SILICONE and guns

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On the 1911 forum a guy posted that (basically) guns and silicone lubes don't mix at all. He did not state why.

I see no reason why a thin film dry silicone lube would be a bad thing for many fine/small gun parts. I've been using a spray silicone lube for firing pin mechanisms for 1 1/2 years now. Works great to flush them out and leave a fine film lube.

Thoughts?
 
I think silicon will do a good job keeping oxygen off the metal preventing corrosion , like the silicon socks. I don't think it has the viscosity to protect the high load areas like the slides,guide rod, sear etc. I prefer oil in those areas.
 
I agree with you, Pablo. Nothing wrong with a little silicone. I put a film of it on my guns that I don't plan on taking out for awhile. It's good long term storage stuff, IMO.


Edit: I'm talking about pure silicone here, not something silicone-based.
 
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Probably the sane guy who said not to spat teflon in a gun for the same reason
Personal lube and guns , wow I am speechless
 
Yeah I have used it on my long guns when I went field hunting in misty days for rust prevention. But outside that I dont think its too great of a lube for guns.
 
Originally Posted By: Robenstein
Yeah I have used it on my long guns when I went field hunting in misty days for rust prevention. But outside that I dont think its too great of a lube for guns.


Why not?

So far we have:

1) Not good for HD metal to metal (think slides) - agree and would not use silicone for such.
2) Tough to refinish - agree to a point. But if you are refinishing it's not like it's impossible to clean silicone residues off. Just know what you are doing. Do a normal super clean, repeat, then clean with clean pure toluene.
 
Originally Posted By: spasm3
Originally Posted By: Loobed




I wonder if silicone personal lubrication grease can be used on guns. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_lubricant


Why, Why would this even come to mind?


It was a legitimate question. The thread was about SILICONE lube on guns. I did a search on the net for Silicone lube, and that popped up. Silicone grease/lube is expensive and hard to find at stores, but personal lube is readily available. I was wondering if silicone personal lube had the same characteristics as silicone grease/lube. It might be a cheaper alternative. Nothing perverted was meant by that question.


P.S. Silicone grease is also used in spark plug boots to prevent them from sticking and to prevent moisture from entering and corroding the connection. I wonder if personal lube is cheaper than dielectric grease?

OK, I did a search on Amazon, and dielectric grease is cheaper. I guess pharmaceutical grease is more expensive then industrial grease.
 
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I am not going to google that.

I actually did a search (ixquick) for "silicone lube," and almost everything at the top of the list was personal lubrication. I didn't know what that meant until I clicked on the wikipedia site. now I know.
 
Originally Posted By: Loobed


I am not going to google that.

I actually did a search (ixquick) for "silicone lube," and almost everything at the top of the list was personal lubrication. I didn't know what that meant until I clicked on the wikipedia site. now I know.


Yeah, Astroglide will not work for your guns. LOL
 
I would ask the question: What is the advantage of silicone to an oil based product? I can't think of any. The silicone probably isn't formulated for guns or mechanical use (no AW or EP). It probably does have some inhibitor in it, but so will any gun oil.

I used to use the silicone gun cloths but no longer do. I just use the same oil I use for the rest of the gun.

I just really don't see any need for it on a gun.
 
Originally Posted By: Tempest
I would ask the question: What is the advantage of silicone to an oil based product? I can't think of any. The silicone probably isn't formulated for guns or mechanical use (no AW or EP).


Actually for small moving parts, light high grade silicone oil is much less prone to becoming sticky or being overly viscous, plus it is essentially inert to polymers. Big advantages in my book. Again, silicone is NOT for EP applications, but on a micro level does provide some lubricity and hence is AW.
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo

Actually for small moving parts, light high grade silicone oil is much less prone to becoming sticky or being overly viscous, plus it is essentially inert to polymers. Big advantages in my book. Again, silicone is NOT for EP applications, but on a micro level does provide some lubricity and hence is AW.


In reality, it probably won't matter, but I don't see any industrial lubricants being formulated with silicone, including motor oils which would really benefit from its high stability. Based on this alone, I disqualify silicone for any kind of metal on metal. It just doesn't keep its viscosity under load, and most likely contains no AW additives.

PAO and most other non-ester syn oils will not affect plastic, but most quality polymer guns won't notice either way. I've sprayed down a Glock with chlorine based brake cleaner and it didn't notice.

I believe that a gun oil should have good solubility so as to act as a cleaner while the gun is being fired. Silicone has zero solubility.

If it's working for you Pablo keep it up, but I just don't see any advantage to it.
 
Originally Posted By: Tempest

In reality, it probably won't matter, but I don't see any industrial lubricants being formulated with silicone, including motor oils which would really benefit from its high stability. Based on this alone, I disqualify silicone for any kind of metal on metal. It just doesn't keep its viscosity under load, and most likely contains no AW additives.

PAO and most other non-ester syn oils will not affect plastic, but most quality polymer guns won't notice either way. I've sprayed down a Glock with chlorine based brake cleaner and it didn't notice.



Silicone grease is used in machinery, especially high temperature machinery, in contact with food.
 
A lot of what you say is true, but silicone is used as an industrial lubricant:

http://www.dowcorning.com/content/discover/discoverchem/si-lubricants.aspx

http://www.mclube.com/products/91

Zero solubility? You might even be surprised how well a good silicone spray cleans out a firing pin mechanism in a semi-auto slide. When I take my slides apart, they are always spotless inside, no evidence of wear or any gooey organic lube build-up. It cleans and leaves a nearly invisible lube film, so each time it cleans easily. Can't hardly say that for most organic lubes, typically a separate cleaner is necessary. Brake fluid in my guns? Heck no!!!

Bottom line, it does work great in many firearm applications. I've "discovered" something that really works for me.
 
I think another benefit of silicone grease is that it isn't effected by the steam present in food manufacturing.

I may have to try silicone grease on one of my guns.
 
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Originally Posted By: Loobed

I think another benefit of silicone grease is that it isn't effected by the steam present in food manufacturing.

I may have to try silicone grease on one of my guns.



I am NOT talking about silicone grease. Never tried it on guns. Only thin film silicone spray lube. I hate even to call it oil, it's so light.
 
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