Any tips on cosmoline removal? It’s bad

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beeenbag

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So I recently purchased one of the type 56 norinco sks’s that classic firearms received, and boy is it covered!

I’ve de-cosmolined a makarov but it’s much smaller and wasn’t covered nearly this bad.

Anyone have some handy tips or tricks for easing removal?

Here are some pics to grin at knowing it isn’t you that has to remove it.

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Heat. Disassemble the thing as much as you can. If you have a grill, set it on the lowest heat you can with disposable tray or aluminum foil under the parts.
If you can suspend the pieces over the drip tray, it will let all the goo drip down. Keep the heat down though as you don't want the cosmoline to catch fire. Think it stinks now? Wait til it's burning! The parts should come out basically spotless with little more than a need for a quick squirt with some degreaser to get the remnants. Then oil as required. If you want, you can wipe some light oil or WD40 over the metal while its still hot to get a nice patina and some extra protection on the bare metal parts.
You can also do a stock this way, but you have to watch it carefully. Wood expands quite a bit with heat and will weep that crap right out but it can also wreck finishes and cause cracks to spread. If you do heat up the wood, do it slowly and in stages. You might have to refinish a stock if its lacquered and gets too hot.
 
We use to put them in burning barrel of gasoline, sometimes we would use mule kick.
 
Before you use any solvents, wipe as much as you can off the stock and metal with disposable rags. Using a plastic scrapers and qtips if you must, but get all of the excess visible cosmolene off. Then depending on your climate, one way to remove quite a bit of it is to put the firearm in a black plastic trashbag (i would put some paper towels or rags at the bottom of the bag to absorb the runoff) and put it in your vehicle on a sunny day. You can also use odorless mineral spirits which do a pretty good job on removal of the remainder after you dismount it from the stock. Have plastic picks or wood bamboo bbq skewers to get the stuff out of crevices.
 
Get some good sized plastic tubs. Sometimes found in the camping section for washing dishes. Soak the parts in Klean strip mineral spirits, 1 gallon should be enough. The cosmoline just melts off. Have a few disposable brushes, withe plenty of towels and rags. Also get a can of break cleaner with the longest nozzle and tube you can find. That will help you cleaning out the barrel.
 
Car wash. Soap it then use the hot water rinse
Go home and clean the rest off by hand
I found mineral spirts work well cleaning it off
 
(as cjwils mentioned above) I had a Mosin Nagant that looked like that. I bought a 5 gallon paint bucket from Home Depot...set 4 pots to boiling water on the stove...filled about half the bucket with boiling water. Put the pieces in the bucket (having removed the stock). It took it right off. I did the trick with the stock of putting it on the back floorboard of my car (in Texas in the summer) and each day for a few days, took it out and wiped it off with a clean towel and returned it. After a few days, it was pretty well de-cosmolined as well.
 
<chuckle> I've received a few like that.

I start by melting off as much as possible with a hairdryer/heatgun (if the latter, low setting and be verrrrrry careful) while suspending the rifle over BIG trashcan and then clean what remains with mineral spirits. :)

EDIT:

The one time that the heat trick failed to remove cosmoline was on the the "sticky-snot" cosmoline in which the Albanian SKSs were slathered. YUCK! What a clean-up mess THAT was.
 
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I took them apart, got off all I could, and then put parts in a black plastic bag in the sun. That cooked out a lot of it without me risking messing things up with a solvent. Takes a while to do it that way but worked for me.
 
I have used mineral spirits as mentioned before. I sweated the cosmolene out of the stock by steaming it. Over a pot of boiling water. It worked pretty well.
 
I have used paint thinner and lacquer thinner. I did that with several rifles.

Regarding the stocks I wiped them down and tried a little thinner on a rag. It worked well enough until I was out shooting in the hot sun. Cosmoline oozed out of the wood. I had to keep wiping the stocks down every time I went shooting in the desert. After multiple trips the cosmoline stopped oozing from the stocks.

I did not know about the steam trick for stocks. Thanks Glockuka.
 
Odorless Mineral Spirits, black trash bag, lots of throw away rags and PATIENCE are the only things I can say. Don't try to do it all at once, take your time and do it slowly and carefully, it is worth it. My Yugo SKS looked like that years ago and I cleaned it over a week.
Update: place the bare stock in the black trash bag and leave outside to "sweat" the cosmoline out, clean up with a mineral spirits soaked rag and repeat several times. When you are done clean the stock with soap and water and let it air dry in a cool dry location. Take your time doing this or the stock will warp and crack as stated below.
Cosmoline is a pain to clean, but the reward is worth it.
 
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Patience, half a can of Ballistol, an old toothbrush and a lot of paper towels. I hadn't ever taken an SKS apart before so I was in no hurry. I actually enjoyed the process. If I had to do several, it would get old really fast, but for just one gun, it's a fun way to spend an evening getting acquainted with a new purchase.
 
Many years ago we had a contract to clean the cosmoline off of VW's that came from overseas. We used a hot water pressure washer with kerosene mixed in. Those beetles were heavily covered all over with cosmoline and our method worked really well. I'd find a different way to clean the wood though.
 
I had an absolutely coated Makarov. My recipe for success was this:
Field strip
Soak in mineral spirits over night
Wiped it down
Put on top of the space heater in a metal pan
Wiped it down
More mineral spirits
Wiped it down
Cursed at it
Wiped it down
Cried a little
Wiped it down
Sold it for what I paid
Bought one that had been cleaned properly


Worked for me!
 
First off there is a lot of good info offered and some not so good info offered so far.
You have to look at it this way. You are going to be cleaning two different types of material, wood and steal. You can't clean them the same way and expect to get the same results.
1st, like Boom Boom said, remove as much of the cosmoline with a plastic scraper, or wood Popsicle sticks and rags. If you have a small jar, save the cosmoline, You may be able to sell it to a collector one day. ;)
With the gun dissembled use boiling water like cjwils said. I like to hand the action using wire over a metal container that I put the small parts in. To speed up the cleaning you can use a cleaner, but it's best to use one that will work with water.
I like to use Tilex Bathroom cleaner.
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I use a tea kettle to boil my water. While I'm waiting for the water to boil, I spray down the metal parts with the Tilex. Once the water is ready just pore it down and over the barrel. Spray on more cleaner and then more boiling water. This should get just about everything off the metal.
Pore the water out of the container and lay your small parts out to dry while they are still hot.
Apple a good gun oil to all metal parts while they are still warm and let them sit over night.
The next day just scrub the parts with a nylon brush as you would with any other gun you would clean.

Now for the stock. Remember that the oil and cosmoline did not soak into the stock over night and that you will not be able to get out of the stock over night. You will be able to remove the oil and cosmoline from the surface and some from just below the surface.
You can use the Tilex to clean the wood, as long as you do not let it dry on the stock.
Oh! the handguard can be a pain to remove. you can just leave it on the gas tube and clean it with the stock.
Spray the stock down with the Tilex and use a soft scrub brush to scrub the stock. Use the water hose to wash down the stock and then dry off with a rag or paper towels.
DO NOT HEAT OR SET OUT IN THE SUN TO DRY!!!!!! This can cause trouble like the stock warping.
Put the stock in a cool dry place and allow it to dry. Your stock will be lighter in color once it has dried, but you are not none yet.
Now it's time to apply heat to the stock. You don't want to get it too hot so, be careful if using a heat gun. I like to set it out in the sun and let it sit for a few hours or more..
Oil will come to the surface. If it's a lot, put paper towels into the action area and cover the stock with some more paper towles then wrap with news paper. Set it out in the sun. The back dash of your vehicle works great to heat the stock up on a warm day , but your wife may not like the smell.
Wash and dry the stock like before. You may have to wash it 2 to 4 times.
Do not sand the stock. It is most likely made of Chue wood and will fuzz when sanded.
To smoothen the stock all you have to do is Bone it. This is done by rubbing the stock down with a hard wood dowel. This will compress the and smooth the surface.
 
Strip down and put that SKS in the dishwasher. Works like a charm.
OMG!!! Not the EVIL dishwasher. Two things that makes a dishwasher work Water & Heat. These two applied to a stock at the same time is asking for Bad JUJU to happen. If there is any stress in the wood it will warp or split or both.
And then you will have to explain to the wife why the dishwasher stinks.
 
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