brake cleaner/ carb cleaner?

[dualsport]

Which one should I get? I'm cleaning a bore that won't stop bleeding crud, need a rinse in between patches.

[lylejb]

Unfortunatly, there's a hundred different recipes for each, and they vary greatly. some are very good, some almost worthless.

Brake cleaner is made to dry quickly, and remove any oil / grease.

Carb cleaner dries much more slowly, and is usually a much stronger solvent. It will tend to soak in better, and dissolve tougher residue.

Warning, carb clean may attack plastic and / or stock finish. I know "the good stuff" will bubble spray paint off of steel in seconds.

If it were me, I would use the carb clean, but remove the stock and any plactic parts,if possible.

[lurch]

Just my opinion, but I'd go with brake cleaner. Either should do the trick, but when you're done and have some left over, brake cleaner is better for cleaning molds. Carb cleaner leaves an oily film behind - at least the stuff I tried did. I's suggest the non-chlorinated variety if you ever think you might get it hot. You probably don't want to get any on the stock finish either - for obvious reasons.

[captaint]

dual - If it were me, I would go with Kroil first, soak a while, scrub, soak and so on. You did say you're cleaning a bore, right?? Some good copper cleaner, Hoppes 9. I've spend days getting some bores clean. Do not however soak for long periods with Sweets. It will pit the bore. If you do use brake cleaner, when you're done, you must oil the bore with something. That stuff removes all the oil and you'll get rust shortly after. That's why we use it on molds. Be patient and keep at it. enjoy Mike

[walltube]

Aerosol brake parts cleaner is not supposed to deposit a film residue after it evaporates. This is certainly not a desired thing to have on rotors, etc.

Carb ( haven't seen one of those in a while) cleaner\solvents are more aggressive by nature to disolve gasoline additive, carbon and other undesirable stuff. What is available today is not your father's ChemClean of yesteryear. All the good, long gone solvents are supposedly responsible for the extinction of the California Pygmy Mastadon. :)

I buy mine at the local "Dollah Sto'" when on sale. Give us an update with your results.

Y.T.,
Wt.

[Bret4207]

Why not just use some diesel in a spray bottle? Works good for rinsing bores IME. Lots cheaper.

[Lloyd Smale]

I would look for electrical cleaner. Brake clean will effect plastic and even oil finishes. Some carb cleaners will too but most wont. Crc Electromotive is what i use alot.

[MT Gianni]

Try keeping the bore wet with a good gun solvent. Run a wet patch down it twice a day and check it then before going to an unknown solvent.

[Shooter]

It seems the EPA has taken most of the solvent out of carb cleaner. The last I bought seemed to be little more than spray-can kerosene.

[S.R.Custom]

Whichever one is cheaper... I use them both pretty regularly, and they both clean a bore equally as well. They also work very well for cleaning out actions, bolts, and other nooks & crannies. But definitely keep either off wood or plastic.

The oily residue left by the carb cleaner is very slight, and really a non-issue, as hopefully you're going to oil everything anyway.

[Rocky Raab]

One other caution not mentioned: either is fatal to lens coatings. If you have a scope mounted, think twice, as even the fumes will ruin the coatings pronto.

[Moonie]

I would soak in Eds Red myself, has kerosene, mineral spirits and acetone. Designed to eat the crud.

[sundog]

Wipe Out, use per instructions.

[pmeisel]

"Brake Cleaner" and "Carb Cleaner" isn't always the same stuff. You have to read the MSDS sheet usually to find out what's really in there.....

Some chemicals are hazardous to plastics, lenses, wood finish, etc.

Something oil based (diesel, Kroil) would be safest probably, Lloyd's suggestion of electrical cleaner has merit as well.

[TCLouis]

WipeOut is the way to go.

I use it on every gun I shoot much at least once a year if I shoot bullets through them.

if it is a boolit gun then Ed's Red one in a while.

[dualsport]

Cheap is my middle name, I never thought of diesel in a spray bottle. That might be what I'm looking for. I soak, scrub, patch, but there's so much **** I need to just flush it with a little pressure behind it. The filthiest ammo ever made is that Turkish 8mm that was going for pennies. I got a lot, but it's really a job cleaning up. I always start with a half gallon of hot water poured down it, but that crud keeps coming out for days. Some of the Russian 7.62x54r surplus is almost as bad. Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll probably try them all.

[Lloyd Smale]

another fan of wipeout but i use the gunslick brand. Its about the same price and the cans about twice as big and it seems to work just as well for me. Only problem with the foam cleaners is the foam tends to migrate into nooks and crannys under the stock and if you dont get it cleaned out of there can cause a gun to rust. When im working up loads and am cleaning a gun daily, every other cleaning i pull the stock off and make sure the metal underneath is clean and wiped down with oil. Theres a few solvents that may work a tad better then the foams but nothing else is easier or faster. foam the barrel let it sit a couple hours or overnight and run a couple patches down the barrel and your done.
Wipe Out, use per instructions.

[Calamity Jake]

If you want to get the crud out in a hurry: Electro Chemical bore cleaner, the home made version not FoulOut

[cajun shooter]

While trying to clean the crud out of a new bbl I used at least 5 different products. The best were
MEK ( found in Home depot,Lowe's) soak patch and let sit in bore as it dries very fast)WILL REMOVE STOCK FINNISH FAST!!
M-PRO-7 ( worked better than Sweets 7.62 and I thought that was impossible)
KROIL (Wet patches and fill the bore and add corks or what you can to stop loss,keep rifle level
I used all three of these products and the bore that could not be cleaned was shining bright!!
The Factory had used a chemical to prevent rust but did not believe the directions for use when it said to not leave in bore for more than 3 months before cleaning. This rifle was on the shelf for over 2 years. The chemical was down in the metal and would leach out a little each day.

[Rocky Raab]

I've made this observation a number of times, to a seemingly deaf audience. But, I'll try again ...

The quickest, most effective and least harmful bore cleaner is - steam. Fire up one of those Shark steam cleaners, stick the fine nozzle into the chamber opening tightly and squeeze the trigger. Five seconds of steam will leave a puddle of the nastiest crud you've ever seen on the driveway (where you should do this). It will also leave the barrel hot and ready so the pores of the steel can slurp up from an oiled swab.

Steam removes cosmoline, grease, oil, powder fouling, blackpowder fouling and even helps remove light copper or lead fouling.

[dualsport]

I like that one too. Gotta get one of those. Shooting thousands of rounds of old filthy milsurp ammo calls for a quick cleaning process. The Russian 7.62 ball ammo is dirty stuff too, but sometimes I just want to blast away and not reload.

[tomf52]

Check out General Motor's Top Engine Cleaner. Very aggressive carbon dissolver. Also for general bore cleaner give the old fashioned Liquid Wrench a try. The stuff in the tin square squirt can with plastic nozzle. This stuff will not hurt plastics or stock finihes either, or so the label claims. I like it for bore cleaning. Wet the bore and let stand for 15 minutes and run a tight patch through. Won't need too many repeat applications.

Liquid Wrench now comes in a small plaastic squirt bottle.

[tonyjones]

I like Wipe Out a lot. For getting carbon fouling out Slip 2000 Carbon Killer works better than anything else I've tried. Bore Tech Eliminator is another excellent solvent. It will remove copper but does not contain ammonia.
Rocky,
Can you tell us more about the Shark steam cleaner? Where would I find one?
Regards,
Tony

[geargnasher]

Wow. I never knew there were so many ways to clean a bore. I use Ed's, if necessary stopper the bore on the muzzle end and fill 'er up, let soak for a day at least. Same treatement with Kroil. For rinsing out between patchings, use a squirt bottle full off Ed's. If the bore is so filthy it keeps dirtying patches, I use a Nylon bore brush dunked in Ed's and poke the muzzle into a Coke bottle to catch the effluent and spatters.

For metal fouling I use the Outers Foul Out.

Rocky, my ears are wide open, how about posting a new thread with some pics of the steamer in action?

Gear

[HeavyMetal]

Dual:
Try Simple Green on a bore mop run it up and down the bore a few times and then do the stean shark trick.

Do not get it on the wood or finish of the stock or plastic pieces.

Do not let the simple green dry and make sure you run an oiled patch down the bore after the SG/Steam thing or you'll get rust and lots of it!

[Rocky Raab]

Come to think of it, steam cleaning might make a pretty good article. Hmmmm...

(Of course, that would also mean I couldn't post it and you wouldn't see it for six months due to magazine publication leadtime. But a few hundred bucks is a few hundred bucks!)

However, THIS (http://www.shark-steam-cleaner.net/) is the one I have. It cleans BBQ grills and car wheels, sanitizes ice chests - and cleans guns!

I have the first one pictured. The smaller ones go for about $40 to $80 and ought to be adequate for gun use. (The website I linked to seems to have been written in Chinglish. Sorry about the gibberish.)