Cosmoline removal?

[Glockfan.45]

Sorry if this thread already exist. I searched for almost an hour and every time I searched the term cosmoline it just gave me threads that the user name cosmoline posted in. I just bought my first surplus rife (a yugo sks) and found myself shocked at the amount of cosmoline they managed to pack this thing in . I have never had to clean one up like this before whats the best method? Honestly I am tempted to heat the oven up, put the parts in an old pan, and melt the gunk off. However a small voice inside me says thats a bad idea. How do you guys clean your mil-surps?

 

[Beren]

Oh man, you scared me. When I saw the thread title I feared somehow Cosmoline might have gotten banned from the forum!

[Edited to remove info I found was incomplete.]

Check this link:

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting/cosmoline/index.asp

 

[Lonestar.45]

I stripped mine down completely, then put the wood and the gas tube with the wood on it into the oven at 160 in a "boat" of aluminum foil (to keep it from dripping into the oven) and the oven door cracked open slightly. Keep the temp low, do not get it too hot. Pull the wood out every 20 minutes and wipe down with a mineral spirit soaked rag. Keep doing this until it stops seeping out. It took mine about 2 hours.

As for the metal, I used brake cleaner and cleaned the heck out of it. For the trigger group and magazine w/ all those springs, I put them in a pot of boiling water on the bbq pit side burner, then pulled them out and used brake cleaner. After all the metal was done, a good wipe down with Breakfree CLP, put it all back together,and you're good to go!

 

[eng23ine]

I just dumped all the metal parts into a tube of kerosene overnight, rinsed with garden hose and dried/oiled it. Took care of 95% of the cosmo.

 

[mete]

Somewhere in the internet is an 'oven' made to remove cosmoline. It was made with two metal garbage cans with three lightbulbs used to provide heat [your wife won't appreciate the use of the kitchen stove !!!] 150 F will melt it out , then you can use solvent for the little remaining.

 

[jhco50]

Gasoline

 

[Dienekes]

After picking up my Yugo SKS I stopped at the local carwash, laid it out in the car bay, and set the machine to "grease removal". Blasted the heck out of it which got 95% of the cosmoline out. All the gunk went down their drain, not mine. Still had to get the remnants out of the nooks and crannies but after that it was pretty routine.

Sort of a variation on Colt's ad years ago where they showed one of their new stainless 1911s in a dishwasher.

 

[Cosmoline]

What did I do this time?

Seriously, do a thread search on this one. There are several really good collections of information. Maybe they should be posted via sticky?

 

[thexrayboy]

Using a coin op car wash as Dienekes says is a good start. I have a pressure washer that I hook up directly to my hot water heater. A hot stream of high pressure water will take cosmoline off real fast. What little is left when I finish is easily handled with a can of brake cleaner or carb cleaner. After that its clean and oil as usual.

 

[TimboKhan]

You can melt it off, and www.surplusrifle.com has a neat how to on how to build a rifle "oven" to do just that. Essentially, its a garbage can with some hi-watt lightbulbs in it. Not necessarily a better way, in my view, but different and effective.

 

[Banshee]

I use a 6 inch dia PVC pipe about 4 foot long with screw on end caps. Fill it with Varasol and place the stripped gun in and let it soak for a day or so.

 

[Banshee]

I don't why the repeat

 

[Banshee]

?

 

[Ben Shepherd]

Engine brite foamy engine cleaner.

Foams all the cosmoline out of nooks and crannies, doesnt hurt any paint markings like the yardage markers on an m59/66 grenade sight.