Cleaning Mags
I bought several ak 47 30 rd magazines that have light cosmolene residue on and in them. What is the best way to clean them up for use. Thanks
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Take them apart and clean with a good solvent outside, dry with rags, then maybe a spray with dry lube. Be careful of spontanoius combustion of oily rags. In the old days a soak in gas worked. 0 -
To clean outdoors for safety sake, the best solvent that I have found is rubbing alcohol. Drugstores & Walmart sell it in pint bottles, cheap.
If you want to clean inside with a nontoxic, nonflammable solvent Simple Green is the best.0 -
I've used Hoppe's solvent with good results. I clean the inside with patches on a pistol rod. When thoroughly clean and dry, remember to clean and dry the spring, follower, and floorplate components. I never put any kind of lube inside a magazine.
Be very careful with the spring, when disassembling and reassembling. It is very heavy-duty in an AK, and three times the length of the magazine, when decompressed. The spring will get away if it has any opportunity to do so at all.0 -
I clean with WD-40. After wiping completely dry (compressed air is good too) I use Turtle's Ice paste auto wax applied to everything (inside and outside, spring, follower). 0 -
I was told by a guy I know that a person can put the mags in boiling water without disassembling them and it will disolve the cosmolene. Of course dry them well before using them. Has anyone ever tried that? 0 -
quote:Originally posted by msmalley1227
I was told by a guy I know that a person can put the mags in boiling water without disassembling them and it will disolve the cosmolene. Of course dry them well before using them. Has anyone ever tried that?
It is an oil/wax mix, water alone won't dissolve it. The heat from the boiling water will melt it, which would probably help eliminate heavy areas, but I'd expect water alone, with out any detergent, would still leave a film of it. Any detergent you used, you'd want to be sure it wouldn't damage the finish or accelerate rusting.
Some good basic info on it (there is agreement with my method about the WD-40):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmoline0 -
quote:Originally posted by msmalley1227
I was told by a guy I know that a person can put the mags in boiling water without disassembling them and it will disolve the cosmolene. Of course dry them well before using them. Has anyone ever tried that?
Hot water will melt the cosmoline, but since cosmoline is petroleum based, water won't truly "dissolve" it. I'd expect you'd have some residue left.
This trick would probably work a lot better if you added some soap or detergent to your hot water (aka the "simple green" already mentioned). Heck, if you were to get most of the gunk out, I wonder if you could just run them through your dishwasher!
But in general, pretty much ANY organic solvent will dissolve and clean up cosmoline: kerosene, gasoline, various gun cleaners, acetone, WD-40, etc, etc, though obviously some of these aren't very safe to use or suitable for use indoors.
Use your head, and you'll get the stuff off.0
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