Rusted Shut

4ron said:
I found a Winchester 1894 in a barn and it's rusted shut shut any ideas on how to breake it loose?
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If you can get the wood off it try soaking it in diesel fuel..but its likely the whole action is rusted so may take quite a while...like a month or so...
 
I never find anything cool;)

Maybe start with a can of wd 40 and hose down all the action parts, let it sit then do it again and again and again.

Then a good healthy coat of clp and let it sit a few days.

Repeat until desired effect is achieved, all the while start cleaning its outside.
At the very least you will have a neat wall hangar,or maybe you can resurrect it into a shooter.

Post pictures so we can all enjoy the procedure with you.

Imagine if it was siting there for a hundred years or more.....amazing.
 
There is a product called "Deep Creep" made by a company called "Sea Foam". I've used it to free engines before; seized to running, pretty good testamonial in my world.
Also heat and cold to expand and contract the metal. As far as heat, flame isn't req'd; boiling water or steam works quite well. Cold; raw propane (no regulator)works awesome for quenching...but for the love of god, OUTSIDE away from everything!
Good luck and stay safe
 
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When i was a kid my dad agreed to take a coupl eof old military rifles to clean up for someone. Then the guy brought them over. All of them looked like they had been stored in a shed outside or something :O As far as i remember, there was an enfield, a garand, a springfield, and a k98, all rusted so badly that all the actions were totally unmoveable, thick coat of orange flaky rust on the outside of all metal. My dad said "You can try to clean those up, but I'm not touching them!" So i tried, and over the course of about a month, succeeded :)

First thing i did was spray the 4 guns down with penetrating oil. While that was working in, I used coarse steel wool and more of the same oil to scrub most of the rust from the outsides. Repeated every day for abouot a week, and i was finally able to knock the bolts loose and remove them to soak in yet more penetrating oil. After that, disassembled what i could, and used fine steel wool, a bronze "toothbrush" and lots more oil to clean more. Then switched to flitz and managed to get most of the pitting out. Scrubbed the bores with oil and bronze brushes, then a patch with more flitz to get em shiny again. Not sure if they ever turned out to be shooters, but they all worked smoothly again, and dry firing testing showed that they did in fact work in that respect. With the amount of crap removed from the bores, rifling was definitely damaged. I remember taking the enfield out to the range and trying it, and found that it grouped about 18 inches at 50 yards with handloads if that's any indication.

If i had these guns now, i would probably re blue since all metal parts were scrubbed down to bare metal as there was 100% heavy rust coverage. Keep them for decorative purposes, kinda to say "Yeah, i've got a garand..." but not really worth shooting imo. You might be lucky and end up with a decent working shootable gun. You'll have to do all the work to try it out though :) Look at it as a labour of love, and experience in cleaning/refinishing guns :)

One thing you might want to think about is, is the gun registered? You might want to call and find out/get it done to cover your arse just in case. If it's really badly siezed shut, does it count as deactivated? :)
 
A chemist told me one of the best rust removers is plain ordinary coke-buy a couple of liters and soak anything with rust on it in that for a few days[and don't ask what that stuff does to your stomach]The guy said if it wasn't a ''food''it would have to have so many warning labels on it the bottle wouldn't be big enough to print it all....
I've tried this on rusty old tools and also an old cast iron waffle iron-it works,and for the price of a big bottle of coke is worth trying
 
I knew a guy who claimed to use Mr. Sparkle toilet bowl cleaner to free up ceased up engines for restoration/rebuilds. The question is will it be usable or safe.

Lots of those miscellanious "Emporiums" all through Montana and Wyoming have rusted up solid or totally trashed old lever action rifles of all sorts hanging on the wall for sale with exhorbitant pries on them. I asked the one day what the deal was. Got told that some people just go ape over these things to hang over the fire place, or somewhere in the home to complete the "Old West" look. Mind you, the closer to Bozeman (or Boze Angeles as home grown Montanans call it:rolleyes:), the more of these things you would find. I know to each his (or her) own, but I myself couldn't bear to look at them.

Anyway, good luck with your find. Post pictures if you can.
 
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Toilet bowl cleaner....Ive never thought of that going to have to try it!

I wonder if its some sort of Naval Jelly??



So lets get some photos going-- Ive never had a chance to strip down a Winchester I would love to see one being brought back.:canadaFlag:
 
well, you've got about 10 things to try so far, lets make it 11. A company called WURTH makes a products called ROST OFF. I use this in automotive, it will penetrate anything.
 
You better make sure it's not loaded before you start handling it. Take a small diameter wooden dowel the same length as the barrel. Then feed it down the muzzel all the way and it should fall inside 100%. If it sticks out from the muzzel, than you have a round in the chamber. Keep your hands away from the muzzel as you use the dowel, might as well wear some saftey glasses too.

Nice find, though, check around and maybe there's more stuff.
 
scanner said:
You better make sure it's not loaded before you start handling it. Take a small diameter wooden dowel the same length as the barrel. Then feed it down the muzzel all the way and it should fall inside 100%. If it sticks out from the muzzel, than you have a round in the chamber. Keep your hands away from the muzzel as you use the dowel, might as well wear some saftey glasses too.

Nice find, though, check around and maybe there's more stuff.
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Given the risk that they came from some old farm where they may well have been loaded and ready to deal with pests this is a very significant post. Just because it's rusty and nothing is moving don't skip our usual 4 rules for handling a gun. Hell, there may even be more in the magazine.

It doesn't mean you can't soak them in diesel, just that you want to be darn careful about how you're handing then and where you point it if the test seems to show that there's something down there.

And post pictures of them and the progress when you can please and thanks?
 
There is an very easy and cheap way of removing 100% of the rust without touching the metal. This is so simple and works so well, you won't believe it. Ever seen ancient armour or swords in a museum that have been cleaned to a dark grey patina? Method used by museum conservators is called electrolysis. You probably have everything you need to build one around the house.

You simply imerse the action in an electrolyte solution and attach it to a 12v source negative terminal.

Dishwasher crystals work like a charm for the solution and a tank can be made out of cardboard and tape with lined with a single piece of plastic cut from a garbage bag. 12v can be supplied by a battery or charger, just make sure that the gun is connected to the negative terminal. The positive can be attached to anything conductive you have handy (eg, welding rod, piece of steel or copper pipe) and laid next to it in the solution, make sure that the two don't touch.
Bubbles will rise from the action and the rust will turn to black slime. The action can be left in the rig without worry about harm to the parent metal. The electrolysis will get into every crack and crevice and zap the rust down to the molecular level. Even screw threads will be released.

Tis the same process that they use on ships canon retrieved from the ocean, sometimes they will run the rig for a year to get the thick crud off.

Scrub the black rust slime with a finger nail or dish brush and wash it away to leave a dark grey patina on the steel.
 
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