A Discovery!

[docone31]

yeppir, got back from the range, actually put powder under ALL the loads, even got shots off!
Back home, getting ready to clean the barrel, I found a bottle of my debubblizer for when I do my wax castings.
Here it is.
Simply Green in a spray, mixed 50% with isopropyl alcohol. I spray it on the wax models before I pour in investment. I let it dry mostly, then pour in the investment and then vaccum. Makes debubblizing more complete.
At any rate, I wanted to try something different.
I picked up the spray botttle, sprayed down the barrel, put the nipple end in hot water, and worked the jag with several patches.
I mean WOW! Clean up was a snap! A couple of strokes and new patches, and it came out bone clean! Interesting enough, the black that came out of the nipple and the threaded socket settled pretty much in the bottom of the pot, whereas the last time the water stayed black.
Clean up was brisk to say the least, with no evidence of rusting, or blueing/browning damage.
This is the first time I have ever been able to pull a clean patch out of the bore while wet!
I am impressed.
Clean up of the pot, kitchen sink, etc was brief and brisk.
I love it.

[Maven]

docone31, Get yourself a 5 gal. plastic bucket such as the ones used for spackling compound or sold by Lowes and Home Depot and use it to clean your bbls. outside with the Simple Green /isopropyl alcohol mixture. By keeping the sulfides and odor outside, you preserve domestic tranquility.

[HWooldridge]

docone31, Get yourself a 5 gal. plastic bucket such as the ones used for spackling compound or sold by Lowes and Home Depot and use it to clean your bbls. outside with the Simple Green /isopropyl alcohol mixture. By keeping the sulfides and odor outside, you preserve domestic tranquility.

Ain't that the truth. My wife is a sweetheart who seldom complains about much of anything but she hates the smell of BP cleanup. Even worse, I wash everything in white vinegar so that compounds the fragrance - so I got smart and always do it outside to keep the little woman smiling.

[docone31]

Yeah, well,
She is wife #6. I am a slow learner.
At any rate, I built my house with a complete evacuation system built in.
I crack one window, hit one switch, and the entire house evacuates within 30 seconds.
I built the house so I can cast gold, and silver in the casting room. Burning out wax produces a smell that is hard to describe. I like it, but some folks do not. Before the wax completely burns out, it drips down into the catch tray in the kiln. The smell is like a wet candle being burned.
Once the wax is melted out of the flask, then the wax is completely burned out of the kiln. I mean completely! If any carbon is still in the flask when I cast, the castings come out grey in colour.
We do this in the house.
When I am cleaning anything, or makeing anything, and there is any odor, GONE!.
She is in the other room, designing, or makeing something for the shop, I am in another room playing with glowing metals, and smokey molds. One 30 second suck out, and everything is outside.
The ceiling in our living room is directly vented to the roof ridge. Heat rises so ordinary heat exits the ceiling, with it goes odors. This is slow. When I need it, we have a 30 second hurricane. Nothing is lost, or displaced, but you know when it is on. The Squirrel cage is outside, with the intake in the ceiling. Our airconditioners, push air into one side of the house, the intake is on the other.
I built it with this in mind.
It works real well.

[HWooldridge]

Sounds like you have a great setup and planned it right. I've done a little bronze investment - mostly restoration hardware for old houses. I burnout in a Skutt kiln then melt in a home made propane furnace but have never tried other metals. However, I go out into the shop as our little home AC is tasked enough with 100+ afternoon temps. In fact, I usually cook outside for much of the year just to keep the stove heat out of the kitchen.

[Gerry N.]

yeppir, got back from the range, actually put powder under ALL the loads, even got shots off!
Back home, getting ready to clean the barrel, I found a bottle of my debubblizer for when I do my wax castings.
Here it is.
Simply Green in a spray, mixed 50% with isopropyl alcohol. I spray it on the wax models before I pour in investment. I let it dry mostly, then pour in the investment and then vaccum. Makes debubblizing more complete.
At any rate, I wanted to try something different.
I picked up the spray botttle, sprayed down the barrel, put the nipple end in hot water, and worked the jag with several patches.
I mean WOW! Clean up was a snap! A couple of strokes and new patches, and it came out bone clean! Interesting enough, the black that came out of the nipple and the threaded socket settled pretty much in the bottom of the pot, whereas the last time the water stayed black.
Clean up was brisk to say the least, with no evidence of rusting, or blueing/browning damage.
This is the first time I have ever been able to pull a clean patch out of the bore while wet!
I am impressed.
Clean up of the pot, kitchen sink, etc was brief and brisk.
I love it.

I have asked many times and gotten no answer. Why Isopropyl alcohol and not denatured ethanol?

Gerry N

[Potsy]

I've never thought about denatured ethanol. The alcohol works well for me, it's readily available & cheap. Anymore, when I get done at the range I usually just wipe out the chunks with a few alochol patches, spray down my barrels with Ballistol, wipe my guns down and go on. A few days later I'll wipe out the barrels and re-spray. I rarely ever water clean either of mine any more.

[northmn]

Matthew in his books on Black Powder Cartridges recommended antifreeze as in the stuff you put in your car radiator. He claimed it contained alcohol and works quite well. I ahve tried it and it works and does seem to alleviate some of the rust problems with water if you do not get everything dry.

Northmn

[Geraldo]

I use straight windshield washer fluid between shots and a few more patches after shooting. I then clean with hot water and Murphys Oil Soap, mostly because I had read of someone using it and we had a big jug of it. I then dry the bore, lube with oil and a shot of WD40 followed by a dry patch to get the excess.

There is absolutely no science behind this method, but it works well for me and I haven't had any rust issues.