Removing cosmoline - can't believe I never tried this...

[Black_Valkyrie]

After all the Internet videos and mineral spirits and diesel rain gutters and rags and chemicals - tried something different today (though there is a good chance this method is already pathetically buried somewhere deep within this site)

Stripped an sks down and dumped the parts in a big blue rubbermaid tote. Sprayed everything down with simple green and let it sit overnight. Sprayed down the barrel - everything.

This morning poured building water over everything (used a silicone glove so i could hold the parts as i poured) and it's spotless in one go. No chemicals, no smell no mess. A drenching in 4 kettles of boiling water and the job is done right down to the cleaning kit and the oiling bottle.

Don't think I needed the simple green. Boiling water was so effective that looks like it's all you need.

Poured the collected brown goo onto my neighbor's bamboo on the property line. Will report back on that too.

 

[VanIsleCam]

Lol - what the beef with the bamboo?

 

[GreenBob]

Works like a charm.

 

[EL34/6L6]

Removing cosmoline from metal is a cinch. It's the stock that can prove to be more challenging. Just when you think you got it all...ooze...drip...bubble...

 

[Black_Valkyrie]

Circa 1812 works well for the stock.

 

[j_06]

Lol - what the beef with the bamboo?

Haha the fact it will probably his and his neighbors in short order, that stuff grows nasty fast.

 

[kodiakjack]

Lol - what the beef with the bamboo?

Google Japanese knot weed.

Evil, evil stuff.

 

[TheWhole9Yards]

Google Japanese knot weed.

Evil, evil stuff.

Learned something new today.

 

[kodiakjack]

Learned something new today.

...and thank the lord above that you read it in the interwebz, and didn't spent the last eleven years trying to eradicate it with every method under the sun while your neighbours grow more and more spiteful of your fence line. Some Saturday mornings I go out to cut the grass and my wife finds me hours later laying on the lawn in the fetal position sucking my thumb. Evil, evil stuff.

 

[cyclops666]

I baked the stock in the oven, it oozed Cosmo out for hours.
Don't do this if your a sensitive pussy to bad smells

 

[ljones]

I commented on a post in this section yesterday suggesting this... have used it on hundereds of SKS's and Mosins.

 

[grelmar]

Poured the collected brown goo onto my neighbor's bamboo on the property line. Will report back on that too.

Brake Clean and Cosmoline. My neighbours wonder why I've got the only garage apron on the block without a weed problem.

 

[VanIsleCam]

Yeah knotweed is another matter - I actually assumed it was rats living in the bamboo that was causing the issue - they love that chit.

 

[ljones]

Don't think I needed the simple green. Boiling water was so effective that looks like it's all you need.

Poured the collected brown goo onto my neighbor's bamboo on the property line. Will report back on that too.

The Simple Green makes a big difference.I use the Purple Colored Simple Green HD. Works the best. But don't expect it to kill weeds. I have been pouring the stuff on the edge of my lawn to hopefully reduce the amount of grass trimming I need to do... no dice. Grass grows just as well or better...

 

[Shooter1971]

I strip them down and use my old lady's dish washer. Can rust if not careful though.

 

[Gatehouse]

I strop the gun apart, then put it in the box of my pickup. Then go through the car wash a few times.

 

[bigdyno]

If anyone drives by Exshaw, AB and notices all the new steel structure, know that it all came from China covered in cosmoline. We, and by we I mean our apprentices, used grinders with wire wheels to get the stuff off the steel and on themselves. Evil stuff in those kinds of quantities. Also, the MSDS is worth a read.

 

[VanIsleCam]

The stock is not so bad. The truck dash in full sun with stock wrapped in a towel and into a black garb bag worked well for mine. Though I did pack the cavities with newspaper where I could not have contact with the towel.

 

[TheWhole9Yards]

For the stock a heat gun or the oven works. Or 100rounds as fast as you can load

 

[Butcherbill]

I've always soaked the small components in paint thinner and just used boiling water on the reciever/barrel, honestly by the time I've poured two kettles down the bore etc the paint thinner has removed the #### from the small bits. I think boiling water works just as good as thinner does, if. Had to choose one over the other I'd take boiling water, it dries itself and is pretty much free.