removing cosmoline in a apt

Good luck .
Best thing to do is strip it & clean all metal parts with gun scruber or use automotive brake clean (cheaper than gun scrubber & same stuff) then lightly coat all with good quality gun oil . But not in your apartment .
 
It's not that bad really. The one I got a couple of weeks ago was packed as well. I set down with a bottle of rum and a 6 pack of Keiths... Next thing I new, it was morning..

Oh, and the rifle was more or less cleaned. LOL :D
 
A less volatile solvent like 70 or 90% isopropyl alcohol and a bunch of rags should do the trick with out any major stink.

I walked a friend through cleaning his at his place a while back, no complaints from his wife about smells.
 
fogducker said:
as im about to get my first sks soaked in cosmoline:) is there a secret to removing it in a apartment?without stinking out all my neighbors?
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I recently cleaned up this rifle in about an hour or two with no chemicals at all.

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I used a paint stripping heat gun, one of those blowdryers on steroids...first step was stripping the rifle down, if you don't you'll never get it out.

The key is to not overheat the metal or wood, just enough, don't hold it too close. Not hot enough to warp the wood... Before too long, the cosmo liquifies and runs off. Do it over a pile of newspapers and have handfulls of paper towels to wipe the action out and wood off. It works so well it's almost a pleasure to do.

Here's hoping Chinese cosmolene isn't some toxic crap...:eek::cool:
 
For the metal parts, boiling water does magic too. My Mosin had cosmo all over the place and it just wouldn't leave. I boiled a bunch of water, mixed in some soap, and scrubbed and washed it down. As you go the water will start to turn brown as the cosmolene liquifies and eventually it'll all just run out. Don't forget to oil your rifle all over after though.

Edit - if it's going down a sink or drain, make sure to run the water reeaaalllyy hot for a while afterwards - cosmo will dry in cold pipes like a mofo!
 
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Simple Green and VERY VERY hot water in the bath tub (a handshower makes it super easy) then just wipe it down (lots of rags) and oil. No smell, no chemicals. After cleaning the tub (Simple Green) no evidence for the wife to see, just "thanks for doing the tub".
 
H Wally said:
For the metal parts, boiling water does magic too. My Mosin had cosmo all over the place and it just wouldn't leave. I boiled a bunch of water, mixed in some soap, and scrubbed and washed it down. As you go the water will start to turn brown as the cosmolene liquifies and eventually it'll all just run out. Don't forget to oil your rifle all over after though.
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I thought of that...asked the wife is there was a pot I could use...answer was no...:mad:

Ian- fill the bathtube up with slimy cosmolene, which then runs down the drain and solidifies in the pipes? I've heard better ideas, sorry. Ever had a clogged bathtub drain? It really sucks...
 
Yeah, nix the drain method. Your best friend is heat to liquify it and wipe of most of it with rags, then do the fine cleaning with the solvent of your choice.
 
Most Norinco's come only with shipping grease( or the ones I got came that way). My M1 looked like it had been dunked in a vat of melted cosmoline and then put on a rack for 50 years, it was coated very thickly inside and out. The hardest part was getting the oil out of the wood. What seemed to work was placing the stock out in the sun on some newspaper and then wiping it down every couple of hours, it took two hot sunny days to get no more oil bleeding out of the wood.
 
Easy bake cardboard oven

After removing most of the cosmoline, I took a cardboard box and placed 4 100 watt light bulbs and then let it sit for the day. I checked with a meat thermometer that the temp never went above 190 but I would open a flap on the box to let the temp cool back to about 150. The cosmoline dripped out of the wood. I then finished off the parts that were more deeply soaked with a paint heat stripped blowdrier. The smell isn't that bad. Cosmoline kind of smells like your grandfathers old house... I don't know it just remided me of that...
 
cantom said:
I thought of that...asked the wife is there was a pot I could use...answer was no...:mad:

Ian- fill the bathtube up with slimy cosmolene, which then runs down the drain and solidifies in the pipes? I've heard better ideas, sorry. Ever had a clogged bathtub drain? It really sucks...
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it doesn't solidify in Hot Water and Simple Green, if it didn't work I'd be living in a cardboard box, with no WiFi.
 
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My friend just get a new Norinco, it is coated with normal yellow grease, not hard to clean at all - the grease is still very soft, not like cosm, which is waxish.

If you are as lazy as me, just clean the barrel and throw the bolt into boiling water for 30 min - then you are ready for zombi combat.

My friend didn't clean the gas tube (he is new to SKS), and the gun shoots like dream...
 
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