3 in 1 oil

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I gullibility bought this stuff for some reason or another hand tool related,
and sure any similar synthetic motor oil would be the same, but a third of the price.
Still great value compared to 3 in 1, lol 😄

Not even sure if 5W-30 is the right stuff, but seems to have a nice consistency to me.

Really need to give everything a once over in the workshop soon, as the stuff what was out got a quick lick with me rag in a leather can.
The nice thing about the leather is one can shove the thing into the mouth and not worry about dinging edges.
Silly me was thinking the rag would eventually get saturated in oil, which nothing ever does,
just like leather, the oil will be wasted and totally disappear even if you toss a whole bottle into something like this!
So just a dollop onto the rag from the liquid bottle anymore

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Sounds like DIY penetrating oil.

I've had a similar it's-as-if-they-want-you-to-waste-the-product issue with the stuff we use for removing sticky labels & glue residue from things - the bottles used to have a little insert in the neck with a small hole in it. Change of packaging, and no insert at all. Fortunately we realised in time to keep an old bottle to refill.
 
3 in 1 is a great very light weight ( viscosity ) oil
It has the advantage of not polymerising into a sticky mess !
Because of its very low viscosity - it penetrates well.

It's not a great marketing product, because it lasts so well i.e it's a good product.

But package it right, price it right and you have a low volume - high margin- product, which is good for the customers and good for the manufacturer.
 
Vosene shampoo. Back in about 2012, vosene introduced a new bottle
https://www.packagingnews.co.uk/new...o-energise-vosene-brand-case-study-02-08-2012
The brief was to “To revive the hair care brand Vosene with striking new bottles to create shelf standout.” and from the picture below I think they achieved that.
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The problem was practicality.
1. the plastic was slippery and the tapered shape combined with wet soapy hands meant that the bottle was easily dropped in use
2. the top was brittle plastic that tended to crack when the bottle was dropped
3. the bottle was designed to stand on its top, not possible with a cracked top, only thing to do was lay it on its side and hope not too much shampoo leaked out.

I do not think that the “focus groups” actually did product tests. I see that they have changed the bottle now.
 
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3 in 1 is great for delicate items like sewing machines. You know it won't turn to jelly. It may be over three times the cost of your typical motor oil, but it's only £3 for 200ml, so low outlay and lasts for ages...as long as the bottle doesn't fall over. I don't like the plastic bottle.
I've been using compressor oil SAE 32 on my ML7. It is pretty thin, but wouldn't use it on anything really delicate.
 
From what I understand some oils have a percentage of vegetable oil which over time leaves a gummy deposit. Oils like 3 in 1 and Singer Machine oil are mineral and so do not clogg the mechanism.

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As I mentioned earlier in this thread Lea & Perrins redesigned their Worcestershire Sauce bottle cap about 18 years ago. My sons were able to half empty the bottle in one breakfast - when you shook the bottle in the normal way over your fried bread it completely drowned it. This new lid was unlike the previous lid which needed a good shake to get a few drops out. It was quickly changed back to the original design.
 
Many retail outlets no longer stock 3 in 1 oil - because the bottle leaks and it damages other stock...
 
Well that just stinks! I have always used 3-1 oil cuz it’s great oil. A fine very well refined oil. Even use a drop on the inner hole of shaper cutters to make the slide neatly over the spindle.

Mine are still metal tins which I like.This plastic nonsense is killing us! Now plastic bits we eat have been linked to irritable bowel syndrome. Just wait until they put geniuses in a plastic bottle. We won’t hear the end of it.

You guys do know plastic is made from oil. So the manufacturer of all these plastics is releasing lots of CO2 into the air. It’s much worse that the old metal tins which were my Dads. I just refill them.

Abom99 found these cute old brass oilers which are perfect. Several you tubers have made copies of these old pump oilers.

I personally love the smell of 3-1 oil. And they make model steam Engines run so sweat.
 
u can still buy it here in metal tins....
living in the sticks I have to dye my wife's hair....
can I say that....lol....does anybody else perform this service to her indoors.....?.
anyway...
the hair products come in little squirt bottles with screwlids/caps...
I have them full of different oil thicknesses for diff jobs....
and they're kept in a yellow square type paint kettle from the £ shop...
it will comfortably take six bottles without falling over......
I have several sets in different places for ease...
 
I guess we buy known brands like 3 in 1 because the cost of the oil is trivial compared to the value of that which you are lubricating. Safe option. Most of us don't use enough for cost to matter or to gain experience of other brand quality.

I thought some might like the attached photos, a small oil bottle that my father used decades ago which I kept and use regularly. I decant 3 in 1 into it from time to time. The dipstick/blade can apply a smear or if you touch the point to the object it gives a very precise tiny drop. On the bottom it is stamped G and JW Hawksley, a Sheffield company that in the 1800s made a lot of useful often decorative things, including some from silver, much of it for the sporting gun user. Things like (gun) powder bottles. That makes me think this was for gun oil although I have never used it as such. Nicely made though, very useful. About 35mm high.
 

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I’ve taken to using Bisley gun oil as an alternative to 3 in 1. A finer grade of oil(?) and still comes in a proper tin. Available from Amazon (£3.60 for 125ml) if you can’t get it locally.
 
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