My father owns an automotive shop and has ATF and other things like red axel grease, white lithium grease and lots of other stuff. I am curently building a new AR at the shop and my dad said that ATF is fine for lube and cleaning. Is that correct? Is there something else around the shop that might work better? Like I said, he has a ton of stuff around to use.

Should work fine, but it is going to smell pretty bad if you do enough shooting to get it really heated up. Only one oil smells worse than burnt transmission oil and that's burnt gear oil. You could use regular motor oil in any weight and avoid the burnt smell. I mix my own gun oil from an old recipe I found and it's a mix of motor, tranny, and hoppes oils. Stuff works great for me but I've also used 5w30 by itself for a while because I had some left over from doing oil changes on my old beater car. Never tried straight grease before but now I'm curious.

the Remington 11/87P I bought 11-12 years ago wouldnt eject and feel low brass shells. cleaning and lubing
it with transmission fluid cured that, it feeds and eats everything with no other mods. Previous poster is right tho,
cause when I tried it with my AK, after a coupla fast mags it smoked like a grill, couldnt even see the sights thru it all.
The shotgun didnt get shot as many times,(no surprise there) as the Ak and never smoked up.

i found synthetic ATF to be very good at remaining on the BCG when shooting with a suppressor. the only thing better was full syn Moble 1.

I use MOBIL1 5w30 motor oil for gun lube

works great

For cleaner it should work, I don't believe the viscosity is heavy enough for lubrication purposes.  Stick with a 10W-30 or 10W-40 motor oil

it definetly seemed thin and would run off the BCG when stored but under shooting conditions, it hung around well during fire.

I've been using a 50/50 mix of syn ATF with 15/50 Mobile 1 for some years now. Not too thin, not too thick. It lubes, it works fine, it's reasonably price.

i started doing the same as you 50/50 with both those but it seems like the oil separates in the bottle i use. have you noticed that?

No, I haven't noticed that. Weird.

You do not want to be breathing in most types of ATF.   It works, but is not a good idea.

Just as long as you don't use used motor oil, you're fine.

Personally my favorite automotive-to-firearm product is mobil 1 grease. If you father has a tub of motor grease, then that would be my pick.

Motor oil is fine for firearms but keep in mind that firearm specific products are usually easier on the skin and on top of that has properties to protect your firearm. Motor oil generally has additives in it that may or may not cause cancer down the road. If you have a firearm in the same room and you're breathing in that motor oil, that might not be a good idea in the long run.

Slip 2000

/thread

I've been hanging around automotive stuff for over 60 years.  Do understand that that doesn't make me more knowledgeable than the next guy--just older.  

Seriously, automotive lubricants and especially engine oils, synthetic or not, contain lots of additives for specific purposes such as increasing film strength, increasing viscosity index, reducing aeration (foaming), etc., that have NOTHING to do with helping a firearm operate correctly.  I'll be using a gun oil, and Slip 2000 sounds good to me.

so my rifles that have mobil 1 in them dont work?  shiiit....

considering that my rifle is less sophisticated than an engine...i'm guessing it'll work just fine because its just a little carrier slinging to and fro. think about motor oils 40 years ago, i bet they didnt have all the fancy modifiers in them and engines ran just fine.

some times i think people over think the lube question. my main reason for motor oil and ATF is because it doesnt evaporate and run off nearly as fast as all the fancy unicorn gun oils.

Well of course they work and will continue to do so.  I tried to write that automotive oils probably aren't THE BEST things to use in firearms.  Why not use a oil designed for firearms?  

Full synthetic motor oil operates under some very adverse conditions . As such it should be excellent in firearms as it doesn't break down or cake under heat and pressure. Mobil One is perfect on my rifles.

As far as using any oil on your guns goes; it comes down to preference.

The same arguments happen with collector cars. Which oil is best, etc.

I am a cheap skate like the next guy. My feeling is use what works for you. There is no "best" oil. There certainly are some shit oils such as Frog Lube.

If an oil gums up after a few months or evaporates after a few months then in my mind it is no good. I want to clean and lube my gun and have it ready to go if I need it in 1 hour of 1 year.

Considering how little oil is needed to lube 1 gun I found that Slip2000 EWL works for me. Yes it is expensive but a small bottle has lasted me almost 2 years. I fully expect the quart of it to last a very long time. So in reality the cost per cleaning is small.

Like most of us I also have ended up with a bunch of small bottles of various gun oils. I use those too. My Dad just brought over a box of cleaning stuff he had collecting dust. Oils, cleaners and other odds and ends that are at least 40 years old and still good from what I can tell.

I think motor oil / grease is perfectly fine to use in a firearm. Several older firearm manuals tend to recommend motor oil. Matter of fact the old military manual for the M1 Garand lists it as a "last resort" option to lubrication. My old Winchester Model 12 manual has a recommendation to use motor grease to store it.

Of course this is well before the time of modern lubrication. It used to be lubrication for firearm simply suck. Even in the 90s lubrication for firearms were terribly bad. It wasn't until late 90s, early 2000s when firearm specific products started to get better, and better, and better. I think a lot of folks here don't remember that era. We're "old timers."

I think if you choose the lowest end synthetic oil, such as Mobil 1, you're better off. The more premium oil/grease tend to have additives to it that may or may not be carcinogens. You should never use USED motor oil as it will always contain carcinogens in it.

I think the most appealing thing about using engine oil/ATF for lubricating firearms: I quart would last 3 lifetimes....

I'm using 15w40 and loving it, tried ATF once on a suppressor host since it does "clean" pretty good, but the smell and smoke were not fun.

Never had the best luck with grease, it can be too sticky and stiff.

Sorry if this has been posted in the past, didn't see it here so thought I'd share, cleans and lubes, really slick.

Bug Juice

2 quarts of synthetic motor oil 10w30
1 quart ATF
1 bottle original STP - the original blue bottle is what you want
1 7 ounce jar Hoppe's solvent

10W30 M1-90% + MERCON V-10%. I have been using this as a lube on ALL of my firearms for years. I just recently found another product that works great; GRIZZLY GREASE.

I used ATF in Iraq when a VBIED blew up the resupply truck We had no weapons lube for about a month. I just got some ATF from a Hummer tranny dipstick. No problems, no issues, Stunk when fired though.

I've used it and it worked just fine, just regular old hydraulic fluid works well too. But mobil 1 or rotella 10w30 synthetic is what I run now.

Same here.  No problems.

Virtually anything from bacon fat to sewing machine oil will keep AR15 parts sliding past one another. What *can't* be predicted is for how long, or how much wear will  accumulate. I like Weapon Shield for the odor; Slip 2000 for being biodegradable/eco-friendly; Militec because it doesn't throw off. But push me, and I'll happily go into the supply cab and get out a bottle of whatever motor oil is in there, and rock on.

What about the "old Breakfree" the one that smelled good? The new Breakfree smells like an old inner tube.

I have had several carbine classes. Each instructor of course recommends using a quality lube. However, they have insisted if you find yourself with a dry rifle, use whatever is available, even if you have to piss on it(although no recommended). I keep various types of oils/lubes on hand. I keep Break-Free CLP, Frog-Lube, Lock-n-Load GCL, Hoppes, and kendall 5w30 motor oil.
So that brings me to question of Frog Lube. Why do some say its a "shit lube"? Honestly, If i know I am going to be leaving my rifle in my vehicle for an extended amount of time without firing it, I know I can grab it, and the lube will still be there, and when i do fire it, it will still be wet. I cant say that for most other lubes/oils I have used in that scenario. Would it work for sustained firing of 200, 500, or 1,000 rounds, I dont know, but I keep little single use vials of break free for those instances if needed.
On to motor oil now...I know this is somewhat different, but I have put motor oil on a single shot shotgun, and after a couple days, there was rust starting to appear on it. That is why i don't want to use motor oil except for range time.
I am no expert, and will never claim to be. I am just going on personal observations.

Wilson COmbat lube looks a whole lot like transmission fluid to me.

Since I maintain diesel trucks I always have Rotella T6 15w40 on hand.  Been using Rotella on all my firearms for over 50 years.

ATF stinks, even the synthetic.

Synthetic motor oil smells a lot better.

Wilson Combat lube. Who knows, maybe it's just motor oil at 10x the cost, but this stuff works well.

Have you noticed that nothing else uses ATF as a lube on a car... or anything else for that matter? It's not a lube. It's more a hydraulic fluid with lubricating properties. If you have to use some cheap, super cool guy, gun hipster stuff, just use some synthetic motor oil.

How would CLP work in an automatic transmission?

Almost any lubricant will probably be fine for general use.  Most will be fine for hard use.  Some will be better than others in "extreme" circumstances, but that's hard to tell as a single person.  Everyone has their own favorite, and most people seem to think whatever they use is best due to some poorly controlled "experiments" they do themselves and draw conclusions from.  Things along the lines of "Me and my buddy went hunting, he uses X lube and his gun jammed. I use Y lube and mine didn't, Y lube is better than X lube."  

In reality, you have to decide what your priority is, and that will tell you what to use.  If cost is your primary factor, it's tough to beat whatever is around the shop.  Plenty of people use ATF and/or motor oil and do fine.  They'll suit you well.  If health is more of a concern, you might not have an issue paying $10-15 for a multi year supply of lubricant that is less hazardous or smells better.  There are many that will work well in that role.  If you're looking for max corrosion resistance, and aren't as worried about shooting 5000 rounds without lubricating, but are worried about your gun sitting for 3 years in a cabinet in a humid city, there are still other products that will work better for you.

If you keep your guns in a climate controlled environment, pay reasonable attention to their maintenance, and shoot a few hundred rounds at a time, pretty much anything will work fine.  You basically have to balance cost, convenience, health, and corrosion resistance to find what works for you.

And as far as health effects go, I know plenty of old timers like to wax poetically about how they survived all sorts of "dangerous" things like lead paint and not wearing seatbelts, and tell all of us young folks we're a bunch of sissies.  Keep in mind that not everyone did survive those things.  Always take the "well it never hurt me!" with a grain of salt.  Side effects from long term hazardous exposure are much harder to diagnose than going through the windshield of a car.  I'm not sure about the content of motor oils and ATF, you'll have to look into that yourself.  The amount you'll be exposed to with an occasional gun cleaning/shooting is probably negligible, but I prefer not worrying at all about it.

Some cars use ATF for Power Steering but as a lube? No way/

ATF is a hydraulic fluid with detergents. It is a great cleaner but a poor lube.