Removing cosmoline

There was a link to an article on at Surplusrifle.com that showed the results of the dishwasher method, and it seemed to work quite well, except for the warnings about loosing any stamps or impressions ofn the wood. I wouldn't use the "potscrubber" setting if I were willing to risk the dishwasher method myself!

Someone here posted a thread a couple of years back having tried it and damged the hell out of their M-14s, rsut and all sorts of fun.

As I said, some advocates of the method suggest removing your gun from the dishwasher as soon as the wash cycle is over,and using water displacing spray right away, others leave it. The potscrubber cycle might be best for metal, since if you get a hot wash and hot rinse followed by hot dry, you get rapid evaporation and (Hopefully) no rust. Much like pouring boiling water down the bore for post corrosive ammo cleaning.

Note, I am not advocating this method, mearly saying that it CAN work and that there are post on the web to prove it. I don't use it myself.

There is also the idea of going to your friendly neighbourhood garage and using their parts washer. Some of these are really just dishwashers hooked up to a tank of varsol.
 
I tried was remover - doesn't work. I used varsol on the metal. For the wood, I used a hair dryer to soften the stuff up and wipe it off with paper towels. It worked fairly well, and offers the added bonus that it polished up the stock. Can't wait to get the bent handle and scope mount installed so I can go bang away with it. I even got some boxer-primed ammo and some dies, so I can see what she can really do. Will post pics once everything is done.
 
I have to wonder where the dishwasher idea came from. It's just dumb. Water and wood or steel don't mix. Anybody up to volunteer their piece for a cycle on the "pot scrubber" and report back.:redface:

You would only put the wood in the dishwasher NOT the metal bits.:D

I haven't tried that method
 
I used a hand held steam clear for my sks worked great but did take a few beers before the job was done.
I basically stripped it completely down.
Set up two towels, one was for blasting the crap out of the parts one was for letting the parts sit and dry.
The metal parts, just steam the heck out if it and wipe with an old t-shirt.
The wood parts just the flat wand attachment and steam/bleed out the cosmo, or give up and get a tapco tacticool stock like I did :p.

Important to let everything completely dry (which is easy because the metal is hot to the touch) before reassembling.
 
Putting your stock in the dishwasher is a completely "Bubba" thing to do. Some stocks may be ok, but others may warp. Wood can be very unpredictable and just because one Bubba out there did it and claimed it worked, it may fail miserably on another.
 
I'm surprised that we haven't heard from any wives on this yet.;) That'll stop the nonsense for sure.:eek: Mind you, somebody is bound to come up on the net talking about the dedicated gun cleaning dishwasher that he has in his shop.:p
 
I'm surprised that we haven't heard from any wives on this yet.;) That'll stop the nonsense for sure.:eek: Mind you, somebody is bound to come up on the net talking about the dedicated gun cleaning dishwasher that he has in his shop.:p

Yeah, women! Go figger! I got in trouble keeping worms in the fridge in the garage. I pointed out that those things cost more than steak! Had hassles way back when, I used to keep my photo paper and film in the freezer (for the young guys out there, film was like a non-electronic memory card you put in cameras). Women! No sense of priorities!
 
I'm surprised that we haven't heard from any wives on this yet.;) That'll stop the nonsense for sure.:eek: Mind you, somebody is bound to come up on the net talking about the dedicated gun cleaning dishwasher that he has in his shop.:p

The linked to article at SurplusRifle.com included a warning to do it when your wife was away! Also to run the dishwasher empty at least once afterwards before using it for dishes.
 
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