<VV> WD-40 again - long - no Corvair

grant young gyoungwolf at earthlink.net
Sat Oct 14 17:32:47 EDT 2006


At the risk of starting a dreaded thread, I thought some of you might be
interested some techy WD-40 stuff from a chemist friend who played with it.
Here are some snippets of a much longer note on it:

"Twenty or thirty years ago, when I was still working as a bench chemist in
the R&D department, we noted that the laboratory assistants were spraying
their arthritic hands with WD-40 and supposedly getting some relief. At the
time I had access to all sorts of  neat analytical equipment -- the nuclear
magnetic resonance NMR spectrometer being the most useful to organic
chemists, as it could easily detect the presence of hydrogen atoms in all
sorts of organic compounds. Wondering if the lab assistants were doing
anything with the WD-40 that might harm them, I analyzed a sample by NMR--
WD-40 was a mixture of saturated hydrocarbons -- and contained no other
functional groups.  Nothing. Nil. Period. (Same type molecules as found in
gasoline, lighter fluid, kerosene) I was surprised, to say the least. How
did the darn stuff work so good as a rust preventative? My friends here in
BR who go duck hunting down in the salt marshes of southern Louisiana swear
by WD-40 not only as a lubricant, but especially as a rust preventative for
their shotguns. - Within the past few years, one of the fellows who knows a
fair about about how lubricants and rust preventatives work gave me the
following insight. It appears that WD-40 is mostly a fairly volatile
hydrocarbon (lubricant) into which they have dissolved a small amount of
paraffin wax (rust preventative)! When the solvent evaporates, an invisible
thin film of paraffin wax remains behind as coating, which effectively
seals the surface of the metal and protects it from moisture, and most
importantly of all, from the corrosive salts in the marsh water.
That's my WD-40 story --  A high molecular-weight wax (big inert molecules)
are dissolved in a volatile hydrocarbon solvent. But what did that have to
do with the lab assistants spraying their hands with WD-40 and thinking
that they got some sort of relief  for their arthritic hands? Beats me.
Don't have a clue. Real or imaginary? Your call..
     Safety item:  Keep in mind that the WD-40 can is basically a
hydrocarbon under pressure and can be very dangerous (and flammable) around
flames and sparks -- especially, if the can is ruptured.   Around car
battery terminal connections, where if can create a short circuit, a spark,
and rupture the can -- it's very bad news when that happens." 

Grant Young
Wolf Enterprises





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