Electronic bore cleaner

[Patrick Chadwick]

Gentlemen, I am not an electrochemistry expert.

I should therefore be grateful if someone who does have such knowledge could explain just what goes on inside the barrel with these bore cleaners.

The mixing of vinegar (acid) and ammonia (alkaline?) that is often recommended seems peculiar from the electrolysis aspect. Especially since the usual advice is to keep acids away from steel and not leave ammonia bore cleaning liquids in the bore too long, But this method adds an electrical field to intensify whatever effect these chemical are having.

Why should the bath just remove the cupro-nickel, and not the steel as well?
And if it does indeed preferentially remove the CuNi, what about the surfaces that do not have copper fouling?
And what happens after the copper has all been removed - does the bath then start removing the surface of your barrel?
Is that black sludge in fact black iron oxide?

I ask this because in the well-proven electrolysis of rust as a cleaning procedure, the workpiece is the cathode. And the bath is the anode - the sacrificial anode, as it will eventually get eaten away. So when people enthuse about a method whereby the workpiece becomes the anode, I wonder just what is going on....????

All I find on the internet is sellers' puff and users' enthusiasm, but no satisfactory explanation as to what is happening to the electrolysed surfaces. Someone please enlighten me!



P.S. If I were you ptf18, I would leave the barrel alone until someone provides a good explanation, other than "I tried it and it worked". How much of their rifling did they remove along with the copper?