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Good general purpose solvent?


D.Hayden

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Any recommendations on a good solvent I can just soak gun parts in, that won't hurt them and is relatively cheap?

I'd like to throw an AR bolt or bolt carrier in, let them soak, to get rid of carbon.. finishing off with a wire brush.

Thanks.. Dave

Edited by BerKim
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blast 'em with automotive brake cleaner. The rattle can comes with a straw you can stick in the nozzle. Just wear some safety glasses or goggles when you do go to hose down your gun parts. The chemical can come bouncing back at you or your face rather quickly.

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Oh, yeah, I would only recommend the automotive brake cleaner for metal parts. Plastic parts...well... that could be bad!

:surprise:

Hard on fiber optic inserts.....I also recommend the nonclorinated stuff, not quites as deadly.

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I have brake cleaner.. and I do use it.. but I still have to scrape a lot of stuff off, especially on the AR bolt and carrier after shooting a lot.

I was looking for something, I could just toss them into, take it out the next day, with everything nice and loosend up..

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Dave,

The best tool I had in the Army to remove this was just a piece of wire hangar about 4-6" long. On one end, just hammer it flat to make like a putty knife looking thing. Then...just start scraping. As for solvent, on stuff like that, you could use Hoppe's #9 or Sweet's 7.62. The latter would probably melt it off.

Rich

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Brake parts cleaner isn't much of a solvent, it's a degreaser and it's hard on your skin and lungs (even the non-chlorinated stuff which almost all BPC is these days). My favorite degreaser that's easy on my skin is lighter fluid, the kind you fill a Zippo with. It doesn't have a smell that I can detect and it doesn't make my nerve endings tingle if it gets on my hands.

For general purpose soaking automatic transmission fluid works great, it penetrates and is a good solvent for powder, grime, and oils. It doesn't do anything for lead as far as I can tell. ATF also washes off cleanly with a degreaser.

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Moved....

if it's a gun question...it fits somewhere (and need not be in "Questions that don't fit anywhere".

:)

Thanks Flex.. it was more of a "I don't know which forum to post this in..."

There wasn't a Maintenance section, or something like that, that I was looking for..

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Be aware of using certain solvents on nickle finishes (dunno if this applies). Many times the nickle finish is applied over a copper base. If you soak these nickled parts in Hoppes or any other solvent that can attack copper you'll likely ruin the nickle finish. Small holes in the nickle allow the solvent to get under and the copper disolves... then the nickle flakes... etc...

Most of the AR-15 bolts I've seen nickled are electroless nickled which I don't *think* begins with the copper base. Research this if this applies to you.

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I am wondering if it is baked on crud like what you would find on an AR bolt and carrier group just how well one of those ultrasonic cleaning gizmos would work.

:unsure:

It sounds to me that it still comes down to some combination of Kroil, Hoppes #9 and/or elbow grease. :roflol:

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Hoppes#9 is about the most forgiving .

You can soak parts in it and not really worry about leaving them in for to long if you get distracted by another task or called away by work,family , etc.....

Others can be more aggressive but you pay the price for their aggressiveness by being a slave to the cleaning bench and not being able to just soak them and walk away for a while.

Hoppes is also not so bad odor wise where Sweets, Butch's, and Shooters have strong odors that will set off "The Real Boss".

JK

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Warren, I have been using SLiP 2000 for years (as a gun lube nut not cleaner) but have never tried it for cleaning carbon, I will have to give it a try today. I have heard a lot of great things about their Carbon Killer product but haven't gotten any to try yet.

Joe W.

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