Homemade firearms cleaners/oils

[lead_her_fly]

Here is a link to a very good website. It has the recipes for a bunch of useful stuff for cleaning and oiling firearms.

All of the stuff on there are from "normal" components available in most homes.

It has the remedy for Ed's Red and many many more things.

One thing to note is the vinegar/peroxide recipe for removing lead from barrels. Take a look!

http://www.frfrogspad.com/homemade.htm

Maybe this should be a sticky for a while.

:castmine:

[dromia]

Good link!

Fr Frog's site is referenced here quiet regularly and the Eds Red recipe is all over the place. Which reminds me I need to make up another gallon.

[Bret4207]

A recent test of lubricants showed a mixture of ATF and acetone out performed everything else including Kroil and Break Free. Love it!

[jonk]

Good link. However some users here will advocate strongly against the 50/50 vinegar/peroxide mix.

Also, the homemade bore cleaner he describes looks to be a real pain to build. The simpler method is to use just 2 c cells and household ammonia.

[RugerFan]

A recent test of lubricants showed a mixture of ATF and acetone out performed everything else including Kroil and Break Free. Love it!

What test? Who performed it?

[Bret4207]

It was posted on some of the tractor boards and machining boards. I didn't bookmark the link. Seems like it was linked off Yesterdays Tractor that I saw it, maybe 4-5 weeks ago. Who did it? That I don't recall but I do remember thinking it was an out fit that had a good rep- Home Shop Machinist or something along those lines.

I've been using ATF or ATF and diesel for some years and unless I need water displacing qualities it works as good or better than PB Blaster, WD40, Break Free, etc.

[Treetop]

Interesting link, Lead Her Fly. Thanks for posting it. I put it in my favorites folder.

[lead_her_fly]

Quite welcome Sarge! ;)

[dromia]

A recent test of lubricants showed a mixture of ATF and acetone out performed everything else including Kroil and Break Free. Love it!


Bret was that a 50/50 mix and it was measured on its penetrating qualities?

[Bret4207]

Crap, now I really wish I'd kept the link, I'll see if I can find it.

IIRC it was 50/50, but I imagine less acetone would work too, that's the expensive part. The measurement was on bolts specifically corroded for the test. It penetrated and lubricated better than the other stuff.

[dromia]

Thanks mate, I'm going to give it a whirl I've got a couple of gallon of acetone.

[redneckdan]

The danger with the vinegar/peroxide mix is that it turns the lead alloy into lead acetate. Lead acetate is water soluble and is very easily absorbed by the body. Lead acetate is the chemical that the Romans used to sweeten wine. The solution does work very well for removing heavy leading. I only use it when it would take hours with a brush or copper wool to remove the leading. To use it, plug the end of the barrel, fill the barrel with solution and let it sit about 5 minutes. Empty the solution and scrub with a bore brush then with a patch. The lead will have turned into a greyish substance that looks like powder fouling. Best method for dealing with the lead acetate is to dump the solution on kitty litter, package it up with the contaminated patches and take it to a hazardous waste center. Be careful because this solution does sometimes remove blueing.

[The Virginian]

I have found that using Ed's Red with an old bore brush wrapped with Chor-Boy copper pot scrubbing pad strands on it will go through a leaded bore like Grant went through Richmond...it all comes out from the scrubbing action of the copper mesh and the chemical action of Ed's Red. One guy broght me a severly leaded .22 rimfire that after 4 passes was squeaky clean after using this method.

[Wally]

I don't think Grant ever went through Richmond, but I do believe that Sherman passed through Atlanta...after vacationing in Vicksburg

[carpetman]

When running a patch through the bore on cals not much bigger than .22 you can run a piece of looped .065 weed trimmer line through the bore and then place a patch or a small piece of rag in the loop and drag it out. You can drag a tighter patch than you can push with a cleaning rod. Make sure grit is not imbedded in the line and you aint gonna ruin a barrel with weed trimmer line--well ok maybe a Glock. Easy to carry a piece of weed trimmer line if you have need to swab a bore in the field.

[StarMetal]

Bret,

That's interesting on that mixture and I believe it works too!! I know when I made my first batch of Ed's Red I used Acetone and made sure the container cap was tight so the Acetone wouldn't eventually evaporate.

I've been studying up on Kroil and although thousands swear by it, I don't see it anymore then a petroleum based penetrating oil. I looked at the MSDS sheet on it and that's basically what it is and has a solvent in it. It's made here in TN I believe, but also there's another penetrating oil made here too called Gibbs. Now I have a can of that and tell you where I saw it demonstrated and that was on the TV show "Trucks". The guy there sprayed it on the bottom threads of bolt he had stood up and the dang stuff climbed the threads. So far it has loosen everything I've used it on.

Little off topic, but at the Sunoco Oil refinery I worked at in Tulsa, a man came from Wynn's to show us a demonstration. He had a setup that you could put a bearing into and spin it and with a long lever he could put a tremendous amount of pressure on the bearing. We're talking ball bearings contained within the two races and the other race being about 2 1/2 inches or more in diameter. He soaked the first bearing in STP, spun it up and put the pressure on it and in no time it was smoking, got red hot and then failed. Then he repeated the test with a fresh new bearing except soaked that one in Wynn's Friction Proofer. Did the same thing and never got it to smoke even. Seen that with my own eyes which were better then they are now. I used Wynn's whenever I could get it. Today if I need such a product I use Lucas as Wynn's has seemed to disappeared from the market.

Sorry for the long BS story.

Joe

[nonferrous]

The cool thing about this site is that I just found out that LLA is the same product that Ziebart Rustproofing uses on cars. I had a car rustproofed in the mid 70's when I lived in Minnesota, I have been using LLA and could not remember what that smell was.
When you have a car sprayed by Ziebart, they drill holes in all the doors and other cavities and spray everything. You smell the stuff for about a year.
The car never rusted.