Brush to clean barbell

[Allentown]

I just flail at mine once every few months with a brass brush. It would be nice to have one with a handle like the kitchen scrub brush, and not more like a toothbrush.

[OrderInChaos]

Don't spray the bar with it, spray the rag or brush, then run that over the bar. Not being greasy is the reason it's better on the shaft for sure. WD40 doesn't "invite" rust though, not sure where that came from.

You want oil in the bushings because it's a lubricant. You don't want oil on the shaft because it's a lubricant. Both will clean the bar and prevent rusting. WD40 does this by removing any sweat and grease from the bar. Oil does this because it is hydrophobic. WD40 isn't a lubricant, it's a solvent. Oil isn't a solvent, it's a lubricant.

I'll definitely try out some WD40 for my next cleanup. The idea of "Invite rust" comes from the notion of using oil vice WD40 for bike chains; as "Water Displacer 40" is really viscous and will run off/dry off a chain in a matter of hours, where oil will linger and combat the oxide reaction for longer. In other applications, I've always read and been told you want to avoid that displacement because it invites oxygen exposure to the bare metal and speeds up the reaction. All horseshit?

^Latter part of that not relevant to me trying it out on the hard chrome Grizzly, my inner pedant made me do it.

[Cody]

I'll definitely try out some WD40 for my next cleanup. The idea of "Invite rust" comes from the notion of using oil vice WD40 for bike chains; as "Water Displacer 40" is really viscous and will run off/dry off a chain in a matter of hours, where oil will linger and combat the oxide reaction for longer. In other applications, I've always read and been told you want to avoid that displacement because it invites oxygen exposure to the bare metal and speeds up the reaction. All horseshit?

^Latter part of that not relevant to me trying it out on the hard chrome Grizzly, my inner pedant made me do it.

A couple of things to unpack here.

Rust formation: Any material made with iron that is exposed to both oxygen and water will rust. Because steel is made almost entirely of iron, it is the most highly manufactured man made material that is subject to rust. To understand why steel rusts, you have to know a little bit about chemistry and the periodic table. After the element Helium, elements like having 8 electrons in their outer shell, and will borrow electrons from other elements to achieve that level. Water, for example is made of an oxygen atom with 6 outer electrons and 2 hydrogen atoms that have 1 electron each. Through the borrowing and sharing of electrons in a reduction reaction, FeO(OH) (the most common form of rust) is created.

(https://www.capitalsteel.net/news/blog/ ... s-answered)

So the first answer is that you need both water AND oxygen. So long as the air humidity isn't 100% all the time, a perfectly bare peice of steel won't rust due to air exposure alone. If you're in an area that's literally 100% humidity all the time, you shouldn't buy a bare steel bar...

This is different for bikes because they're used outdoors and in the elements.

You're correct that much of WD40 evaporates as a large portion of it is made with alkanes. It does have quite a bit of mineral oil in it's formula though. Mineral oil is an occlusive agent, so it blocks water from depositing on the steel's surface. The difference between a thinned mineral oil and something much heavier like 3-in-1 is that the very fine layer of mineral oil will be removed as soon as you grab the bar. You'll never know there was anything on the bar at all, especially once you've put some chalk on your hands. This is obviously not the case with a heavier weight oil, which leaves the bar tangibly greasy thereby affecting your grip.

Again, WD40 isn't practical for bike chains because the contact of various surfaces will displace the very fine layer of mineral oil when that's the opposite of what you want.

Plus it's not a lubricant, which is something you DO want on a bike chain.

But all the theoretical aside, I've had a bare steel barbell in my garage in the middle of Georgia, just west of Atlanta for the past 2 years where the majority of the bare steel shaft looks essentially identical to the day I bought it, only just now beginning the first bit of patina where we grip the bar. It's only ever been cleaned randomly (2ish months between cleanings?) and only ever with a scrub brush and WD40.

[bobmen10000]

I'll definitely try out some WD40 for my next cleanup. The idea of "Invite rust" comes from the notion of using oil vice WD40 for bike chains; as "Water Displacer 40" is really viscous and will run off/dry off a chain in a matter of hours, where oil will linger and combat the oxide reaction for longer. In other applications, I've always read and been told you want to avoid that displacement because it invites oxygen exposure to the bare metal and speeds up the reaction. All horseshit?

^Latter part of that not relevant to me trying it out on the hard chrome Grizzly, my inner pedant made me do it.

A couple of things to unpack here.

Rust formation: Any material made with iron that is exposed to both oxygen and water will rust. Because steel is made almost entirely of iron, it is the most highly manufactured man made material that is subject to rust. To understand why steel rusts, you have to know a little bit about chemistry and the periodic table. After the element Helium, elements like having 8 electrons in their outer shell, and will borrow electrons from other elements to achieve that level. Water, for example is made of an oxygen atom with 6 outer electrons and 2 hydrogen atoms that have 1 electron each. Through the borrowing and sharing of electrons in a reduction reaction, FeO(OH) (the most common form of rust) is created.

(https://www.capitalsteel.net/news/blog/ ... s-answered)

So the first answer is that you need both water AND oxygen. So long as the air humidity isn't 100% all the time, a perfectly bare peice of steel won't rust due to air exposure alone. If you're in an area that's literally 100% humidity all the time, you shouldn't buy a bare steel bar...

This is different for bikes because they're used outdoors and in the elements.

You're correct that much of WD40 evaporates as a large portion of it is made with alkanes. It does have quite a bit of mineral oil in it's formula though. Mineral oil is an occlusive agent, so it blocks water from depositing on the steel's surface. The difference between a thinned mineral oil and something much heavier like 3-in-1 is that the very fine layer of mineral oil will be removed as soon as you grab the bar. You'll never know there was anything on the bar at all, especially once you've put some chalk on your hands. This is obviously not the case with a heavier weight oil, which leaves the bar tangibly greasy thereby affecting your grip.

Again, WD40 isn't practical for bike chains because the contact of various surfaces will displace the very fine layer of mineral oil when that's the opposite of what you want.

Plus it's not a lubricant, which is something you DO want on a bike chain.

But all the theoretical aside, I've had a bare steel barbell in my garage in the middle of Georgia, just west of Atlanta for the past 2 years where the majority of the bare steel shaft looks essentially identical to the day I bought it, only just now beginning the first bit of patina where we grip the bar. It's only ever been cleaned randomly (2ish months between cleanings?) and only ever with a scrub brush and WD40.

I now know more than I ever wanted to about WD40, rust formation and bicycle chains - albeit it was very useful. More info about just west of Atlanta would be nice. Very slim chance I may move to the Atlanta area someday to work with (for) a friend - not a big fan of the traffic or hotels.

[quikky]

...hit the shaft with some WD-40 on a rag.

Hmm...

[mbasic]

...thought this was going to be a brush-the-hips vs bang-the-hips-with-the-bar in the clean/snatch debate thing ...

[Cody]

I now know more than I ever wanted to about WD40, rust formation and bicycle chains - albeit it was very useful. More info about just west of Atlanta would be nice. Very slim chance I may move to the Atlanta area someday to work with (for) a friend - not a big fan of the traffic or hotels.

Haha!

So I'm not a fan of cities. At all. Atlanta proper is quite expensive, especially real estate. Most people that work there commute from the suburbs, but the traffic is ridiculous. I believe most people end up having a morning commute of 1-1.5hrs. I'm in Paulding county, which is just west of Cobb. Cobb is generally thought of as a high end location (although all places have ghettos), while Paulding and Bartow (just north of us) are more affordable suburbs with the issue that it adds half an hour to your commute. A house in Paulding that's $300,000 is about $500,000 just a couple miles across the Cobb border.

That is to say, loving in Atlanta is crazy expensive but strongly limits your commute. Living in Cobb is fairly expensive but medium commute. Living in Paulding or Bartow is the most affordable that's still within commuting distance.

I know nothing about the other directions from Atlanta.

[Cody]

...thought this was going to be a brush-the-hips vs bang-the-hips-with-the-bar in the clean/snatch debate thing ...

I mean, it IS the equipment forum...

[mbasic]

...thought this was going to be a brush-the-hips vs bang-the-hips-with-the-bar in the clean/snatch debate thing ...

I mean, it IS the equipment forum...

I use the "New Posts" function a lot, it doesn't list the subforums there. And then just hops to the last post when you click it.

[ithryn]

I use WD40 every few weeks to clean my bar. I do have 3-in-1 - do I need to use that for anything? I'm guessing not the shaft, eh.

Brushwise I use a metal grill brush or this other ancient metal brush I have. It hasn't seemed to scratch the bar too much but I don't go to town on it. It's a zinc CAP bar. The plates scratch up the sleeves something fierce.

Cody, that bare stainless is in fine shape, I'm pleasantly surprised.

[TimK]

So I got one of these:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Forney-10-1 ... W927906872

It's great, like 4 times the surface area of the brush I had before.

[Cody]

So I got one of these:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Forney-10-1 ... W927906872

It's great, like 4 times the surface area of the brush I had before.

Bigger is indeed better.

[Allentown]

If only someone could sell me everything I needed to do a bad job cleaning my barbell!

I've found nylon to be functionally useless at cleaning my bar. Then again, I didn't clean it at all for probably 4 years, so I needed something that could really get down into the grooves.

This reminds me I also need to repaint my plates...

[cwd]

This reminds me I also need to repaint my plates...

The next time I repaint my plates will also be the first time I paint my plates.

I oil the bushings in my bare-steel bar 1x/year, and do no other maintenance. It has darkened quite a bit, but it still spins fine and isn't slippery to hold.

It does make my hands dirty though.

[Allentown]

The next time I repaint my plates will also be the first time I paint my plates.

I want all my 5lb plates to be sparkly purple.

[cwd]

I want all my 5lb plates to be sparkly purple.

Sparkly purple does sound nice.

[BostonRugger]

If your bar is unreasonably jacked up for no reason that you can figure out, this can help get it back to a reasonably rust-free state without taking all day:

[Wilhelm]

If your bar is unreasonably jacked up for no reason that you can figure out, this can help get it back to a reasonably rust-free state without taking all day:

Nice!
Of course, wear safety glasses using that. Those wires come out.

[Wilhelm]

If only someone could sell me everything I needed to do a bad job cleaning my barbell!

I've found nylon to be functionally useless at cleaning my bar. Then again, I didn't clean it at all for probably 4 years, so I needed something that could really get down into the grooves.

This reminds me I also need to repaint my plates...

I wish i had cleaned mine more often this first year and a half. Then it would still be gleaming like @Cody's
Oiled it a couple of times, and always washed my hands with dawn before lifting, but that proved to not be enough.
It was just around the rings that was dark. I used CLR. Don't fucking use CLR! It broke down the oxidation, but just spread it around, staining it in.
I ended up using Krud Kutter "the must for rust", and it worked great.
My bar is now fully clean, but has a dark silver patina.

[throwinshapes]

always washed my hands with dawn before lifting, but that proved to not be enough.

I'm not trying to give you hard time, but why are you against using even a slight amount of chalk?