Cleaning your gun. Solvents

Thing is, folks, I don't have access to most of these brands. At the moment, I use WD40 on a rag to clean the gun, the wipe it down and use the Forrest gun oil spray.

My post was mainly to glean whether or not brake fluid would be OK on the slide . A spate of failure to fires has meant that I'll be wanting to do a detailed strip of the slide. I could fiddle around with a cotton bud and WD40 to make sure it's clean, I could just wash it in soapy water, or... I could blast whatever should n't be there out with brake cleaner.

The latter is easiest by far.
On the slide it should be OK.
However, if it is OK on the polymer, then even better: makes my job easier there too.
That was the crux of my question rather than getting alternative products.

According to one of you, non-chlorinated is the way forward.
Otherwise, I'll just use white spirit (the stuff to clean paint brushes after oily paints).
 
Brake cleaner does a good job,kinda harsh though
I own a parts washer,if I have a lot of cleaning Ill use it but
for the most part its either Hoppes or CLC and or both
depending on how rightious I feel like being...
 
I use brake cleaner when I think it will be useful for flushing things out. This is mainly because I always have it anyway for brake work, of all things.

Anyway, I use the O'Reilly's brand red can stuff. Don't know if it's chlorinated or not but I have seen no ill effects on the polymer parts of my XD or 22/45. I don't let it get near any wood.
 
Hoppes #9 and/or Breakfree Powder Blast has always worked for me, no issues with Glock polymer. I've heard Breakfree Powder Blast is essentially the same as non-chlorinated brake cleaner, somebody else maybe able to confirm.
 
MPro-7 works fine for me and it has no odor so my wife doesn't get on my case if I end up cleaning guns in the house.
 
I'm with Bill DeShivs on this one.

Since most plastics are impregnated with a certain amount/types of oils, I don't think I'd give the plastic on my guns a steady diet of brake cleaner,carb cleaner or resembling products which are designed to take out oils and greases. A brittle effect may result in due time.

If, for some reason, I did have to use one of these products on the plastic, I'd heavly re-coat the plastic with some sort of oil(WD-40 included in 'some sort' ;)) let it soak, then wipe plastic down.
 
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Just use Breakfree CLP. It meets and exceeds just about every military spec for weapons lube, cleaner and preservative. I have used it since it was first introduced and it has never failed me. If you plan to put a gun in storage for up to 5 years use Breakfree Collector. I have and it works.
 
web purchase?; CLPs....

I'm a bit off here, are you saying you can't order or purchase any products online or that for whatever the reason, you can't obtain new gun oils or CLPs?

A purpose made CLP from Weaponshield, Ballistol, LPX, Gunzilla or even Breakfree(sold nationwide in most sporting good stores/gun shops) would be far better IMO then auto care/repair fluids.
A small tube or bottle of CLP will last a long time & run about $20.00 USD total in most US locations.
Clyde
 
I've heard good and bad reviews of just about everything out there. I guess, if it works for you, then you can't really go wrong. If break cleaner works and suits you and your purpose, then I guess no one can tell you that you're wrong.
I've used a couple of different things but, I have found that my with my preferences, I like Hoppe's Elite Gun Cleaner, Hoppe's Elite Gun Oil, and Shooter's Choice Grease or Tetra Gun Grease. That's about all I use for my guns. I have your standard, everyday, run-in-the-mill cleaning kit with aluminum cleaning rod and cloth patches. I also use a bore snake at the range so that I don't have all of the mess to clean up at home.
I have also, though, wondered about Ballistol; more often than not, I've heard really good things. I haven't tried it yet but, I've been looking into it.
 
Brake cleaner. Then WD-40.

I could never understand the hate on WD-40. Does the job and never gunks up anything. People who have trouble with it have a gunked up mess to begin with.
 
I shoot several handguns regulary. I have about every cleaning product available in the cabinet. With that said I use Ed's Red all the time now. I use a little different version than the one listed above.
1 QT K1 Kerosene (No Smell kind)
1 QT Dextron
1 QT Mineral Spirits.

Makes 3/4 gallon, so you can be liberal. As best that I can tell it works about as well as anything else for general purpose cleaning.

I also use the Ed's Red Gun Oil Formula for light lubrication.
1 QT Dextron
1 QT 0W 30 Mobile One

This should be the exact same thing as Lucas Gun Oil. I Buy Lucas Gun Oil at my local auto parts store, and refill the bottles with home brew when empty. Lucas is still doing very well, as I buy or recommend everyone needing gun oil to buy Lucas so they can have the bottles refilled later when empty.

Again I have lots of different brands of gun oils, and use Ed's Red/Lucas the most now days.

I need to go through my cabinet one of these days, and pitch or give away everything I do not use anymore.

I do use brake cleaner on some things like my 1911.

Bob
 
This shouldn't be rocket science. You can use non-chlorinated brake cleaner, but only use it in the slide, after detail-stripping. Do not use Breakfree CLP or any other kind of greasy solvent or oil in the striker channel, you will only start getting light striker hits once a little bit of gunk works it way in there. An aerosol degreaser will blast out any crud (carbon and because of its striker design I always found a lot of brass flakes in my Glocks' striker channels) and any oil that has gotten in there.

The frame is safe to hit with the non-chlor brake cleaner (I wouldn't soak it in it for days or weeks at a time) but there is no reason to use it on it. If for some reason you must detail-strip the frame, which really does not need it ever unless you are replacing a part for some reason, can be cleaned satisfactorily with paper towels or q-tips. I never use solvent in my Glock frames, dry-clean only.
 
I used to use Hoppes but couldn't stand the strong smell. Then I read on this forum about people using Gunzilla. So I ordered some and have been very happy with it. Very little odor and what there is of it is a light scent.

Cleans and lubes nice, in my humble opinion.
 
Hoppes has been around for a hundred years, and has worked well for all that time. Certainly for the 50+ years that I have been cleaning guns.
 
I love the smell of Hoppe's! It's all I use to clean with. I would be concerned about brake cleaner pulling too much oil out of the metal parts, but I have no way to prove if it would even happen. I usually use remoil to lube, but just ordered some gun butter, so we'll see how that works.
 
For solvents I use Shooters Choice, or SLiP2000's Carbon Killer.
Lubrication: Wilson's Ultimalube, Wilson's Ultima grease, or SLiP2000's EWL.
 
brake fluid vs brake cleaner

I just noticed this, you said brake fluid.

Brake cleaner is a powerful degreaser / cleaner / solvent. In many cases it containes chlorinated esters, and as far as I know - the manufacturer is under no obligation to print on the can whether the brake cleaner has chlorine in it or not. You won't even know for sure by looking at the MSDS sheet, for instance Weapon Shield's MSDS does not list any chlorinated compound, but it does have chlorinated esters in it. Their website states that it uses "long-chain halogenated hydrocarbons" which actually consists of a chlorinated paraffin. Who would know?

Chlorine and chlorine compounds / chlorinated hydrocarbons corrode iron and stainless steel. There is something called Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) There is an entire category of SCC called Chloride SCC - corrosion due to exposure to chlorine compounds.

Here is a paper that addresses it a little bit:

http://www.corrosionist.com/what_is_chloride_stress_corrosion_cracking.htm

Another paper that talks about chloride SCC:

http://www.npl.co.uk/upload/pdf/stress.pdf

http://corrosion-doctors.org/Forms-SCC/scc.htm

One of the most important forms of stress corrosion that concerns the nuclear industry is chloride stress corrosion. Chloride stress corrosion is a type of intergranular corrosion and occurs in austenitic stainless steel under tensile stress in the presence of oxygen, chloride ions, and high temperature. It is thought to start with chromium carbide deposits along grain boundaries that leave the metal open to corrosion. This form of corrosion is controlled by maintaining low chloride ion and oxygen content in the environment and use of low carbon steels.
Click to expand...

There is hardly anything on the internet specifically about chlorinated esters corroding firearms. You can find information in technical papers for machining, and tech docs on welding stainless steel with cautions to not use chlorinated sealants / stains or paints near the weld. Also technical docs on the effects of chlorinated water on stainless steel, and some tech docs on chlorinated rubber interacting with stainless steel rings and seals (bad reaction).

But anyway, my opinion is that it chlorine is highly reactive and it does't take much of it to start corroding stainless steel so I don't let anything with chlorine near my pistols.

The thing with brake fluid (also called hydraulic fluid)... is that most brake fluids are glycol/ester based and they're hygroscopic.

NOT GOOD TO PUT ON YOUR FIREAMS

At the very least you should be able to get ATF, kerosene and mineral spirits. You'd be better off using Ed's Red than either hydraulic fluid, brake cleaner/engine degreaser.

I think WD-40 is OK to clean with as long as you wipe it off and follow-up with some oil to lube. I haven't seen WD-40 gum up when CLP or any kind of oil is used afterward. I think the oil keeps the WD-40 from drying / creating a film.


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@COuntZero

Well spotted that man and,yes, that was my mistake. I meant brake cleaner. Brake fluid is horrible to handle so would avoid it even if it were the best option out there!!
 
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