Thorough cleaning

[Reno380]

So I found this video of a gunsmith tearing down a poorly maintained Ruger 10/22 rifle and he explains the workings and such, basically teaching gunsmithing...he has a way of cleaning I never heard of or seen and I plan on doing the same. He uses simple green spray bottle and a old baby wipes tub filled with distilled water. He sprays all the parts down thoroughly with simple green the uses a tooth brush to scrub them, picks\sharp edges to scrape tight corners where the toothbrush could not get, just like all of us do, but I at least never used or heard of using simple green, as soon as he scrubs the part he tosses it into the tub of water, then when done cleaning with SG takes the parts and thoroughly rinses them then dries them, oh yeah he had a old baking sheet lined with paper towels all the way through the process. When he returns with the cleaned parts he lays them out on the towels in the pan and takes breakfree oil oil sprays them down heavily! He insists on it, then just wipe them with a towel paper or cloth, then as you reinstall the parts, oil with a needle oiler with breakfree. I use bore cleaner, copper scrub brushes, toothbrushes and hobbes gun scrubber, installing parts I use lucas gun oil and a refillable needle oiler for tight areas. Has anyone here ever used simple green to clean\degrease their weapon(s) then completely re-oil?
Reno

 

[Mizar]

Some black powder shooters use it for cleaning because it seems to deal with carbon fouling quite well. It's a viable method for cleaning, only dry the steel parts real well after that. Pure and simple tap water, hot with some soap added is a wonderful cleaner also. Naphtha (diesel fuel), ZIPPO fluid... Another great cleaning agent, known from the black powder crowd, is "Moose milk" - that's Ballistol oil with water, about equal parts mixed... The truth is, that different CLP oils don't deal with fouling all that well compared with some Old School cleaning solutions, but are convenient as they can't provoke rust.

 

[jaguarxk120]

Soap and water will work wonders on many guns and parts.

I use a ultra sonic cleaner on gun parts many times, using a water detergent solution,

parts come out squeaky clean.

 

[boom boom]

The truth is that any detergent based cleaner will help remove old oil/crud/etc. As those above have mentioned, using water based cleaners like Simply Green is common for those shooting black powder rifles but make sure that the water is extremely hot which promotes immediate evaporation of most of it. Just make sure that you re-oil the metal after and get every bit of water off of the metal.

I prefer using something like odorless mineral spirits (the low tox stuff--don't get the cheaper recycled stuff) for everyday crud because I don't like dealing with hot water that much where I clean firearms.

 

[Schwing]

I don't shoot black powder and water will never be a part of my gun cleaning process but I can vouch for simple green. For a couple of decades, I worked in my Dad's CNC shop and we used simple green to clean up metal parts all of the time. We used a large vibratory tumbler to clean and smooth up metal parts and always tossed in a bit of simple green to get the machine oil and crud off. It is good stuff.

 

[Reno380]

Well he only used distilled water to wash off the simple green and remaining crud, then immediately dried the parts and oiled them. I guess distilled water is better than tap because it does not have everything in it like tap that causes faster corrosion, that is why I use distilled water in my car radiator my motorcycle radiator and the batteries in both. I'm still going to use simple green, on the video he shows how bad this rifle was (it was not black powder either, ruger 10\22 rifle) just owner did not know how to maintain, probably like my father in law with the MK I I now have, he used wd-40 to clean and oil it regularly, took me hours to clean most and soaked it overnight, I stripped the bluing and polished everything on that gun, no jams now, but I do need a magazine for it.
Reno