[real_name]

I work in construction, this week I have been sawing a lot of MDF panels generating a lot of fine dust. Apart from getting in my hair, ears and probably my lungs the wood dust is all in my carry gun, it's worn at the back of my belt OWB unconcealed while my jacket is off indoors. It's concealed when I go outside.
I give it a wipe down with a silicone cloth every night when I get home anyway but today at work I was fastening with my nailgun and I thought about blowing out all the dust at the end of the day with the compressed air.
I didn't do it as I was worried about the moisture content in the compressed air, I thought this might rust the gun.
Does anyone ever use this method, or has the MDF dust made me daft?

[ugaarguy]

As long as you lube it afterward you should be fine. We blow the very fine dust out of our M16s with air comnpressors when we get back from field exercises in SW Idaho. Without that I don't how we'd clean them other having an armorer detail strip and clean everything - so it saves tons of time in that respect. I've never seen it cause a problem.

[shooting on a shoestring]

I wouldn't blow out an assymbled gun b/c the particles on the outside can get blown in and wedged into every pivot, hinge and bearing surface in the gun. It might look better but that doesn't mean its better. There's really no substitute for doing it right. Stripe down to individual parts, blow them off if you have too, clean them, lightly lube, then reassemble. I do use compressed air to blow out stripped frames, but then inspect the recesses.

May I suggest using a vacuum cleaner instead of an air compressor if you aren't gonna do it right. The vacuum will pull the debris off and away from the gun instead of pushing the crap into the gun.

Another thought is put your gun in a ziplok baggie. You can quickly rip the bag off the gun should the need arise, or even fire it while still in the baggy. Also the old Calvary guys used full flap holsters to keep the dust dirt and horse poop off their revolvers.

[M2 Carbine]

When needed, I break the gun down for cleaning. Spray it with WD40. Let it set for a while. Spray it good with compressed. Then finish a normal cleaning. The air cleans out places that are impossible to get to without totally dismantling the gun.

Any little moisture that might be in the air is no problem because the gun is lubed after being sprayed.

[real_name]

I appreciate the benefits of compressed air and lubing in tandem but I'm referring to a daily procedure of using the air, I don't particularly want to strip and lube every day too. Presently I only do that after weekly range time.

[earplug]

When I was in the
Army we used compressed air to clean the range M60's and M2's after each days use.
Was A crude solvent bath and then blow out. Solvent isn't much of a lube.
If we had used a decent lube such as CLP it would have been much better.

Stop using the silcone wipe and use a decent modern multipurpose gun prodict such as CLP. Then blow it down when you get the chance.
My last job was hauling horses cross county. Dust, hay etc. CLP and my revolver were fine. After a week on the road my home compressor blew out the crud and all was swell.
If you can't find a compressor a stiff but fine brush works well.

[M2 Carbine]

real_name
I appreciate the benefits of compressed air and lubing in tandem but I'm referring to a daily procedure of using the air, I don't particularly want to strip and lube every day too. Presently I only do that after weekly range time.

IMO blowing the gun off every day would be better than not blowing it off.
I'd have it as lightly lubed as reliable.
But before I took it to the range I'd give it a good cleaning to remove any crud buildup inside.
After using the air for a short time you should get an idea if there's any problem with dust being blown into the action and you clean accordingly.

[shu]

gently, gently.

Back in our office equipment repair days, one of the boys took a high pressure air nozzle to clear the eraser dust out of an old manual typewriter. Blew most of them little springs clean off their hooks and halfway across the room. Never did get it all put back together.

[brett30030]

As long as you are not leaving the gun in the holster at night, and only blowing it out at then end of the day, i cannot imagine that you are doing any damage to it. Keeping it holstered overnight is probably going to cause more problems than compressed air could ever cause.

[real_name]

Keeping it holstered overnight is probably going to cause more problems than compressed air could ever cause.

How so?

[brett30030]

Because almost any holster that is not Kydex or a solid impermeable synthetic will absorb moisture during the day from the air and especially the body. At night it will evaporate from the holster continuing to saturate the gun. It's like having a gun in a moist sponge all day, even if the holster does not feel wet. That is why it is important to wipe down a gun at the end of the day. Have you ever seen any recommendations for keeping a weapon stored in a holster that is not on your person, or in harms way?

[5Wire]

I was worried about the moisture content in the compressed air, I thought this might rust the gun.
Does anyone ever use this method, or has the MDF dust made me daft?Well, I suppose it could be there is moisture in the compressed air and you have been dusted to daftness ;) But it's oxygen that causes rust. I clean the bejeepers out my guns with MPro7/Hoppe's Elite (itself water based); they clean right down to bare metal "at the molecular level", according to the manufacturer.

Apply cleaner with, grips off for better airway access, mop, brush, patch as required and let it sit. Blow the crud out in such a way as to push it all out of and off from the gun. Especially the parts that get hot. Maybe apply cleaner again and blow out and blow dry.

Apply CLP or other terriffic lube (MPro7/Hoppe's Elite) Gun Lubricant, or similar. Place lines of lube where blowing them with compressed air will blow the lube into the action and other hard to reach places. Use a narrow aperture to blow the air and the lube will partially atomize (like with an air brush) and will cover everything with a thin film of surface protecting lubricant over the metal molecule to molecule (cozy, eh?). Then mop, brush, patch the easy places if you want to take the "belt & suspenders" approach.

I found there's a benefit to using a dry teflon spray (Elmer's Slide-All, about $6 for a modest size aerosol can) before the fluid lube or instead of it (what I do) in all the hot places: the chamber, firing pin channel, cylinder bores, barrel bore, and, in particular, the gas pistons and cylinders on my H&K P7 M8 & M13 pistols.

The absence of fluids in these areas seems to eliminate build up of gun jamming crud, a problem the P7s are certain to have within a few hundred rounds using fluid lubes in their gas cylinder/piston mechanisms. Those problems went away beyond my willingness to see how many rounds those guns would go without jamming from accumulated crud. I stopped counting after about 1500 rounds (either gun) because I couldn't stand not cleaning 'em.

A friend with extensive experience working with metal to metal under high temperatures said that the teflon actually bonds to metal surfaces when exposed to heat (like during the 'bang' part of shooting) so that there is a nice protective layer on the metal, slippery as hell, teflon to teflon.

The guns clean faster, too. Even cylinder faces without using abrasives

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y286/5Wire/629CylinderFront.jpg

And forcing cones

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y286/5Wire/629Cone.jpg

I'll bet the same technique on your nail gun would work pretty well, too.

[Sleeping Dog]

Can you wrap the action of the carry gun in plastic wrap or thin cloth when you're doing the dust-raising work like sawing or demolition? Something that would fall away or at least not interfere with getting a first shot off?

Compressed air can move sawdust from the visible places into the places that might cause failures.

[klover]

I've had good results from soaking it with WD40 then hitting it with the air. Much more effective than air by itself. Only tried it on old mil surp rifles, followed by light oil with more air to thin coat everything.

I'm not sure I'd try it on my Sig.

[Dienekes]

I seem to remember that coming up in either an instructor or armorer's class years ago. The word was that it was okay to do but a moisture filter was desirable.

An old-style shaving brush is the classic solution for getting dust off weapons. There is a scene in the movie "The Professionals" where Lee Marvin does exactly that. Unfortunately the next thing he does is flip the revolver cylinder closed which grates on me...

[GRIZ22]

No problem using compressed air. If it's a revolver don't be tempted to use the compressed air to spin the cylinder. The bearing surface on the cylinder and the cylinder yoke are not desigend to be spun fast.

[redneckdan]

i usually use carb cleaner and compressed air for cleaning

[real_name]

It's not a revolver so worries there, although that's a good tip for the future.
The gun in question is a Sig P232. I'm not really worried about the finish as it's a Sig and it's tough as nails anyway.
But as the hammer is open (last carry gun was Taurus 24/7, no exposed parts) I've been paying extra attention to dust, I'm still unsure if the air will blow it in worse or blow it out. So I haven't done that yet.
I considered soaking the gun in solvent spray and air hosing that out.
I don't want to strip clean the whole gun every night, and I don't want to wear the gun in a bag.
So, I'm still covered in dust and so is the Sig, but I'm sure it will kill me before it kills the gun.
And fortunately next week I'm doing something else at work.

[aaronrkelly]

I use a can of compressed air to blow the lint and fuzzies out of the hammer area of my carry gun about once a week.

[Boxerrider]

In my experience MDF dust is very fine and also fairly abrasive. I would start by cleaning then using a lube that dries instead of one that leaves an oily surface the dust could stick to. At the end of the day I agree on reaching for the vacuum instead of the air hose.

Enjoy!

[Nnobby45]

Jeez, I've been washing out my Sigarms pistols' trigger mechanisms with Gunscrubber, Shooters' Choice, or something similar, and blowing them dry with canned air for some time now.

Then I put some TW25B grease in there as best I can, then I go real easy on the air trigger to distribute it. Doesn't everybody do it that way?:cool:

[jjohnson]

I dunno, I'm not sure whether you're daft but the dust likely has little to do with it ;)

Nah, I use compressed air all the time, especially with things like 22 autos that weren't really meant to be broken down and cleaned like, say, a military firearm (but were designed to collect crud). For a long time, I've used a procedure something like this:

1) do the bore's dirty work - like foam cleaner and a scrub and let it sit awhile;
2) blow the crap out of the whole thing (stock/grips removed and sight protected if needed) with compressed air;
3) shoot the dirt with brake cleaner... yeah....
4) blow the crap and brake cleaner out...
5) clean with 'regular cleaning procedures' the old way;
6) blast some wd40 or LPS into the guts....
7) blast out the excess with compressed air
8) re-lube anything that really needs a drop of oil... like a slide rail..;
9) finish up the bore with a clean swab;
10) wipe any remaining excess lube away....

You wouldn't believe how much crud gets blasted out when you do a thorough job. It works well as long as you do it right and don't just rearrange the dirt. My malfunction rate, especially in the .22 autos, has
gone WAY down, and I don't feel grit in the trigger pull anymore. I do use a
real air compressor and not canned air. 100psi and greater moves a bunch of stuff. Make sure you do this in your garage or your wife may kill you. :evil: My guess is your fine handgun would operate better without the dust... I'd rather blow dust out if I only had a minute to deal with it than just let it collect. Your SIG would likely fail from dust collection sooner than from lack of lube if you're blowing it out often.

[orionengnr]

If you own an air compressor, I hope you note that there is a drain cock on the tank. That is there for a reason. Open it and find out.

A compressor takes in ambient air, humidity (moisture) and all, and compresses it, which forces the moisture into solution. You can spray water out of a comressor tank into your auto's tires or into your pistol.

A water filter is a good thing to have on your compressor, but it must be changed frequently. In humid conditions, "frequently" may be "weekly" or "near-daily". I would not use a garage compressor or any unknown air source to "clean" my carry pistol.

Canned air "should be" relatively moisture-free. Probably a better choice. Still, not mine. YMMV.

And as far as WD-40...no. Do a search and find out why...

[Jim K]

WD-40 will gum up and in some conditions can mildew and ruin the finish on a carbon steel gun. Also, in this situation, it will only serve to trap and retain dust. If there is no reasonable alternative to carrying the gun in dusty areas (like stowing it in a personal locker or leaving it in the car) I agree with the idea of using a baggie or Saran wrap to keep out the dust, rather than trying to clean it out later.

Jim