Removing Cosmoline

[WARFAB]

I was the lucky recipient of an unissued Hi-Standard magazine. Any tips on removing the cosmoline from the innards of the magazine? I managed to get most of it cleaned up with some rags and Q-tips along with Hoppes, but I'm not sure how to get at the stuff deep inside the magazine. I would prefer not to soak it in gasoline, because then I'm not sure how I'd dispose of the gasoline.

[Norm DeGuerre]

I . I would prefer not to soak it in gasoline, because then I'm not sure how I'd dispose of the gasoline.

a Match ..??

I start with a heat gun to get thing soft, wipe what I can, and then use Brakecleen

[Pissed Off Patriot]

Hot water will melt it away.

[thughes]

^ This. I use a large pot of water on the stove to clean metal parts....the cosmo will melt and float to the top as the water heats up. Just be sure to skim the oil off the top before pulling the parts out. Oh yeah, you'll probably have to do this while the wife is out of house.

[WARFAB]

Thanks for the tips everyone. Brake cleaner didn't give me the super easy path to instant gratification I was hoping for, so I figure out how to take the magazine apart. I then went to town with some heat and some hoppes, then used the brake cleaner for the final cleansing. I now have another functional magazine for my H-D Military.


HSMag2.jpg

P.S. -Putting it in a pot of boiling water just seemed wrong on multiple levels. Couldn't bring myself to do it.

[Jester]

Willie, if you were brought up on a farm (like me) and divorced (like me) you run hot water on the small parts in the kitchen sink.
When you get one of those stocks that you just can't get the cosmo out of the grain, into the dishwasher it goes!!!

[Pissed Off Patriot]

Oh yeah, you'll probably have to do this while the wife is out of house.

This is true!

Then there was that time I put that SKS stock in the oven on "warm" with a foil lined pan underneath.

The wife was out of the house.

She still wondered why the oven smelled next time she used it.

Caught!

[thughes]

Those Chinese SKS's from a few years back were absolutely horrible! I think I've still got about half a tub full of grease around here from the few that I cleaned up. (that wasn't cosmoline they were packed in, it was just plain old axle grease.....lots of it)

[WARFAB]

She still wondered why the oven smelled next time she used it.

Not a chance I was willing to take.

[Meketrefe]

It looks great. One thing that works great is a bath in acetone but when it doubt when paint or plastics present get some very hot water and a drop of dish soap and put all parts in the sonic cleaner if you have one. The hot water and sonic will dislodge all the gunk at the microscopic level. After that any motor or gun oil will finish it up after drying.