Once it's clean, remove the bolt assembly from the water and place it on a towel. I used WD40 to cut the cosmoline on some Yugo Mags. The protective layer was thick, tough and not easy to remove. You can now use, and regularly clean. Cosmoline is petroleum-based rust and corrosion-inhibiting grease. Take this time to look over and inspect all of the parts for cracks and excessive wear. Cosmoline Removal I'm sure this has been discussed off an on before.but lets start a definitive thread with some tips and tricks! I have seen both commercial and military rifles that sat in closets unprotected for many decades that didn't have any wood issues, some rust speckling on metal, but good wood. I never knew of these methods when I got my mosin, so I spent a week in my basement with some solvent and a few rolls of paper towels. It will melt off the Cosmoline then wipe and oil everything down. Get Our Top Shooting Drills and Zeroing Targets ($47 value - but FREE for a limited time). If you have chunks of cosmo, remove them out first.. carefully remove the "deep" stuff. Switch to Standard View Once youve got all of the surface cosmoline more or less handled, youll want to really start tackling the goo in all of the nooks and crannies of the receiver. 12,772. The cosmoline should start to melt and run off the parts onto the ground cloth. You don't realize how many times you say it until you record yourself without ade. Once youve accomplished this, you can move on to the next step. Back in the day when I was a kid, we use to take packing grease of with gasoline. So we essentially got just enough cosmoline out of them to make them safe to fire and left it at that. We finally discovered the quickest way to remove the cosmoline was to fill up a teapot with water, bring to boil, then slowly pour the boiling water onto the SKS. From there if youre working on a rifle with wooden components, nows the time to separate them and toss them in a trash bag. Each car would come with a small bottle of "Cosmoline Remover" that you`d basically add to water and soak the car with. I've read that I should use mineral oil or WD40. A little spark/open flame & gas vapors can be a recipe for personal disaster, even outside. Today, the mineral spirits found in products like ours are more refined and . Your email address will not be published. Sealing them in a greasy tomb of cosmo guards against the corrosive nature of maritime environments. And stay in touch with newsletters of our best articles on techniques, guns, & gear. They are the go-to gun shop for collectors and shooters alike. 1 Place a part in a solvent-compatible container and spray down with brake cleaner. . By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Do you think I would run into finishing problems with it? purchase helps support my work in bringing you more awesome gun and gear articles. No other commonly available solvent works as well but it aint magic. Depending on the gun youre working on, this may or may not be a concern. If you'd like to consider an effective Cosmoline Remover in aerosol, please see our, RP-342 "HEAVY" Military-Grade Rust Preventive Spray, COMBO OFFER: RP-342 Aerosols (Mix & Match), Cosmoline Direct VCI Paper Rolls (for Ferrous Metals), Cosmoline Direct VCI Industrial Paper Sheets (Pre-Cut). I found some PD680 from a chemical company, but it must be neutured or something because it doesn't smell the same and doesn't work anywhere near what the older stuff did back in the '90's. Brownells sells Rust Veto, a cosmoline equivalent optimized for long-term firearm storage. This isn't good as you will likely be causing your gun to overheat when shooting. Simple Green works great on metal parts, particularly in the ultrasonic cleaner. With repeated heatings and wipe downs you can remove the Cosmoline without damaging the wood. Cosmoline melts at temperatures ranging from 115 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. WD-40 does a good job of removing Cosmoline and is an excellent cleaner especially on plastics. A heatgun or trashbag works well enough to get the cosmoline out of the stock. Just like everyone said, mineral spirits for metal (you can use hot water and simple green too), and bag/heat gun for the stock. We made a trash can cosmo melter. The cleaning process starts by removing as much of the cosmolines as possible. All petroleum-based products are chemical mixtures that are highly complex. I've used mineral spirits, gasoline, heat, soapy water, etc. 5. How to clean cosmoline off your Mosin Nagant 91/30, SKS or any other surplus gun using Mineral Spirits and hot water. Stock in bag on hot summer day worked well enough for me, but left blemishes on the shellac where it bubbled up. Gently remove parts and wipe off Cosmoline or move parts back and forth in bath and Cosmoline will start coming off. In fact, this exact scenario is what probably led you to this article. Cosmoline Removal: Step-by-Step. For Cosmoline removal, I get a gallon of K1 kerosene, then put it in a tub. The honest-to-goodness proper way to remove Cosmoline from anything, really, is through working at it. After eight days, only the very top was showing . The car was washed and dried, then taken back to the detail shop where the paint was buffed out, and a protective coating placed on all of the brightwork. Ive always had the best luck with mineral spirits. I have used before on other parts kits with paper towels or old cotton rags. Use coupon code KTG10 to get 10% off your order of $150 or more at Brownells. Cosmoline was quickly adopted by militaries the world over as a way to chemically embalm small arms, artillery pieces, armored vehicles, and so on for either long term storage or trips across the Atlantic. Please avoid producing WW1-era invisible poisons in your shed. Refinish the wood with boiled linseed oil or Dansk oil. Nothing else like it. 16 Jun June 16, 2022. cosmoline removal wd40. There is no way I would boil a stock! Everyone else has your straight on the steel part. Military surplus firearms are typically very easy to fully disassemble with minimal tools, making it a pretty painless job. In our case, the two Type-56s we received directly were definitely in the latter category of goo-boundedness, with lots of solvent-resistant hardened grease nuggets tucked away throughout the entire firearm. Video shows my process start to finish so you can see all stages. If the metal is removed from the stock, it shouldn't make much of a difference. Dont worry too much if you cant actually get to most of the grease yet, just consider this an initial pass thatll make later cleaning a little bit easier. Repeat this until the patches come out relatively clean. Was thinking of boiling in dish detergent water. Stock in a trash bag on a hot day Or mineral spirits scrub down? I simply pour it on a rag and wipe away the cosmoline. That is why it is called CitriStrip. Fortunately, this mess is pretty easy to clean up. It doesnt cut the oil. Took days of cleaning for all the original proofs and markings to become visible. Kurt is a Gunsmith, Reloader, Hunter, and Outdoorsman. Tends to dry the wood surface but I apply a light oil after I clean as a default measure anyway. Worked really well. WD-40 and a rag take it off easily enough. You are using an out of date browser. Today, you can find literally hundreds of recipes, formulas, tips, trick and strategies online for removing our favorite rust preventative coatingbe careful though, some of these "solutions" are more credible than others. Make sure. This P17 was packed in cosmoline, wrapped in paper, and shipped to its destination like millions of other rifles. You n00b! It's also called "dry chemical". Ehhhh, was my first try with Cosmo. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Cosmoline is a general term for a group of petroleum-based greases with high viscosity, intrinsic rust and corrosion protection, a waxy brown appearance, and a distinct industrial odor. Sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date, Blowback Operated Guns: Way More Than You Need To Know, CZ-457 Accuracy: The Most Affordable Way to Accurize Your CZ, How to Clean and Lube an Over/Under Shotgun, The Complete History of the Lyman Alaskan Scope, Gun Bluing Basics: All of the Methods Gunsmiths Use. Really, you'd have to soak ammo in WD40 to have a chance of it seeping in and killing the primer. anything extra and your This method works well on metal parts, but extreme care must be taken as Kerosene is very flammable. Remove the stock, get a few tooth brushes and start dousing and scrubbing the metal. It is used for undercoating and preventing the damages in a car caused by driving on roads. Weve built dozens of ARs and well cover all the best AR-15 upgrades such as handguards, triggers, BCGs, gas blocks, and more. Lightly go over the parts with the heat gun. Seems to take off anything, including paint spatters without harming the finish at all. Personalize your experience. It's thin or thickly applied depending on the monkey with the sprayer that particular day and is either easy or hard to get off depending on which monkey sprayed your car. Which is just fine if your gonna leave her as it with the finish. However, this one was never opened, making it extremely rare. Just avoid gasoline as your cleaning solvent as its not advisable to use. two weeks ago I used wd-40 to clean off cosmoline off a SAR-80 parts kit, I used it on the plastic stock and metal it worked real well and does not harm the bluing or crackle paint on the receiver stubs. There are a few methods you can use in order to clean Cosmoline off in this state: WD-40 If you spray WD-40 over the metal and any wooden parts, . Mineral spirits on metal. Gets 95% of everything off and takes less time. Type your new password and hit button below to confirm it. Login with username, password and session length. It worked so well that I took pictures and video of the last small cosmoline section of metal I had to clean. You can also apply chemicals such as acetone and kerosene. **This product is not offered in aerosol can containers. Here are the stuff youll need: Avoid using gasoline and harsh chemical solvents as your cleaner because that can strip paint and other coatings from the guns surface. When I began removing the cosmoline from my new Precision Matthews PM-1440GT lathe, it was a little daunting. A dry film of it on the mags isn't going to hurt anything. Repeating that for a couple of days, gave me a pretty nice, undamaged rifle! Today, you can find literally hundreds of recipes, formulas, tips, trick and strategies online for removing our favorite rust preventative coatingbe careful though, some of these "solutions" are more credible than others. That will do the cleaning with no damage to the wood or original oil finish. The protective layer was thick, tough and not easy to remove. Cosmoline is not a new invention and was originally used as a pharmaceutical product in the late 1800s. For future cosmo removal, try mineral spirits. Love your family and keep your powder dry, Quote from: dwcopple on July 07, 2014, 07:08:24 AM. Pressure steam and air dry large parts and wipe down with good oil 3 in 1 is good run hoppes#9 thru the bore after steaming and compressed air drying. I've used WD40 to clean guns (not to lube them) and fired thousands of rounds without any dead primers. The greasy substance is used to prevent their military surplus rifles from rusting. There you go. I'm putting together my jointer and it's time to take off the cosmoline. Place the bolt assembly into the boiling water. This will speed up the process. Re: Cosmoline removal Ford & Pontiac used alot of Cosmoline back in the 80`s & 90`s to protect the car from transit contaminants. You would tie an old shoelace to a receiver, a gear, a bolt assembly, whateverdrop it in a pre-prepared tank of boiling water, watch the clock, and remove. They dunked in the guns in a 55-gallon drum of gasoline.