[Jim Watson]

I am going to try it, a friend saved me a couple of ounces the last time he changed his motor oil. From what I have read, you would be well lubricated but you might want a dedicated corrosion inhibitor to protect the finish. I have used a variety of lubes and don't find a gun a real demanding application... if kept clean and lubed.

 

[sawyer]

I have used it a little, its very slick stuff. there are pages of threads dedicated to the subject, some of them are pretty heated!

 

[srf]

I started using full synthetic (Mobil 1, Quaker State, whatever...) recently and really like it. It seems to last longer than FP-10 (which I like). I've spoken to Benny Hill who builds a lot of IPSC pistols (read: high volume shooters) and he swears by Mobil 1. I hope it works out: a 4 oz. bottle of FP-10 cost $3-$4, a quart of full synthetic $5-$6.

 

[dubb-1]

There have been several threads on this issue in the past. Perhaps a search will yield the information you desire.

Be well!

 

[Peter M. Eick]

Definitely do a search! Lots of threads out there beating this topic up pretty good.

As an oil worker, I use Mobil 1 even though it is a competitor product. I talked to our company lubrication engineers once and they basically said it will work fine, more then adequate, but it may not have the corrosion resistance you might like. I use Mobil 1 15w50 (a bit thick, but ok for summers in Houston) and Corrosion X on the guns.

The nice thing about Mobil 1 is that it goes a long way. A quart can last a long time. I have even soaked guns in it (after stripping off the wood) to lube them well. Just remember the drip dry cycle!

Good stuff, but since ExxonMobil does not advocate this use of the oil, and it does not cost 90$ a quart, some do not believe that it could possible be as good as any of the wonder oils out there. I always wonder what "pixie dust" these companies are putting in the synthetic oil to make it worth so much money?

 

[jockeys]

yup

I personally use a different brand (castrol syntech) but if it's good enough to keep the engine of your car, revving at thousands of cycles a minute, from destroying yourself, it probably won't hurt your gun.

I think the most important thing is keeping it clean and lubed with SOMETHING on a regular basis, motor oil just happens to be cheap and in ready supply. I've tried a lot of the fancier "gun oils" and just really haven't been impressed.

 

[RickB]

I have used Break-free CLP and LP, Tetra, Wilson Ultimalube, Gun Butter, and probably a few others, and I can't honestly say any one of them works better than the others. In a pinch, I've seen people use auto transmission fluid, and even engine oil right off the dipstick. I'm sure 3-in1 oil would do OK, and remember, the lube specified originally for the Luger was vaseline.

 

[WhiteCoyote]

Has anyone tried Amsoil? It's a pure synthetic oil.

 

[WalterGC]

I've used 15w50 Mobil 1, exclusively, for lubing my firearms for seveal years now. Never had any rusting, and I live in a high-humidity area, down heah on Tobaccy Road. I use Brownell's needle-nose bottles for dispensing small drops.

I don't believe you'll find any lubricity requirements of any firearm that'll exceed the lubricity capacity of Mobil 1. When folks start talking about how Mobil 1 won't perform unless it's "under pressure created by the rotating of the crankshaft," just click the "rolleyes" smiley and move on!

 

[gigi*riva]

When folks start talking about how Mobil 1 won't perform unless it's "under pressure created by the rotating of the crankshaft," just click the "rolleyes" smiley and move on!

The engineers at Mobil don't roll their eyes. If Mobil 1 is superior to any lubricating oil out there, regardless of regime, why do the same engineers formulate hundreds of different oils for different applications and conditions? You may not buy into the snake oil talk (I agree with you there for the most part) but facts are facts. Mobil 1 is in fact engineered for active, hydrodynamic regimes. It isn't designed for anything else...

 

[WalterGC]

Gigi: Works for me. As has been previously stated, there are numerous threads on this and other forums on the subject. I bet that there aren't too many Mobil engineers who'd tell you that Mobil 1 is unsatisfactory for lubing a 1911 or any other firearm, but then, what's the chance that a Mobil 1 engineer knows as much about firerams as some of us on the gun boards?

I consider my being able to intelligently adapt a product that might have been designed for one purpose for my use in another purpose simply to be indicative of my years of experience and superior intellect. I also don't feel compelled or motivated to debate this subject. I use and like synthetic motor oils on my firerarms, bicycle chains, electric motor bearings, etc., etc., etc. My motor oil will still be there doing its job when your RemOil, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah, has cooked off and isn't protecting anything.

Oh, just for argument's sake, oil is only under pressure in an engine tangential to the engine's delivery mechanism for getting the oil to particular parts. Oil, at the time of protection, isn't under nor does it need to be under, pressure of any kind. Spraying oil on a rotating mechanism under pressure does absolutely nothing to enhance or detract from that oil's ability to lubricate that mechanism.

 

[gigi*riva]

I personally have no reason to question wheteher the state of full fluid film lubrication is real or not, induced by the rotation of the crankshaft, with the consequent hydrodynamic wedge that actively separates metal parts.

Beyond that, I too look to Mobil. Their Velocite' No. 10 spindle oil works for me, and at ten bucks a gallon is half the price of Mobil 1. And it's engineered for regimes where the state of lubrication approaches boundary, when it isn't full boundary, as it would in your gun. Those Mobil engineers know what their doing, I'm pretty sure of that.

Cheers.

 

[stillwater]

The engineers at Mobil don't roll their eyes.

Nope. They don't. There was an attempt at entirely synthetic engine oil for racing some time ago...it was relatively successful as a lubricant but it was not terribly popular as a product due to it's relatively high price (1970's). Mobil1 and Castrol Syntec et al is not entirely synthetic, actually. There have been numerous attempts at synthesizing lubricants completely devoid of common existing lubricants. Most have failed. The ones that have not failed were fabulously expensive to produce. Mobil sponsors some race teams....but high temperatures in some forms of racing preclude the use of off the shelf synthetics such as Mobil1. At a certain temperature, the molecular structure of the oil itself changes to the point where it ceases to lubricate. More than one Indianapolis team has discovered this phenomenon. (Indy car engines make wonderful grenades). Likelyhood of duplicating these temperatures on your 1911 globally are slim. Local heating is possible though. So, you can use lotsa stuff on your 1911 as a lube (especially if it is fit to military tolerances). I know a guy who uses wheel bearing grease (the old yellow stuff), one guy even uses tallow (the same stuff he uses on his black powder gun patches). You could probably use spit if you used it often enough...what the heck. So I sure don't see why someone couldn't use Mobil1, Pennzoil 10W-30 or even Rotella T. To each his own, right?

 

[WaveGuy]

Performance of Mobil-1

Hi,

This is not really gun related, but for what its worth here's a data point re the performance of Mobil-1: I own a 1992 Toyota Camry with the 4 cyl engine. It is currently just shy of 262,000 miles. I changed the factory oil at 500 miles and have used Mobil-1 ever since. When the car was about a year old I checked the gas mileage on a long highway trip in the summer with the A/C on. I remember it as about 33.5 mpg. I repeated the trip this past summer and got 32.8 mpg. I've only checked the oil consumption once, at around 220,000 when I found it to be 1/4 qt in 3000 miles. This is within factory spec for a new car.

 

[Nick A]

Don't forget flash point

We're thinking of heat in a gun due solely to friction and hot barrels. But hot gases escape the breeches of all guns. Gun lubricant is formulated with a very high flash point so it won't be ignited by hot gases. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but oil will be subjected to much higher ignition temperatures in a gun than in the crankcase of an engine. Perhaps someone can research the flash points of gun oil and synthetic engine oil for careful comparison. (I learned about the flash point of gun lubricants from a police sargeant teaching a gun safety course. He once experienced a flaming gun two weeks after using WD-40 as a lubricant when the residual lubricant caught fire.)

 

[stainless45]

Slick 50?

I've used Slick 50's aresol spray lube (not the quart size used to mix into motor oil during the oil change) for a couple of years on ALL my handguns. I'm not even sure it's still around? Very slippery stuff - just a little goes a long way.

 

[jockeys]

not a good idea

He once experienced a flaming gun two weeks after using WD-40 as a lubricant when the residual lubricant caught fire.)

uh, first off, WaterDisplacer-40 is NOT a lubricant... not something i would put on my gun unless is was soaking wet and i wanted it dry.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

Gigi,

Working for an oil company, there are 2 reasons we do things (and our shareholders love us for it).

Reason 1) the government says we have to. For example, all of the boutique gas blends we have to make for all of the different markets. What a royal pain, but like the mother's say on gun control, "it for the environment" so we do it (also the though of stiff fines might have something else to do with it.

Reason 2) we make money at it. I don't know about your company, but I am sorry, my company is about making a profit for the shareholders. We don't drill wells, shoot seismic, buy leases or refine oil for the fun of it. We do it because we make money at it. Making a profit is critical otherwise the share price drops, roai drops, bonuses drop etc.

What does this have to do with oil (lubes that is)? If I can take the same product or nearly the same product and tell you the consumer that bottle "A" works best in cars that have over 100,000 miles, and bottle "B" works best in sport utility vehicles (even if it is nearly the same stuff in a different bottle) and you believe it and buy it, then I can probably sell both of them at a strong profit much more so then if I just sold you "oil that works in a vehicle".

Why do I wonder about the wonder lubes that are Thousands of dollars per gallon for guns (try scaling up that 4 onz tube of oil to a gallon some day)? I think to myself and say, what the heck can they be putting into decent feedstock oils to make it so bloody expensive? Even Mobil 1 (made by a competitor) does not cost that much.

So what is it? What is so special that it costs so darn much?

Last thought, and then I will get off the oil issue. Stupidly simple question. Have you ever worn a gun part out or seen a gun part that was worn out that you could say unequivocally caused by failure of lubrication? No, I don't mean some person used the tool dry or put sand in it, I mean they used a product as a lubrication and it did not work correctly?

I don't know about you, but I have not seen one ever. (stainless galling does not count because that is a failure of materials with reasonable lubes)

Sort of like cars, how often do you see head type lubrication failures anymore? Not often. I remember as a kid rebuilding heads on our cars replacing worn out parts. Now, the oils are just better and do a better job of lubrication than 30 years ago.

Ok, off the soap box, and WTI is now at $63 a barrel so it was a good day for the industry!

 

[gigi*riva]

Reason 2) we make money at it. I don't know about your company, but I am sorry, my company is about making a profit for the shareholders.

Not sure about your point...that there's no profit forthcoming from all that research? R&D budgets are huge not for love of man but because the derived product lines, and their useful application, will more than offset the expense of R&D. What are we talking here?

I'm convinced, I'll use Wesson oil from now on for my millwork...I'll throw out the Chevron Bright-Cut (now there's a gun oil, BTW)