Oven Cleaner for dirty bore?

[JP1954]

Yes.....That's right........You read it correctly.........I am considering using oven cleaner to try and clean the bore of a WW1 rifle I have that I am beginning to think went all the way through that war without a cleaning!....

So far I have used Hoppe's 9(even filled bore and soaked (overnight), Tetra, foam, J B bore paste, copper brush, and scores of patches that still come out dark gray/black after a few runs with a copper brush.....I noticed this oven cleaner takes off burnt carbon deposits from the stove burner grates so I got the idea that maybe it could remove burnt powder fouling from the bore. The can says it's Sodium Hydroxide (LYE). It says it is safe to use on iron and stainless steel so I'm thinking it wouldn't hurt to fill the bore and let it sit overnight. I have the barrel/receiver removed from the stock so it wouldn't get on anything. It would only be inside the bore and chamber. I'm thinking if it is safe to use on iron that probably means it's non-corrosive.

Any opinions out there? Am I crazy or would any of you in the same situation consider trying this?:banghead:

 

[BobCav]

Hmmm, I've heard of guys using oven cleaner on old CMP milsurp stocks to remove the cosmoline, but not in the bore. As long as there isn't anything in it that would etch the bore, it should be safe. I degrease all my old milsurp with Purple Power or Zep Industrial Purple and that is primarily Sodium Hydroxide also.

 

[Bad Flynch]

No, no, no! Oven cleaners are usually lye based and that is an excellent chemical with which to rust and corrode the bore. In addition, caustic soda (Sodium Hydroxide) will eat your body, too. Sodium hydroxide solutions are the basis for gun bluing chemicals in the hot tanks, and that means oxidation. The natural extension of uncontrolled oxidation is Iron +3 Oxide (rust).

Go to Corbin's website and get some of their bore cleaning paste. It is more aggressive than JB--it has synthetic sapphire as an abrasive. Then go to Brownells and buy the felt bobs and mandrel that fit on a cleaning rod and use those. They even have the felt bobs with brass wire impregnated in them.

 

[DeltaGunner]

GO FOR IT!!!!!
Use baking soda and water mix after to neutralize it. Don't let it soak over night it will probably hurt the metal.
I use oven cleaner on alot of different things besides ovens. Like degreasing an engine block at rebuild. It removes all carbon, grease and paint. wicked stuff.

 

[Jim Watson]

You get the strangest things on the Internet.
Sodium hydroxide is not much corrosive to steel. (It will attack flesh faster than almost any acid and is a definite safety hazard to the user.)
Sodium hydroxide's main purpose in bluing salts is to raise the boiling point to where the nitrates in the mix can do the oxidizing.
Sodium hydroxide is strongly basic (alkaline) and a weak base like soda is not going to "neutralize" it. Extended water wash is the best way to get it off, I would not care to experiment on home neutralizing it with vinegar or such.

Oven cleaner contains other stuff and is not straight sodium hydroxide. Personal protection is still needed, rubber gloves and goggles at a minimum. I doubt it will hurt your barrel any worse than it hurts your oven.

I don't know how clean it will get your surplus, and I don't know how much good it will do. A rough barrel thoroughly cleaned will often take more or less shooting to get to a "condition" where it will do well. Seems to need some fouling to fill in the pits.

 

[Joe Demko]

The inside of the typical household oven is enameled, so what a chemical does or doesn't do to it is no indicator of what it would do to a bare metal surface. In this case, sodium hydroxide doesn't attack iron so it shouldn't do much harm to the bore itself. On the other hand, it also doesn't attack copper, so it won't be doing much to remove any copper fouling either. The abrasive paste will do a better job cleaning the bore without the hazards of screwing around with lye.

When I worked for a coal stripper, one of the things I did was tend sodium hydroxide tanks. They were big steel tanks with a faucet that IIRC was made out of bronze. The sodium hydroxide never damaged the tanks or the faucets that I noticed.

 

[JP1954]

Thanks guys....Seems the consensus has more or less confirmed what I've been able to learn about this chemical. It doesn't attack iron or copper (but apparently it does attack aluminum and emits hydrogen gas in the process- if anyone is interested)and I appreciate the warnings, I did know that it aggressively attacks flesh so I will definitely be carefull.....I'll let you guys know if it helps.

 

[DWARREN123]

Oven cleaner can be really nasty. Try shooting some and clean while still warm with a good bore cleaner.

 

[JohnBT]

Just because I found it while doing a little googling. This is about cast iron, but I could clean a whole bunch of guns at once. John

Using Lye: Find a large plastic container. I cut the bottom off of a plastic 55 gallon drum for this (large enough to put everything you wish to clean into). For every 5 gallons of cold water, add one can of "Red Devil" brand lye. Wearing long rubber gloves, gently stir to mix with a wood spoon. Tie a strong piece of string or twine to some point of the cast iron piece and gently ease into the solution. Let stand for a few days, checking progress every two days. Before you know it, your item will look as if it just came from the store. Keeping the gloves on, remove, and place on newspaper to drain off any excess lye solution. Rinse well and wash with hot water and soap before re-seasoning.

I've done all my cast iron in this manner and several pieces my neighbors, including one pan that looked horrible before cleaned. The solution turns black as tar, yet keeps on working so it really keeps forever in order to clean over and over any cast in need of a new finish.

 

[7six2]

Not quite the same but on an old bolt action I once cleaned the barrel with CLR (Corrosion Lime Rust) remover. It actually did one hell of a good job. Of course I made sure the barrel stayed well oiled daily for three days after. Word of warning - it will strip bluing like you wouldn't believe.

 

[Steel Talon]

Try Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner

www.bluewonder.us/BlueWonderGunCleaner.html#Gun Cleaner Video

Peace
Steel Talon

 

[JP1954]

Last night I tried the oven cleaner......I put gloves and goggles on and sprayed it into the chamber and used a stainless steel cleaning rod to work it down the bore (it is a foam.) It said to let it soak for 15 min to clean an oven. I let it soak a couple of hours, the way my wife does for the stove burner grates. I then rinsed it out with copious amounts of hot water. I then immediately dried it off with a towel while the barrel/breech assembly was still hot and then ran two dry patches down the bore to dry it.
I looked down the bore. It looked the same. I then used Hoppes #9 on a patch and swabbed it followed by a copper brush with #9, followed by another wet patch. As before, the patch came out black. I went ahead and did a couple more evolutions of swabbing, brushing, and swabbing. At the end the swabs came out gray but no longer black. I looked down the bore and it does look better. Maybe the oven cleaner helped but I think I may have just finally come close to getting it clean after 100+ brush strokes and so many patches that I have lost count.