on MMO in his engine, which the engine manufacturer claimed was not authorized. A chemical analysis of the MMO had lard as an ingredient of 1%. 

I know lard oil is a very slippery and surprisingly stable oil, but this is one of the few times I've heard it being in MMO.

[bonneyman]

The use of paraffinic oils in penetrants and break-frees might have something to do with the old mechanics trick of using a candle to free frozen bolt studs. You heat the area and the stud with a propane torch, and when it's hot touch a wax (paraffin) candle to it. The heat will melt the wax and "draw" it into the threads, loosening the bolt. Might be akin to how a candle flame melts and draw the liquid wax up the wick by capillary action to be burned?

And highly refined kerosene seems to be an ingredient in many oil additives and cleaners. (I've got several "recipes" out of old formula books that utilize kerosene in their penetrating oil home brews). Kerosene is cheap and readily available, dissolves engine sludge, isn't as flammable as gasoline, fairly safe and non-toxic (compared to many solvents) and actually has some lubricating qualities to it. Plus it doesn't hurt engines in small quantities. 

[jeffmoss26]

Some of the stuff I use daily in the locksmith biz:

Houdini - awesome for flushing out gunk and lubricating old locks when rekeying them.
https://www.superslickstuff.com/lubricant/Houdini-Lock-Lube.html

Tri Flow - smells like bananas, we use this in brand new cylinders when keying them for the first time. Seems to stick better than anything else.

Brake cleaner - for drying out the above mentioned lubricants when making a key by hand (need to be able to see marks on the key)
Canned air - for cleaning key machines

[fatfillup]

^^^^^^^^Cool, thanks for the info.  Always like to learn what other trades use.

[bonneyman]

I use RemOil gun lube for alot of fine mechanisms. But the aerosol can I have is getting low, and I haven't been able to find any more. the current products marked anything close to rem oil aren't the same.

[stokester]

Some of the stuff I use daily in the locksmith biz:

Houdini - awesome for flushing out gunk and lubricating old locks when rekeying them.
https://www.superslickstuff.com/lubricant/Houdini-Lock-Lube.html

I've never heard of this stuff.  I was always told to use powdered graphite to lube lock cylinders.

Great info from all.  It is always valuable to learn from those in the business what works the best.

[J.A.F.E.]

...  I was always told to use powdered graphite to lube lock cylinders.

NO!!! That stuff will only clog things up and is abrasive causing wear. It's literally like lubing things with pencil shavings (without the wood part). Of course there is a carrier and it's ground up finer but same basic stuff.

I don't use anything in a lock except WD40 and that's just to clean it out not as a lube. Brass on brass is self lubricating and doesn't really need anything else and I won't buy or use a lock that's not all brass. The locks on my house (Schlage) are 35 years old and still work as new and never had anything but an occasional cleaning.

Car locks are a little different because they are for the most part cheap crap made from pot metal with (usually) brass wafers. But again just blowing them out with mineral spirits or WD is all they really need.

[stokester]

...  I was always told to use powdered graphite to lube lock cylinders.

NO!!! That stuff will only clog things up and is abrasive causing wear. It's literally like lubing things with pencil shavings (without the wood part). Of course there is a carrier and it's ground up finer but same basic stuff.

I don't use anything in a lock except WD40 and that's just to clean it out not as a lube. Brass on brass is self lubricating and doesn't really need anything else and I won't buy or use a lock that's not all brass. The locks on my house (Schlage) are 35 years old and still work as new and never had anything but an occasional cleaning.

Car locks are a little different because they are for the most part cheap crap made from pot metal with (usually) brass wafers. But again just blowing them out with mineral spirits or WD is all they really need.

Well that tube of graphite (sold as a lock lube) is going in the trash!

Agree 100% on the Schlage locks.  One of the first things I did when buying my house was to replace the KwickSet locks with Schlage and that was 20 years ago.

[bonneyman]

Awww man, I just recently got a plastic squeeze bottle of the graphite powder! Now I've got to chuck it? 

[jeffmoss26]

Graphite is OK - if you never spray anything else in there. The first thing people do with a sticky lock these days is spray it with WD40. That lock is usually full of graphite from years past. Instant sludge. It creates a huge mess. Some of the lock manufacturers still recommend graphite but we do not use it or sell it.