Cleaning my new SKS...

Iceman_Chris

Iceman_Chris

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I have read the previous posts about cleaning cosmoline covered SKSs. I don't have alot of fancy tools and such (and my mom won't let me use the dishwasher), so this is what I figured I'd do. I went to Canadian Tire and picked up some more gun oil (I figured I'd need more) and a 4L bottle of mineral spirits (essentially Turpentine). I thought I would take the SKS out to the backyard and give it a good initial wash with hot soapy water in a large tub. Then, I'd disassemble it completely and let the smaller parts soak in the mineral spirits in an old paint tray or something. After that, I'd rinse the whole thing in water (to remove the mineral spirits) then let it dry in the hot sun.

How's this sound?

[Mods: you can delete this after a few people verifiy my method]
 
use brake cleaner after the soap and water and that baby will be dry as a bone
not sure but tupentine might strip the wood finish
Daniel
 
I think it depends how much cosmoline is on the gun now. Is it totally covered with cosmoline? If not, you're probably going overkill. The sks I bought from lever was pretty clean new. I suppose mineral spirits would cut through the grease. I think the dishwasher thing was for people wanting to strip the finish off the wood. And then I'm pretty sure they were putting only the stock in the dishwasher.
Strip it down to the basic parts. Try the mineral spirits, it may work well enough. As mentioned, the brake cleaner (and carb cleaner) works really well. Get a pull-through or pushrod to clean the bore. I run a patch through. I've used purpose-made patches or I just cut a square off a rag. I wouldn't let a wet oil-less gun dry in the sun. That's asking for rust. When all the grease and cosmo is off, give it a light wipe with gun oil to stop rust. Keep the bolt dry, no oil.
 
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Mineral spirits will definetely cut the cosmoline from the metal parts. I agree with dh79 though, rinsing them with water and allowing them to dry in the sun is definetely asking for some rust, especially on the unchromed parts :redface: Forget the rinsing part, after they're dried with a rag you could just let them air out and the mineral spirits will evaporate in a short time (turpentine is very volatile, so do it in a ventilated area). Don't use a hair dryer to accellerate the process, for that matter avoid any potential ignition sources while turpentine fumes are around.

Once that's done, you can grease/oil the metal parts as required and assemble them. The consensus is to keep the bolt & firing pin dry and unlubricated, but I always shoot my firing pin with Liquid Wrench or WD-40 (which contains mineral spirits, incidentally) and lightly grease the bolt rails, and I've never had a slamfire, even with Federal SP ammo. It's up to you though.

As far as the stock is concerned, the turpentine will also work (and strip off that horrible orange shellac at the same time, which is NOT a bad thing!!), but you could also try the easy-bake garbage can method outlined on surplusrifle.com :D I've never tried it myself (don't have the space), so I can't say how well it works, but the pics on the website speak for themselves. Just a suggestion :cool: I've never stripped cosmoline from a wood stock, my SKS went straight into a synthetic stock as soon as I got it, so I have no experience in stock refinishing. Lemme know how the degreasing goes though!
 
I'll tell you what I did with mine (she was my very first "real" rifle), strip it down, put the stock aside, go to the hardware store and buy 2 cans of the cheapest brake cleaner you can find, spray all the metal bits, brush/wipe, repeat as needed. The stock and the wooden bit above the gas piston can be wiped clean, if not some hot water bit a bit of dish soap on a rag and some elbow grease will do it. Soak the bolt and trigger assemblies in a separate jar of brake cleaner overnight, wipe clean. Re-oil, you're done.
 
So poweredbybeer, what is the whole process you were describing? Skip the water and soap and just use mineral spirits? I have some brake cleaner also.

Chris
 
Iceman_Chris said:
So poweredbybeer, what is the whole process you were describing? Skip the water and soap and just use mineral spirits? I have some brake cleaner also.

Chris
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Yes, that's exactly it. Ideally, there should be some way to agitate the mineral spirits and mix the fluid around in order to knock some of the larger chunks of cosmoline off and to promote dissolving/homogenization, but that's not always possible. If you had access to an ultrasonic cleaner (like these ones; Ultrasonic Cleaners), that'd be peachy, or if you have the space for a bench-top solvent tank (like this one; Harbor Freight 3.5 gal Bench-top Solvent Tank), you'd be set :D Failing that, just dump a bunch of solvent in an ice cream bucket and shake the parts around a bit, get an old tooth brush and do some scrubbin' :cool: Be sure to work the firing pin back and forth in the bolt rapidly, while the bolt is submerged in mineral spirits (unless you punch out the pin and completely disassemble it, in which case such finangling isn't necessary). Drying won't be necessary, they'll air-dry overnight no problem. Good luck!
 
I sprayed my new SKS with some stuff called Gunk-Away on the advice of an employee at Royal Sportsman. washed away the Grease easy as pie. Wiped it down, oiled it, good to go.
 
It arrived on Thursday and I completely stripped it down then put all the metal parts in a bucket of mineral spirits. After an hour I took the parts out and let them sit to dry. Everything was clean as a whistle and the bucket was full of orangey-brown mineral spirits. It worked extremely well I must say.

Thanks for all the pointers guys.
 
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