Sweating Cosmoline from Yugo SKS

[backbencher]

Friends, Romans, Countrymen:

Going over to my gay lutheran choir director's house today to teach him how to field strip his new Yugo SKS, as well as clean off the cosmoline. An outdoor bucket o' gasoline followed by Hoppes followed by RemOil should work fine for the parts, but how to get it out of the stock? Lit'l brother said sweat it out over a hot plate - I suppose a coffee maker would work?

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting/cosmoline/pdf/cosmoline.pdf

seems to revolve around steam & hot water - the dishwasher sounds like a good idea - not my drainage pipes!

Gig 'em,

backbencher

 

[Technosavant]

Cosmo has a pretty low melting point. I used hot water to do mine. A clothes steamer would be a bit easier to handle. Others have used ovens and dishwashers as well.

I was lucky in that my stock wasn't all greased up- some have massive amounts of grease soaked well into the wood, and that takes a fair amount of time to get it all sweated out.

 

[dirty magazine]

I've never sweated cosmoline, but I did "baked" a Park'd 1911 in a homemade oven. The article uses one of those steam cleaners. I don't think you'll get the same effect with a coffee pot.

Here's what I did - I bought one of those heat lamps from the hardware store that are used in bathroom fixtures to warm things up after the shower. They have red and clear bulbs. I got the clear.

I made an EZ bake oven by lining a cardboard box with foil and putting the heat lamp in a clip on light fixture. The heat lamp is a big bulb, so you have to get the clip on light with the big aluminum reflector. For a rifle, you might need a bigger box and 2 or 3 lights. I was getting temps of 150f-200f, which should be hot enough to melt the cosmoline.

The heat lamps will also work for the metal parts, but wear gloves because they will be hot hot hot!

 

[chris in va]

Someone pointed out the cosmo actually protects the wood from drying out, so what I did was steam it a bit to get the surface dry then sand down the stock and finally put a couple coats of lacquer on it. Came out pretty nice, doesn't sweat cosmo.

 

[backbencher]

Chris, et al:

We're in Texas, so it probably will always sweat Cosmoline in the summer. Was thinking of using the coffepot as a hot plate, but am very tempted by the dishwasher. Then a box of cat litter in his trunk for a week for the stock, perhaps.

 

[backbencher]

Gasoline got most of it off - still some in the return spring. Stock is in the cat litter inside a Ford Mustang stove, er trunk. Wiped the parts down w/ Hoppe's #9, followed by RemOil.

Gig 'em,

backbencher

 

[KLRANGL]

I just left my mauser stock out in the 90 degree sun today. Starting sweatin out just fine, but its got a lot in it and will take a long time to get out...
Anyone have any before and after pics of cosmoline stock removal?

 

[dogtown tom]

I read of a fellow who would wrap the stock in paper towels, then he placed it inside of a large plastic garbage bag (or two). Then he parked it on the dashboard of his car on a nice sunny August day.

I think he had to change out the papertowels twice per day.

I do know that temps inside a car can exceed 140 degrees here in Texas.

 

[B.N.Real]

dogtown tom,any word on how long the car trick had to be done?

Two - three weeks?