Why people like WD-40 on camera so much?

BMbikerider said:

I think I trusted the guidance given by a time served expert who has been in business for over 1/4 century rather than a person who has suggested that cleaning would have been better by using highly inflammable lighter fluid than a cleaner which is not inflammable to the same extent with known cleaning properties. It is not a watch I cleaned, but a sprung wound clock with full size brass gears.

The use of lighter fluid to clean the mechanism is on the same level as using WD40 to lubricate the bearings!

Judging from the smell of the cleaner he was using in his workshop it is probably a similar cleaning agent. I also used appropriate watch makers oil which does not suffer from 'creep'. It has worked and no residual smell such as you would get from lighter fuel

Click to expand...

BMbikerider said:

It has worked and no residual smell such as you would get from lighter fuel

Click to expand...

grain elevator said:

Maybe these products are formulated differently in different places. Here, I'd get residual smell from WD-40 and none whatsoever from lighter fluid.

Click to expand...

kl122002 said:

Perhaps these days have much better cleaning fluid then I learnt in the past? I am not sure I just know using naphtha is the best and has been used for years until I can't get it , so I must switch to lighter fluid from Zippo.

Click to expand...

eli griggs said:

Just buy regular Naphtha from Home Depot or Walmart.

The new lighter fluids use other chemicals instead of Naphtha and, IMO, that needs more time to establish its reliability over longer periods for len and camera cleaning.

I have had no issues with Naphtha, Hydrogen Peroxide (H²0²), Isopropyl or Ethanol Alcohols, Eclipse Lens Cleaner or tiny, steel needles, with acetone, in miniscule amounts, only on metal on metal things like loctite type glue, on little screws and filter rings no metal lens l threads, NEVER EVER ON OPTICS!

Get some Swiss watchmakers 'cat whiskers' oil delivery probes, with their special tips
)

in all four sizes and start with the smallest, if you cannot buy the full set at once, a tool which might need repeated 'dippings' in a drop of watch or very light camera oil, but will prevent you from drowning a screw head, filter thread, or mechanism in excess oil.

Cheers

Click to expand...