Just received my CMP Garand! :) What is best for cleaning & removing cosmoline?
Thanks,
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Just received my CMP Garand! :) What is best for cleaning & removing cosmoline?
Thanks,
Some use boiling water. I use trade name Varsol. Don't do it indoors in any case. Also...don't put it in the dishwasher.
How much boiling water does it take to get rid of the blasted stuff? I just poured three huge pots of boiling water through my Mosin barel, and ... a day later ... cosmo is still coming off when I wipe the chamber with a cleaning patch.
Egads.
I spent right at three hours removing the cosmoline from my CMP Garand. I used paper towels and rags on the furniture and set the metal parts on the sidewalk and poured boiling water on them, it worked fine. Just remember to oil the parts right after. When I shoot it in the sun a little cosmo still leaches out of the handguards but someday it will stop.
Something I have used that works well is a heat gun.
You do need to be careful and use this only on a gun where you
can remove the stock completely.The last one I did took about 20 minutes. I did it over an old t-shirt to soak up the cosmo. Wear gloves, apply heat, watch the cosmo drip off.
Hope this helps.
Regards.
Chubby 308
It's dangerous, but almost anything that works is. I have used gasoline to clean cosmo off the metal surfaces. A big pan full of it (outdoors and far away from any ignition sources) and a good stiff brush work great.
The best thing for the stock is heat. It will take time. Wrap the stock in newspaper, place in a black garbage bag and place in direct sunlight for a day or so. Keep changing the paper and in a few days (depending on how soaked it is) most of the cosmo will be absorbed by the paper. After that, take some acetone/paint thinner/denatured alcohol/lacquer thinner (you get the idea--any solvent) and wipe the stock until you can't remove anymore cosmo.
You can also try what I did ONCE...place the bottom rack of your kitchen oven as low as it will go. Cover the rack with tin foil. Turn the oven on low and place the stock on the rack. Unless you have a huge oven it will stick out the door, but that's okay. Warning!!! Few thing smell worse than burning cosmoline, don't ask me how I know. In a short time the cosmo will have leached out of the stock and ran down onto the foil where it smokes and stinks to high heaven. But...it works.
daveboy
5 gallons of kerosene mixed with one quart of type F automatic transmission fluid. Works great!
During WWII, my Dad was detailed to clean cosmoline off .30cal machine guns, along with some squad-mates. He told me they used drums of boiling water to do the job. He is gone now, so I can't ask him any more, but I'm sure the drums were set up by an ordanance man. My Dad had very little mechanical or field engineering aptitude. But thats how he said they cleaned them.
He also related that in his first fire-fight, his M-1 Garand oozed hot cosmoline onto his hand, so much so that he thought he was hit and bleeding. He commented that whoever cleaned the cosmoline off that M-1 didn't do anywhere near as good a job as he and his friends had on those .30cal machine guns.
In any case, cosmoline soaked Garands can be considered in "battlefield condition".
Thanks for sharing that story, SFoster, very interesting. So the Garands were packed in cosmo, period, not necessarily just for long term storage?
Storage was never a pre determined timeframe. You never knew how long it would be. Short term was an oil and long term was cosmoline. If you packed away 10,000 rifles, you could unpack half the next year and the rest never. Cosmo is just the accepted preservative.
Thanks, brother, for the information. Makes me feel better about my genuine WWII era M1 I bought that some poor guy had spent hours removing the cosmo from.
Cheers.
I just watched the "Pacific" which shows the poor Marine bastards using 1903s against the Japs becaus they did not have M1, unless they stole them from the Army. Poor bastards. Thank God for machine guns.
Thanks, all. I'll get to work as soon as my shoulder heals (another unrelated story, altogether :madsmile: ). I'll post results when I get it done.
Last time a de-cosmoed a rifle I used a couple of spray cans of brake cleaner and some rags, worked fine.
Just saw your thread, is what you have an HRA Greek return? If so, what mine was covered in was not cosmoline but grease, you can use the same methods provided, it's just cosmoline is tougher, IMO.Quote:
Originally Posted by Allred
I use mineral spirits (on the metal) and tooth brushes or chipping brushes.
For the wood, I use the let it roast in the sun technique and then use alcohol and toothbrushes.
As for the Mosin barrel....I have one that I think my grandchildren (whenever I have any) will still be trying to get the crud out of.
Many years a go I was able to buy a re-imported USGI M1 that had been sent to and stored in England. It was a slime of cosmoline...
I passed it off to my dad to deal with, that made him happy. As I was working all of the time, I was not around to help in the clean up.
He had a wood stove on his patio and built a good fire, set a 20 gal barrel on it full of water. As the water was coming up to a boil, he broke the M1 down, bagged up the smaller parts and dumped it all in the water. He told me that he had dipped several quarts of cosmoline (and water I think) out of the barrel. The stock was a very light birch color after being boiled. It looked quite good after being finished (steel wool and Linn seed oil over and over and over).
He later sold it or traded it. But that one way to get out cosmoline.
OSOK
Years ago somebody told me about the boiling technique as well. He said that he was headed overseas for occupation duty in Germany, they all had brand-new M1s issued to them and there were drums of boiling water set up on the deck of their troopship to use.
Personally, I've used carburetor cleaner on the metal, and Simple Green and hot water on the wood.
A fouled bore may be more than cosmoline. Try some Ed's Red, available at Brownell's or make your own - see http://www.precisionweapons.com/CartGenie/EDs_Red.pdfQuote:
Originally Posted by Amsdorf
Ed's Red is a superior solvent & cleaner that will remove fouling and oil/grease/cosmoline from a bore no matter how petrified.
i heard that boiling water and simple green works good. get a turky pan and fill it a little more than halfway w/ the watter add a good large splash of simple green and scrub with some sort of toot brush or toilet scrubber or something.
the gun has to be dismantled though.
as for the wood your on your own you tube might have some vids on it.
"and on the eighth day god blew his nose and said let thare be cosmoline"
I like mineral spirits and a non-metallic brush. Sometimes you get to a point where you find that the grease/cosmo almost appears to be a laquer coating. In these cases a double edged razor bade will remove it in flakes w/o any damage to the underlying metal finish. I just cleaned up a NOS 1944 M1903 barrel before installation. It was still in the original gauze type Springfield Armory wrapping over the original cosmo which had become "petrified" to some extent. I needed to get it good and dry to prevent slippage in the barrel vice and this approach worked well.
I've always just used rags and Rem Oil, it has worked just fine everytime..........