Cleaning the shipping goo from a rifle

[Ohio Rusty]

When you get a rifle from across the pond (serbia, romania, etc) they come caked in shipping goo and grease. Suggestions please for good household products to clean the goo from a rifle -- all metal receiver and polymer stock and handguard.
Thanks in advance

Ohio Rusty ><>

Remember when an Apple meant fruit, a Mac was a truck, Windows meant the glass on your house and Blackberries are what grew in the field behind the house ......

[waksupi]

Goop hand cleaner, and a stiff brush, along with lots of paper towels.

[ilcop22]

That "shipping goo" is usually an anti rust agent like cosmoline. Easiest way to remove it is heat. It has a melting point of 170*F, so even a hair dryer will do.

I typically boil the small parts or run them through my ultrasonic cleaner with dishsoap and near-boiling water, then just use Hoppes or CLP and cleaning clothes.

If it's really bad, I'll use a hair dryer or heat gun over a bucket or old newspapers to melt off the majority of the cosmoline, then clean as usual. For wood or polymer stocks, don't go any hotter than a hair dryer or you'll damage the finish or warp the polymer.

Alternatively, you can use a steam gun on the metal parts. The water helps move the melted crud along.

For the bore: some type of bore foam or gel, then clean as usual.

There are probably a dozen other ways to do it, but I use those methods most often.

[Dan Cash]

Gasoline. Be sure you smoke up wind. A barrel of gasoline that you can dunk the gun into and soak it will really do the job. Is it safe? Heck no, but it does gets the job done.

[milsurp mike]

Rap the rifle in Rags and put it in a Black trash bag and put it in the Sun for a Day or 2 and the Cosmo will melt and soak in to the rags.It want remove the original finish like Solvents and other concoctions.Might have to wait for a warm day in Ohio.Going to be 80' here for a couple days.Good Luck. Mike

[DIRT Farmer]

I use desil fuel and a stiff brush. Proably not as fast as gas but the flash point is higher. I keep a bucket for parts cleaning / soaking.

[Uncle Grinch]

Some time ago I built a heat box that I hang the stock and/or barreled action in to remove the cosmoline. It has a light bulb for a heat source and a drip pan in the bottom.
Works very good. Slow heat, time and gravity take care of the sticky cosmoline.

[milsurp mike]

I have seen the heat boxes before but haven't ever tried them.I always just use the rags and black trash bag method.I would the heat box instead of the solvent or concoctions as to retain the original finish.Mike

[shotman]

gas is fastest and if it not then light it will take care of its self

[leadman]

Paint thinner (mineral spirits) work well. If you go to a home improvement store and buy one of the long, skinney containers for wetting wallpaper in this works well.

Cheap brake cleaner from Wally World works great for the hard to reach places.

Simple Green works well to remove the residue left from the paint thinner and makes it smell nice.

[ilcop22]

gas is fastest and if it not then light it will take care of its self

:lol:

[pilot]

For getting it off metal, I use brake cleaner. Spray it on and it evaporates the gunk.

[dragonrider]

Hardware store, buy 5 gallons of unscented kerosene, it is sold as heating fuel and does not smell. Reusable many times.

[Hip's Ax]

I wipe off as much as I can with paper towels, then take it all apart and I use Ed's Red and paper towels on the metal and Formby's Lemon Oil Treatment and paper towels on the wood.

[Ed in North Texas]

I have seen the heat boxes before but haven't ever tried them.I always just use the rags and black trash bag method.I would the heat box instead of the solvent or concoctions as to retain the original finish.Mike

Mineral Spirits won't remove the finish from the wood unless you scrub the heck out of it, or leave it on a long, long time. I usually use a paint brush and mineral spirits, obviously a bore brush for the bore. This will clean the grease/cosmoline and also cleans the dirt off of a BLO finish without removing the BLO.

Leadman has it exactly right, the long plastic trays for wall paper are perfect for cleaning a rifle.

Everyone has a favorite way, but I'd stay away from the gasoline as being too dangerous.

Ed

[canyon-ghost]

Mineral spirits paint thinner, it's oily and safe for wood provided you just wipe it down with a wet rag. I cleaned a Winchester Wildcat 22 like that, was a Russian import. Cosmoline everywhere, even in the bore.

Mineral spirits is good stuff, close to kerosene.

[lbaize3]

Use WD-40. It worked well on my Isapore 308.

[gnoahhh]

My uncle told me of being on a punishment detail when in boot camp in 1940. They were forced to clean the cosmoline out of a pile of about a hundred 1903 Springfields, using brushes in tubs of gasoline. Evidently it worked well, and was SOP for that particular mean-assed sergeant, but Unk said it was the most disgusting job he had to do (pre-ETO combat). He said he and his buddy had stripped down to their skivvies to do it, which earned them a weekend of KP for being out of uniform, on top of the weekend spent cleaning those rifles. All that for throwing a cigarette butt on the ground!

[Arceagle]

I almost hate to get in on this thread but I can't help myself. I collected Milsurp rifles for several years and the most discussed and cussed topic was cleaning the cosmoline out of the stock. Metal parts are easy because you can use almost any good solvent. The wood though only time and heat can bring the cosmoline to the surface where it can be wiped off.

De-greasers are often used to remove the suface cosmoline, I often used Purple Power. Some de-greasers require water rinses after application. Most people don't like to put water on wood, but I did it all the time without any problems. just make sure the water is very hot. If you have a collectable stock I wouldn't advise the harsh heat/de-grease/rinse method, because you may lose some cartouches from the stock. If it is already a beat-up club of a stock clean away with this method it will actually take dents out of the stock (raising the fibers really).

When you finish and allow the stock to dry it will be completely bleached out. However when you start applying the oil of your choice back to the wood it will take it and have the true colors of the wood. I very seldom added any stain to the oils.

Let me warn you though even as nasty a job as it is when you start seeing the results you can get hooked on re-doing these old stocks.

Milsurpshooters forum is the place to go to learn about this subject.

[SciFiJim]

If you don't want to build a heat box, try hanging the stock in your attic. Put something below it to catch the drips. Not a fast method, but it works. For the metal parts, I pour boiling water over them. The heat speeds the drying. I apply a good gun oil after it is cleaned.

[mustanggt]

I'll jump on the mineral spirits band wagon. I bought a Russian and it was the most filthy rifle I'd ever seen. I made a trough out of a plastic gutter and sealed end caps. I just took my time and went over it with a brush. It took me two days to get it all off and that didn't count the sewer pipe barrel. I'm still cleaning that thing and it's been over two months. That foaming bore cleaner is where it's at. Made the prettiest cobalt blue color on the patches.

[Arceagle]

Just went back and read your question again. Don't use any solvents on a polymer stock. If it's wood all of these are good suggestions. They make polymer safe cleaner/degreaser. Make sure it says it's polymer safe on the can because several companys offer safe and not safe in very similar cans.

[Shiloh]

Know any auto repair guys?? Parts washer works great. In the summer, warm mineral spirits or diesel
fuel. Leave the solvents in the sun, and they get good and warm.

What toy did you get??

Shiloh

[azrednek]

Rap the rifle in Rags and put it in a Black trash bag and put it in the Sun for a Day or 2 and the Cosmo will melt and soak in to the rags.It want remove the original finish like Solvents and other concoctions.Might have to wait for a warm day in Ohio.Going to be 80' here for a couple days.Good Luck. Mike

That is pretty much the same process I use. My twist, is I stick it in my car's trunk and park it in direct sunlight. I usually wrap the rifle well with toilet paper then scrape it off after everything cools down and the cosmo has solidified. After you get all the grease off you will need some heat to bleed the grease out of the wood. Don't get carried away with a heat gun. Be patient and use just enough heat to warm it up as the cosmo slowly oozes its way out of the wood's pores.

The last one I did I used a pressure washer in my back yard prior to the toilet paper wrap. Gave me a good head start but the grease killed the grass and it took a year for the yellow spot to turn green again. The next one I will take to the do-it-yourself car wash.

[nwellons]

I like the sun and paper towels, too.

I just wanted to add that I ruined the collectability of a Finnish rifle when I used Purple Power. It took all the oil and grease off but the finish was an aged oil finish. Now it looks like a brand new piece of wood.

I've learned; no chemicals on collectable wood stocks.

[Char-Gar]

The quickest and best way is to have a friend with a steam cleaning machine. Zips it right off.

[azrednek]

The quickest and best way is to have a friend with a steam cleaning machine. Zips it right off.


Works great but be gentle on the wood or it may separate the grain.

A person I met at a gunshow buying a Turk Mauser the same time I was from J&G's table. He said his brother worked at one of the tourist resorts in Scottsdale. His brother would run his rifle through the resort's dishwasher. He claimed that the rifle came out sparkling clean, completely de-greased and the second rinse cycle left light coat of wax on everything. He claimed with the wax and the hot air blow dry, he didn't have to hurry covering the clean metal with oil.

Don't think I'd want to eat off the dishes that came out of their dishwasher!!

[felix]

Prolly true, using some water soluble edible polymer. Would make sense to close the pores on ceramics used for food. Carnauba has been used as coatings for years on fruit and drugs. ... felix

[Uncle Grinch]

Most all of these suggestions work and I have tried a good many of them. To me, while the heat box works on metal it's especially safe on wood. Solvents and water really are hard on wood and destroy the finish and pores much more than heat alone.

Be especially careful on any collectable milsurps. We need to preserve as much of the original finish as possible.

[corvette8n]

I've poured boiling water on the action once out of the stock, also used boiling water on wood stocks soaked in cosomoline, them rubbed them with BLO once they dried.

[Ohio Rusty]

Thanks all for your great advice. Rifle cleaned up nicely, now I just need to get some boolits down range.
Thanks again ....
Ohio Rusty ><>

[madsenshooter]

Oh, you got it done. I was going to suggest tying a string on it and dipping it in one of those big green tanks there in Hocking County, but that would probably just made more of a mess. Coming home soon, permanently I think, to wander too and fro through the 6000 acres of woodland I used to wander around in as a kid. Nice that there's no season or rules on coyotes or wild hogs, will give me an excuse to be packing a highpowered rifle there, except for during the deer gun season.