It's twenty-first century magic compared to my noisy old air compressors.

It will blow the dust out of a computer, power a small nail gun, or inflate a tire without waking up the neighbors.

Every community workshop should have one of these... come to think of it, every community should have a workshop, a place where people can socialize as they repair or make things.

I got great neighbors.

"WD-40" is abbreviated from the term "Water Displacement, 40th formula", suggesting it was the result of the 40th attempt to create the product.[1] The spray, composed of various hydrocarbons, was originally designed to be used by Convair to protect the outer skin of the Atlas missile from rust and corrosion.[6][7] This outer skin also functioned as the outer wall of the missile's paper-thin fuel balloon tanks, which were so fragile that, when empty, they had to be kept inflated with nitrogen to prevent them from collapsing. WD-40 was later found to have many household uses[1] and was made available to consumers in San Diego in 1958.[6]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WD-40

and, it tends to attract debris and gunk, which will foul the parts you're trying to lubricate.

He's the one who told me what WD stands for. He uses a mineral oil based lubricant - I think that's what it is - it's in a green can.

He said you should spray your locks when the time changes and you replace batteries twice a year.

During World War II, the American armed forces needed a strong, waterproof tape to keep moisture out of ammunition cases. Because it was waterproof, everyone referred to it as "duck" tape (now a brand name of Manco). This versatile tape was used as a mending material that could be ripped by hand and used to make quick repairs to jeeps, aircraft, and other military equipment. The Johnson and Johnson Company's Permacel division, which had by then developed its own line of adhesive tapes, helped the war effort by combining cloth mesh (which rips easily) with a rubber-based adhesive, and then gave that combination of rubberized, waterproof coating. (No specific person or group of people at Johnson and Johnson have been named in the development of duct tape. Don't ask them... they don't know.)

Following the war, housing in the United States boomed, and many new homes featured forced-air heating and air-conditioning units that relied on duct work to distribute warmth and coolness. Johnson and Johnson's strong military tape made the perfect material for binding and repairing the duct work. By changing the color of the tape's rubberized top coat from Army green to sheet metal gray, "duct" tape was born.

Then the researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Environmental Energy Division determined you should never use Duct tape to seal ducts. Their tests showed that under typical duct conditions, duct tape becomes brittle and will fail quickly (100% failure in eight years). Duct tape also can catch on fire or just smolder and produce toxic smoke. Because of this, it’s usage on ducts has been prohibited by the state of California as well as in building codes in most of the U.S.

That's what they called it when I was in the Army. Legend and lore was that a deuce and a half truck slipped into gear and was rolling down hill but it hit some duck tape between two poles and it stopped the truck.

Legend and lore

but we had an ample supply of "Pressure-sensitive water-insoluble adhesive cloth tape".

It was, somehow, reassuring that our ADM platoons used it in assembling their nuclear devices.

Back in the 90’s and saw him regularly and was on a first name basis with him.

He was notorious for wanting things to look good and work perfectly.

Many of the people that worked for him had a saying that they knew was pretty much how “The Captain” thought;

“If it moves, clean it or chrome it. If it doesn’t move, paint it. If it gets scuffed, paint it again!”

baling wire and/or JB weld. also silicon sealer.

Bigger Hammer