molybdenum lubricants?

[swampcrawler]

Has anyone tried any kind of moly lube on their firearms? My curiosity arose on the subject at work of all places. We use hydraulic torque wrenches to apply enough torque to twist a Toyota in half (up to 60 thousand ft/lbs) to really big nuts and bolts. I was glancing at my torque specs for different lubricants (API grease, nickel based lubricant, copper based, oil, and moly imbeded grease) and noticed that the moly has a far lesser coefficient of friction than any of the others. For example on a 6.5 inch diameter nut with its 4.25 inch stud lubricated with machine oil my wrench has to produce 33,000 ft/lbs of torque to reach the desired stress on the joint. To reach the same stress on the same stud lubricated with moly grease requires only 13600 ft-lbs. I found that rather impressive.

So yea, anybody tried it? Theoretically it's perfect. Excellent lubricity and tendency to adhere to steel, and in a dry form it won't attract gritty like any oil or grease will. Not that there's anything wrong with oil and grease, but in theory moly would be ideal.

I just applied some 99% pure moly powder to the slide rails, slide stop pin, link and link pin of my 1911. Hopefully this weekend il see how it does.

 

[drband]

Treated the trigger rebound slide and sear surfaces on a S&W revolver with liquid moly (dries completely leaving dry moly after the carrier evaporates).
I think it "improved" the pull, but I guess that's a subjective call. I shouldn't have to worry about lubing the trigger group for a long time.

 

[JohnKSa]

For steel-to-steel firearm applications that call for grease I generally use a grease I make myself from a good quality gun oil and very fine moly powder. It virtually eliminates wear and works well even after the oil drains/runs away or evaporates.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

I know a gun smith who makes his on moly grease for the reasons you mentioned. He's someone I trust as he is very intensive and detail oriented on things.

 

[Drail]

Chip McCormick used to sell a small tube of moly lube called "Trigger Slick" that was black and would stain your hands so bad you thought it would never wear off. But I used it on custom trigger work for years (just on the nose of the sear) and that stuff would take maybe 1/2 lb. off of the pull weight. Really great stuff just don't get any on ya. I would not use it on slide rails - just too messy and not needed for a slide that just runs back and forth with no real load - oil is all you need. But for two surfaces under extreme pressure like a sear and hammer it's very good.

 

[rbernie]

KalGard, or somebody like them, has been selling moly infused grease since shortly after the dinosaurs died. It was advertised/sold for use where there was a sliding joint with a high prospect of fretting/lube film breakdown. I've used their bearing grease variant on the slidey bits of guns for quite some time, and never had any reason to be unhappy with that practice (other than the black fingertip stains that wouldn't come out).

As with any use of grease, it carries the prospect of acting as a grit magnet.

 

[GBExpat]

My Dad got a cork-stoppered, thick glass container of molybdenum disulfide powder from one of the boys that he worked with at NACA back in the '50s.

He taught me how to add a tiny bit (a little bit goes a long way) to grease prior to application.

I periodically employ this method with some of my firearms.

The container is still almost half full, btw.

 

[eddd7]

For you young 'uns, NACA is now NASA - - basically, as far as standards go.