Who Invented WD-40?

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[lvbfan]

The amazing thing about WD-40 is that I'm 50 years-old and have never thrown away a can of WD-40, but I keep on buying them. I've bought maybe 20 cans in my adult life, but don't know where they are. WD-40 disappears like socks in the dryer or Tupperware lids!

[NextEevolution]

If copyright wasn't so risky, this would have been a golden opportunity to use the clip of Hank Hill spraying a can of WD40 with a stuck cap with an even smaller can of WD40.

[tinplatedave]

WD-40 is one of the best products on earth, I use it nearly everyday for a multitude of tasks for my work. However it's toxicity is definitely underrated. Last year I was using it much more than usual and it was during winter so the ventilation was not adequate. After breathing in WD-40 fumes daily for nearly a year my kidney's went into acute failure and I was hospitalized for a week being pumped full of Sodium Bicarbonate through an IV. The doctors couldn't understand why my Creatinine was at 11 and I they thought I was a street drug junkie. I told them that I use vast amounts of WD-40 everyday and they were flabbergasted by my answer. Just a warning to people to always use this substance in a well ventilated area. Otherwise it's a miracle substance.

[steveamsp]

A different version is: One only needs two tools in life. WD-40 to make things go, and Duct Tape to make them stop.

[michaelevans]

My favorite WD-40 story goes back to college. My apartment mate and my bedrooms shared a wall. After his girlfriend spent the night for the first time that year, I took out a can of WD-40 and placed it on the counter informing him “if you like your privacy, you might want to use this on your bed springs”. He thought it was hilarious while she was a bit embarrassed. She and I got along shortly thereafter, so it was all good and I didn’t hear his bed any more.

[gregchambers]

I loved that in Gran Torino when the Lao kid (Hmong) was starting a tool kit and Clint gave him a
roll of duct tape, WD40 and vise grips.

[AtlasJotun]

12:26 Definitely not using enough, there's a spot on the floor over there that isn't wet yet.
For the love of Pete PLEASE don't use WD-40 on bike chains, fishing reels, bearings, skateboard trucks or any part of a piece of equipment (including automobiles) that contains a rubber bushing. Insufficient lubrication leads to galling and/or seizing in high-load metal-to-metal contact scenarios, while the petroleum base of old DubyaDee will react with the petroleum content of various rubber compounds, softening and degrading them. This means using it as a cheap tire-shine is also ill-advised as car tires contain carbon black, a byproduct of burning certain petroleum distillates.
Fishing reels (high speed, intermittent moderate load) get low-viscosity oil, bike and motorbike chains (high speed, moderate load) get high-viscosity oil or semi-fluid grease, and roller-element bearings (high speed, high load) get grease. Rubber components either get silicone or they get replaced. I know it costs more money up front to have multiple lubricants, but you'll not only save money long-term through fewer damaged or failed parts, you'll also have a much better "toolkit". Keep the WD on hand for its original intended use (the one it's actually fairly good at), a temporary corrosion inhibiting coating.
The anecdote of the engine, dunked in seawater and subsequently firing right up, means that there was no substantial water ingress into the combustion chambers, so it would have started regardless. No amount of WD-40 can evacuate a cylinder, and an engine trying to compress water will experience rapid unscheduled disassembly. Likewise, while corrosion can absolutely happen overnight, it will be nowhere near enough to seize a marine engine. That was a good old-fashioned PR stunt.

[Demonic_Tang]

I love it when Simon is sponsored by Keeps, he always seems so thrilled about the irony

[Norbrookc]

One of my personal fond memories of using WD-40 was at the end of our field exercises in our basic NCO course. We'd been issued M-16's at the start, but not once did we use them... not even shooting blanks. So we were rather shocked when we were told to clean the rifles, and found out that the armory had issued us the rifles used for the branch officer's course. Since apparently the officers weren't required to clean their weapons (go figure), and apparently the armory people didn't want to do it, they fobbed it off on us. The most gunked up rifles you could ever hope to see, and yes, we were cursing them for it. Fortunately, I'd brought a can of WD-40 with me and several spray rinses with it managed to get it clean.

[markbanash]

I once interviewed for a research position at WD-40 in San Diego. Inside they had a wall displaying all of the other products that had gone up against WD-40 and had disappeared from the market because WD-40 outperformed them. And when I say wall I mean a wall that was 12 ft high and 8 ft wide. And there must have been at least 10 shelves filled with these former competitors products.

[davidbwa]

Another use for WD40 (now quite dated) is to prolong the life of cloth typewriter ribbons.
I used this in the navy in the mid 80s, except it was for the cloth ribbon on my dot matrix printer. The impacts happen mainly in the middle which leaves a fair bit of ink at the edges. A very light spray of WD40 and let it sit for a while cause the ink to bleed across the cloth, thus putting more ink into the impact area.
Mind you, your letters / print outs have a faint smell of WD40 so it isn't a perfect solution. At the time though I was in the middle of the Indian Ocean and wasn't even going to see land for a couple more months so it was a handy solution at the time. Later I bought new ribbons that didn't stink. LOL
Edit to say I didn't invent that. but can't remember where I got it. Read it some place and decided to try it when my ribbon died.

[scottbubb]

Oh man, I was really hoping Simon would say the Russians launched Sputnik so, in retaliation, the Americans invented WD-40 and were like, "Ha! Beat that!" 😁jk😂

[FisherBernard]

In South Africa we mostly use Q20 spray, which is basically the same as WD40. It was formulated in 1950 by South African William Robertson to displace moisture from a vehicle's distributor cap to prevent breakdowns in wet weather. Interestingly, Q20's parent company these days is CRC Industries from the USA, which according to Wikipedia was set up in 1958 as a competitor to the Chemical Rocket Company. So maybe some industrial espionage was involved...

[JimTheFly]

Back in the 80s and early 90s, I had a Commodore 64 computer and the matching dot matrix printer. Eventually the ribbon would run out of ink and the printing would fade out. I found out that if I sprayed the printer ribbon with WD-40, then rotated it some, then sprayed and rotated a few more times, then let the ribbon dry, it would refresh the ink on the ribbon. I needed to print a little to make sure things were okay, but it worked like a charm every time and saved me so much money on printer ribbons.

[kstricl]

Another use: cleaning dried ink from printing drums used in Risograph duplicators. The content list from Wired definitely explains why it works so well.

[gonefishing]

Thank you for putting the inventors name out there. Poor man and family, they would’ve been set for life. I’m an old lady who, when her hubby passed, had never even seen a bill! But! After years of watching hubby, handing him cans of WD 40 and buying said cans, I sort of know how to use it. I spray it on the door handle etc and my daughter even knew to spray WD 40 on sliding door track. Worked a treat. Great product and I’ve learned many more uses for it. Thank you Simon snd belated thanks to the brilliant man who made our lives so much better. Boy, did it get a work out on the boat! 🙏🙏🙏👵👵🇦🇺🇦🇺

[MadDragon]

If you have a problem with ants getting to your hummingbird feeder, you can spray the chain or rope that's hanging the feeder with WD40 and they will not try to go down the chain or rope.

[donsandsii]

The man behind WD-40 needs global recognition like the inventors of Duct Tapes

[steel]

WD-40 makes a dry lubricant that is excellent for use in DLP type 3D printers to keep the resin from sticking to the bottom of the reservoir.

[superme]

9:57 fun fact: WD-40 is not needed to untangle jewelry. All you need to do is gently rub the knot in-between your fingers, and it will loosen up on its own...no matter how impossibly tight or complex the knot may seem.