Every Once In Awhile, You Get Lucky

[bob q]

Soak it and then use high pressure air , my shop has 250 psi . Find a shop with high pressure .

[MAC702]

Will it ooze out with some heat, like cosmoline will? Sometimes we put them in a greenhouse box or just sit them outside in the summer here, and a lot of it will basically melt off while you're doing something else. Makes for a lot less mechanical and chemical removal later, even when you can get to all the moving bits.

[mnmkeller]

Would a hair dryer be warm enough to soften it without worries of scorching something?

[Singer B]

Those are both great ideas. It is still running in the high 90's/low 100's here and if placed in direct sunlight, I imagine that heat might work. Definitely worth a try. I'm also going to try the air pressure idea after some more work with the pipe cleaners and Qtips.

[Singer B]

Just wanted to report success with the trigger. I pretty much used everyone's recommendations along with some advice from Don (the Japanese firearm guru) to inject a de-greasing agent. I went ahead and used Qtips to inject a good amount of standard Hoppes (breaks up grease and also contains banana oil). Using pipe cleaners and Qtips, I worked as many angles as possible from the gaps located at the front and back of the trigger. After each scrubbing session, I used a can of keyboard duster to blow out the excess solvent. After a session where the Qtips and the pipe cleaners came out clean, I used a few blasts from my air compressor to finish it off. The trigger functions smoothly and feels similar to my 1941 Toyo Kogyo. Thank you everyone for your help!