Re: HP-97 Printer Replacement Gear Message #6 Posted by Tony Duell (UK) on 19 Feb 2002, 2:00 p.m., in response to message #5 by Ren
Yes, WD40 is Water dispersant/displacement (I've seen both). I believe the '40' means it was the 40th formula tried :-)
It's great for keeping the rain out of your car ignition system, or preventig garden tools (or the steel bars you keep in stock for mechanical projects) from rusting. I use it all the time for things like that.
But what it is not is a lubricant, and certainly not a lubricant for precision machinery. It is advertised as that (at least in the UK), but it does a lot more harm than good.
An example. I have a reasonable 35mm SLR camera here (old, mechanical thing) that I bought non-working, second hand. The original fault was a sprint had come unhooked in the slow speed mechanism. Time to repair, about 5 minutes (remove tripod mount (3 screws), remove baseplate (4 screws), hook the spring hack). Unfortunately, the previous owner sprayed it at random with WD40. I am going to have to totally
dismantle it (even things like the exposure meter movent are gummed up!), clean all the parts, put it together and do all the adjustments. A lot of work.
No, round here, 'WD40' stands for 'Wanton Destruction' :-)
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