Thread: SKS Cleaning

Hi all. I recently picked up an SKS still gunked up with cosmoline. I have read online some different ways to clean off the cosmoline from the metal components such as simple green and hot water, or a soaking in mineral spirits. What do you guys recommend for this, and is mineral spirits the same as mineral turpentine, as I can't seem to find the former over here? Cheers.

Simple Green is pretty good stuff as far as I am concerned. Go through buckets of the stuff for all sorts of stuff.

I have cleaned a few SKS and found acetone works really well. if you take the stock off and warm up the action and barrel the cosmoline is far easier to remove.

Mineral spirits I think is meths?
look I reckon it will be just too hard.
Freight it down to me and I'll throw it away for you lol

I have done a couple of SKS's and a mosin, all with heaps of cosmo still on them and got ok results with acetone.

What I did was strip them down completely and scrape the worst of it off with a plastic putty tool and plastic tyre levers then leftthem over night in a home made solvent bath. For that, I used a metre section of 90mm PVC pipe (gutter section would work just as well), fitted with an end cap, put the parts in and pretty much filled it with acetone. What I learnt (messily) after the first time is that you have to do your homework what sealant etc you use to fix your end cap, as a lot of solvents will eat right through it, meaning as soon as you move your bath, the cap falls off...

After it has soaked, I used rags and toothpicks for the rest of the cosmo.

It was pretty ballsaching though, I can't help but think someones found an easier/ better way. This stuff seemed like it might be worth a try https://rifleshooter.com/2018/02/eas...oline-removal/

Originally Posted by ubique

I have done a couple of SKS's and a mosin, all with heaps of cosmo still on them and got ok results with acetone.

What I did was strip them down completely and scrape the worst of it off with a plastic putty tool and plastic tyre levers then leftthem over night in a home made solvent bath. For that, I used a metre section of 90mm PVC pipe (gutter section would work just as well), fitted with an end cap, put the parts in and pretty much filled it with acetone. What I learnt (messily) after the first time is that you have to do your homework what sealant etc you use to fix your end cap, as a lot of solvents will eat right through it, meaning as soon as you move your bath, the cap falls off...

After it has soaked, I used rags and toothpicks for the rest of the cosmo.

It was pretty ballsaching though, I can't help but think someones found an easier/ better way. This stuff seemed like it might be worth a try https://rifleshooter.com/2018/02/eas...oline-removal/

This webpage has some pretty handy stuff on it too as well as repair/refinishing.
the guy called Candyman seems the bizzle.
Stock Care and Replacement Stocks - Surplus Rifle Forum - www.surplusrifleforum.com

White spirits and acetone are what I use. Also make sure the firing pin is free to move without binding. If gunked up this will cause slamfires (machine gun)

50 quid to a knob of goat shit boring old petrol will take it off..... it shifts grease thats caked on easy as.....icecream container and paintbrush outside (without a smoke) and set to it with vigour....thats what I did to norinco .22lr to remove all the grease etc from action and bolt. white spirits will evaporate faster and both wont hurt metal at all a simple rub down with oily rag afterwards and she be good to go.

Yep petrol, the toluene content means its dynamite at removing grease, better than acetone. If you can get xylene its as good and much less of a fire hazard (higher flash point)