buckhorn_cortez
New member
Gypsum is calcium sulfate and is classified as a mineral. In its dry form it is not corrosive. However, once it gets wet or in the presence of high humidity it can corrode steel over time - mainly due to the fact it can retain moisture over a long period of time allowing the water to react with the steel.
Calcium sulfate is only slightly soluble in water. When it does dissolve, the ions are spectator ions. This means that they do not interact with water molecules in a way that significantly changes the pH. The pH of a saturated solution of calcium sulfate is 7.7, close to that of pure water.
Because gypsum starts as a crystal, as it breaks down it retains a crystalline form with sharp edges making it very abrasive
However, it should not be all that difficult to clean up. If they were my guns, I'd start with a rubber bulb duster like those used to clean sensors on digital cameras (Giotto Rocket Duster) to get the majority of the loose dust off, then I'd use a soft brush, like a lens brush or camel hair artist's brush and gently brush the dust off of the guns. Finally, I'd take canned air or compressed air at about 20 PSI and gently blow off the guns to get off anything missed with the other cleaning processes. Then lightly oil the guns as you would before storing them.
As part of the cleaning, check the bores and see if dust has gotten into the bores. If it has, swab out the bores with a dry patch and then with an oily patch and recheck to make sure you've gotten out all of the dust.
Honestly, gypsum isn't all that bad. People play on it all day long at White Sands, no one dies, cars don't instantly corrode into a pile of rust - it's actually rather benign.
Any type of corrosion takes prolonged exposure to damp gypsum over a number of years.
I'd worry more about the abrasive effects as NASA found out when they landed the Space Shuttle Columbia at the White Sands Space Harbor in March, 1982. The dust from landing on the dry gypsum lakebed got all over the interior of the Shuttle and they had to nearly disassemble the entire Shuttle to clean out the dust.
If you can clean an entire Space Shuttle that got gypsum dust in it at 200+ MPH - cleaning guns with gypsum dust that simply fell on them should be relatively easy.
Calcium sulfate is only slightly soluble in water. When it does dissolve, the ions are spectator ions. This means that they do not interact with water molecules in a way that significantly changes the pH. The pH of a saturated solution of calcium sulfate is 7.7, close to that of pure water.
Because gypsum starts as a crystal, as it breaks down it retains a crystalline form with sharp edges making it very abrasive
However, it should not be all that difficult to clean up. If they were my guns, I'd start with a rubber bulb duster like those used to clean sensors on digital cameras (Giotto Rocket Duster) to get the majority of the loose dust off, then I'd use a soft brush, like a lens brush or camel hair artist's brush and gently brush the dust off of the guns. Finally, I'd take canned air or compressed air at about 20 PSI and gently blow off the guns to get off anything missed with the other cleaning processes. Then lightly oil the guns as you would before storing them.
As part of the cleaning, check the bores and see if dust has gotten into the bores. If it has, swab out the bores with a dry patch and then with an oily patch and recheck to make sure you've gotten out all of the dust.
Honestly, gypsum isn't all that bad. People play on it all day long at White Sands, no one dies, cars don't instantly corrode into a pile of rust - it's actually rather benign.
Any type of corrosion takes prolonged exposure to damp gypsum over a number of years.
I'd worry more about the abrasive effects as NASA found out when they landed the Space Shuttle Columbia at the White Sands Space Harbor in March, 1982. The dust from landing on the dry gypsum lakebed got all over the interior of the Shuttle and they had to nearly disassemble the entire Shuttle to clean out the dust.
If you can clean an entire Space Shuttle that got gypsum dust in it at 200+ MPH - cleaning guns with gypsum dust that simply fell on them should be relatively easy.
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