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[Mystic]

There have been posts here that the military finds Breakfree good enough as a gun oil and a preservative. But it may not be the greatest gun cleaner. So what inexpensive, available everywhere cleaner could be used to clean the gun? Or is Breakfree CLP good enough?

 

[metroplex]

I found CLP to be ineffective in cleaning the chamber in my RPK, as well as removing all carbon fouling/deposits in the bore, gas chamber, gas piston, etc...

CLP as a cleaner, isn't very good.

For my gas chamber, gas piston, bore, etc... I use Brasso (note that it contains ammonia, don't use on aluminum!!!!!!!!!) and it does the job fast and effectively. There are no abrasives.

For the bore, I found Brasso can take the paint off my finish, so I've been using a modified version of Ed's Red (to accomodate my rifle's weak-a$$ factory paint job) to include ATF, Kerosene, Household Ammonia, and Isopropyl alcohol. The alcohol is there to mix non-polar and polar components into 1 almost-uniform solution, while the ammonia can remove copper and carbon deposits. The ATF is there for lubrication and protection to prevent rusting right after the ammonia dries out the metal.

I could NEVER get the bore fully clean w/ CLP or Militec-1 within 10 or so patches. My mixture can clean out the chamber and bore without the use of any scrubbing brushes.

 

[Mystic]

I thought I had found the perfect gun oil-TW25B. It seemed to work great on the slides. But a friend of mine who does a lot of shooting, owns several handguns, and is a heck of a shot, told me that TW25B removed either blueing or polymer from one of his Glocks. I can't remember if he said blueing or polymer coating. He told me that TW25B works great on stainless steel guns.

I have been using TW25B on the slides and it did seem like some of the coating had been removed.

I have tried a lot of stuff and I am tired of searching for the perfect gun oil. And I am tired of searching for the perfect gun cleaner. Maybe these things don't exist. I think I will just use Breakfree since the military uses it and it must be good.

I am pretty much finished searching for the perfect gun products since they don't seem to exist. To me the gun products that are available are way overpriced. Seems like there should be some common products that will clean guns without any damage and lubricate and protect good enough.

There are some good things about Breakfree. You only use one product so it actually is not too bad in price. And since the military uses it I figure it must be at least adequate, although you can never tell about the government.

 

[Mystic]

I guess what I am trying to say is if some product is adequate and will do it all, like Breakfree (the military seems to think so), then even though it is $4.00 a bottle it is probably worth using. After all, it may be 4 bucks a bottle but it is the only product you have to use.

On the other hand, if we could discover some locally available products that were cheap and could clean guns, lubricate, and protect, then it would make sense using those products. If we were to discover, for example, that some low priced product like Three-In-One Oil would lubricate and protect as well as these high priced gun lubricants, then why use those products?

 

[tom slick]

have you guys let the CLP soak overnight? i find that it works well but has to have time to penetrate.

 

[metroplex]

I've been told to soak my gas piston in CLP overnight... but I don't have the patience for alRSE+Ml that (and my wallet isn't big enough to squirt that much CLP into a cup to soak my gas piston). I pretty much have to pay $4 in CLP every 2-3 cleanings because I run out.
For my gas piston (the most stubborn of which to clean), I use Brasso + some elbow grease. It does the job faster and cheaper than CLP.

After doing my corrosion test, I just pulled out my stockpile of cheap ATF that I use to lubricate everything in the house, car, garage, etc... Try it on your car door hinges and trunk torsion bars.

Supertech ATF is about $1+ change for 1 quart. For my RPK, a quart will last me at least a year. For general cleaning, I have my mix of ammonia, alcohol, and ATF as well as WD-40 (note, I do not use WD-40 as a lubricant or preservative because it sucks at doing both). WD-40 will take off adhesives and other gunk, but since its cheap and plentiful, I use it to spray off primer salts stuck to my FCG and other nooks/crannies in the receiver.

But until I find something better than cheap Dex3/Merc ATF, I'll be using that as a cleaner, lubricant, and preservative.

If I had to take a guess, ATF would fail MIL-PRF-63460D in the skin irritant test. A lot of people are will break out in hives/rashes when in contact with ATF. It contains a lot of petroleum distillates 80-85%, and a lot of dispersants (that perform the same job as detergents).

Pouring tranny fluid on hot metal objects will just result in a lot of white smoke. I seriously doubt CLP, Militec-1, Firepower-10, and other marketed products will react differently since they're all petroleum based products... so the concern about fires and what not is probably minimal.

The funny thing is, Mercon-V, a Group III synthetic ATF, did not perform so well in my corrosion test.