Okay, so what with the shoulder thing I’ve been letting the chores that could slide, slide. Now I’m up to my ass in alligators, and had a beautiful day to try and catch up.
Laundry! Been a week since I washed laundry, and I’m getting low on stump socks. I’m still not to a place where I really want to use my manual agitator, but Neighbor L has repeatedly invited me to drop laundry at her place and after all it was her truck tire that set the healing back a week. So okay; text her and ask if it’s okay if I bring a hamper of clothes over. I’m a week late on Battery Day, and people are leaving me discreet texts asking if I died. Perfect day to catch up on topping off batteries. So I do the new neighbors, (need to buy more distilled water), Landlady’s (send her a text with the good news that her system is now hitting float mid-day), TC’s (come back and hit the powershed’s padlock with WD-40).
While I’m at Landlady’s, check out an outstanding question:
I had totally forgotten, since it’s been in the attic of her barn for eight years, that I actually do already own an inflatable mattress. I can imagine the condition it’s in after all this time, but who know? We don’t usually get rat nests in the barn attic. So I climbed the ladder and poked around. Found the old duffel bag where I left the mattress and its inflator. Guess what’s surrounded by pack rat nesting material and digestive byproducts? On the assumption that there was an entire family of rats in the bag, I just pulled it to the edge and let it drop. Whatever shape the mattress is in, the bag is certainly ruined.
It hit the ground in a great splash of pack rat nest, but no rats went running. Hauled out the mattress and inflated it, just to see if it’ll still hold air.
Though the inflator has seen better days, the mattress at least took air. We’ll see tomorrow if it held it. If so, it still needs a good cleaning. And…then another cleaning. With, like, a very strong disinfectant.
Also while at Landlady’s, feed the pullets. This entailed upending the pellet barrel over the feeder, and with that she is officially, totally out of chicken pellets. Good thing I’m going to town today.
Stopped off at L’s to drop off my laundry hamper. Went home, dropped off LB, picked up my empty water bottles and some WD-40. Drove back to the road, stopped at TC’s on the way to D&L’s to lube his padlock. Put the key back where it belongs.
Meet D&L, load water bottles into their truck. I only need water, 200 pounds of chicken feed, and a few groceries. Quick trip. right?
Yeah. Three hours later I loaded my stuff in the Jeep and dragged my sorry ass home. I love her to pieces, don’t get me wrong, but L is a talker. Today was a perfect storm of chance meetings and long animated conversations. D just rolled his eyes at me and sat back, there’s nothing to do but wait it out and anyway she doesn’t get to see people all that often, right? So yeah: Three hours.
Or – if you don’t happen to be a chatty person – a subjective lifetime.
Finally home, I backed the Jeep up to the Lair to unload my groceries and one of the chicken feed sacks. On my heavily laden way to the Fortress of Attitude, I found one of the hens waiting for me. This was new. The chickens are perfectly capable of flying out over the fence, the camo net that roofs the fortress is more to keep sun and raptors out than chickens in. But they almost never do it. Whatever reason this one had had for leaving the chicken yard, she clearly felt great impatience to get back in. “It’s about time you got here, human. Do you know how long I’ve been stuck out here? I’m hungry and frightened! Do your job!” I opened the gate, and she trotted right in and straight to the feeder.
Now it was after 3:30. I was frazzled, tired, and hadn’t had lunch. No sooner sat down to write this than I got a text from L (the first L) telling me my laundry was ready. I said I’d come by tomorrow; still need to deliver three sacks of feed to Landlady’s pullets, and that ain’t happening today. May as well stack those chores tomorrow. Also hoped to finish with battery day, but that will also wait till tomorrow. I’m gonna eat, feed LB, join him for one last walkie, then head for the sittin’ and readin’ chair.
Um, er, you DO know that WD40 is NOT a lubricant, right?
Since when is WD40 not a lubricant?
Since it was first developed during the space race. Its full name is Water Dispersant – Formula #40.
It was never intended as a lubricant. Sure it has some (short term) lubricating properties, but it was formulated, and is best used, as its name suggests – as a Water Dispersant.
As a lubricant it has almost zero film shear strength, and it evaporates quite quickly. The carrier solvents also tend to flush real lubricants away, kind of like a de-greaser.
Seems to work pretty well for unsticking metal parts, such as bench vices and padlocks. I don’t use it on guns.
Yes, it does help with those jobs, probably because of the hydrocarbon solvents, but if you don’t want to have to do it again soon, use a real lubricant afterwards.
On guns it is a complete disaster – no film strength, no shear strength, and the heat makes it evaporate faster.
As far as I know, everything that you say about WE-40 is basically correct, but I believe that locks are a special case. Especially in Joel’s sandy and sometimes freezing environment, a sticky oil is the last thing you want in a lock. I was taught as a child to use graphite in locks, but powdered graphite can be useless on a lock that is already stuck, because it has no way to penetrate into the tiny places where it is needed.
A spray of WD-40 can flush the crap out of a lock, penetrate, and get things moving without leaving behind a coating that will attract even more crap. If I have a sticky lock, a quick squirt and a few moments of working the mechanism usually sets things right. For the last 50 years or so, it has worked for me.
And so I use WD 40 to flush dirty lubricants out of locks, hinges, bicycle chains (if I haven’t got chain cleaner), wipe off the excess to remove as much dirt as possible, then lubricate with TriFlow or silicone lubricant. My go-to general purpose spray lubricant is one of the products sold for garage door moving parts, which are subject to rather extreme conditions. No problems so far.
Ben:
Agree entirely, but what you are doing is using the WD-40 solvent properties to penetrate and flush the crud.
Your second para says it all – “…without leaving behind a coating…”.
That’s what makes it NOT a lubricant.
As to graphite, it is great stuff for locks, if only it didn’t make everything it touches so DIRTY. 🙁
My mother used to say “There are two kinds of dirt – dark dirt attracted to light clothes, and light dirt attracted to dark clothes”. After using graphite in a lock, I disagree. You have to add a third kind of dirt – existential dirt, attracted to and soils EVERYTHING.
Zelda:
That’s the way I use it. WD-40 rocks as a cleaner, Water Dispersant (see what I did there), and crud flusher. Then I apply the good stuff – Finish Line on the bicycles, Birchwood Casey on the guns, and Dry Silicone Garage Door Lube on most other things..
If it moves, but shouldn’t . . . duct tape.
If it doesn’t move, but should . . . WD-40.
And WD-40 does leave behind a film that protects against rust to a certain degree. It also will gum up fine mechanisms, but outdoor locks, latches, and hinges seem to like it overall.
After cleaning, I hose down my shovels, rakes, etc, as well as the underside of my mower deck.
😉
WD-40 does contain a lubricant, just not a very good one. It has beeswax in it, dissolved in the solvent. That is what provides it’s minimal rust protection of clean metal surfaces, and lubrication of same. And why when you spray something with WD-40, it immediately attracts every bit of dust and dirt in the vicinity and holds on to it like the dirt was glued on.