How to free a rusted gun

[SDG]

I have a couple of rifles and shotguns that I recently had given to me. They were in safe that had been in a flood. They forgot to clean the safe out. So now, the guns all have surface rust on them and most of them are stuck - as in the semi auto shotguns cannot be checked or cleared, the over under shotgun cannot be opened, the pump action gun will cycle but the trigger does not move, etc.

I believe that for the most part these guns can be made serviceable again since the rust I have found is not very deep but of course I need to open them up and go from there.

What do I use to free the guns? Obviously the guns are not in pristine condition but I would prefer not do to any extra damage if possible. Is some sort of penetrating oil going to be my best bet?

 

[jaguarxk120]

Remove the butt stocks and soak in ed's red.

 

[W.E.G.]

Remove the butt stocks and soak in ed's red.

...or the cheapest Automatic Transmission Fluid

 

[jaguarxk120]

Gotta throw in a little acetone so the oil penetrates better.

 

[SDG]

What will the tranny fluid do that a motor oil or a penetrating oil will not do? I want to know what I should do but I also need to know why I should do it.

 

[Buzzard II]

I'm kinda partial to Kroil, so thats what I use. Good luck getting the guns open. While you're waiting for whatever oil to penetrate the actions, get some 0000 steel wool with some light gun oil and lightly go over the external rust to remove it from the surface of the gun. Good luck! Bob

 

[KZinOKC]

This is from Machinists Workshop magazine:


Machinist’s Workshop magazine actually tested penetrants for break out torque on rusted nuts.

Significant results! They are below, as forwarded by an ex-student and professional machinist, Bud Baker.

Don’t forget the April 2007 “Machinist’s Workshop” magazine comparison test.

They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrants with the control being the torque required to remove the nut from a “scientifically rusted” environment.

Penetrating oil ….. Average load
None …………………. 516 pounds
WD-40 ……………….. 238 pounds
PB Blaster ………….. 214 pounds
Liquid Wrench …….. 127 pounds
Kano Kroil …………… 106 pounds
ATF-Acetone mix…….53 pounds

The ATF-Acetone mix was a “home brew” mix of 50 – 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone.

Note the “home brew” was better than any commercial product in this one particular test.

Our local machinist group mixed up a batch and we all now use it with equally good results.

Note also that “Liquid Wrench” is about as good as “Kroil” for about 20% of the price.

 

[SDG]

That's really helpful.

Thanks.

 

[morcey2]

We've used an ATF/Kerosene mix for years on the farm to free rusted stuff.

Matt

 

[Lerk]

I'm curious with the ATF-Acetone mix, is there a limit for shelf life or a tendency for evaporation?

 

[jaguarxk120]

Shelf life? Chances are if there is you will use up what you have before it goe's bad if the stuff erver does.

Do web search for Ed' Red there you can find the formula for it, all off the shelf solvents that can be purchased from Home Depot/Lowes.

For bore cleaning it works great, and better than some of the commerical stuff they charge $$$$$ for.

 

[Gunnerboy]

Im partial to using kroil my self , used it to free many a rusted exhaust manifold bolt

 

[danbowkley]

For very large projects, just letting it soak in Diesel fuel works well. It's cheap and readily available, and evaporates really slowly.

 

[Zednut]

There is a great product called Evapo-Rust that will simply remove the rust by soaking. Unfortunately, since bluing is technically a form of rust, it will nicely remove that too. The product does work as advertised and I have used it on old tools and auto parts with good results.

 

[rundog]

An old friend recommended Olive oil to me years ago on an old rusted gun I had. The action was rusted shut and the outside had lots of surface rust. I went to Home depot and bought a cheap plastic wall paper tub(2ft long and about 8in deep) removed the stock and let it soak. It worked perfect, cheap too!

 

[SDG]

I got the acetone and ATF together tonight and am working on the guns. So far, I have managed to free 2 of them and there are 2 more to go. We will see. So far, it seems to be working.

 

[timn]

This is from Machinists Workshop magazine:


Machinist’s Workshop magazine actually tested penetrants for break out torque on rusted nuts.

Significant results! They are below, as forwarded by an ex-student and professional machinist, Bud Baker.

Don’t forget the April 2007 “Machinist’s Workshop” magazine comparison test.

They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrants with the control being the torque required to remove the nut from a “scientifically rusted” environment.

Penetrating oil ….. Average load
None …………………. 516 pounds
WD-40 ……………….. 238 pounds
PB Blaster ………….. 214 pounds
Liquid Wrench …….. 127 pounds
Kano Kroil …………… 106 pounds
ATF-Acetone mix…….53 pounds

The ATF-Acetone mix was a “home brew” mix of 50 – 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone.

Note the “home brew” was better than any commercial product in this one particular test.

Our local machinist group mixed up a batch and we all now use it with equally good results.

Note also that “Liquid Wrench” is about as good as “Kroil” for about 20% of the price.

I have used the ATF/ Acetone mixture many times.
It is absolutely amazing the amount of penetration, rust, and gunk that it achieves.

 

[Fluxeii]

First time I've ever heard "ATF" and "Works really well" in the same sentence.

 

[brickeyee]

Kroil has more uses than liquid wrench though.

 

[SDG]

First time I've ever heard "ATF" and "Works really well" in the same sentence.

Acetone, that's the key, lots of acetone.

 

[dogrunner]

I recall an article in Brownell's "Kinks" gunsmithing volume that suggested the use of WATER in breaking free badly rusted screws. Supposedly a lot more effective for that purpose than most oils, including Kroil.

At first it sounded strange, but on reflection a soak in warm H2O might just do the trick more quickly and with a hulluva lot less mess. Follow the process up with a good detergent and then a water displacer and you might be surprized at just how well it does do.l