De-oiling after ultrasonic cleaning

Do you use ultrasonic cleaners for your guns?

  • yes

    Votes: 7 17.1%

  • no

    Votes: 34 82.9%
  • Total voters
    41
  • Poll closed .
R

rastoboy

Inactive
Hi All,

So I've been ultrasonicly cleaning my handguns lately and part of that process is bathing them in oil. The problem I have is that no matter how hard I try, everything is waaay too oily.

For example, I'll wipe all the parts down as well as I can, reassemble the firearm, but when I pick it up a few days later the bottom is coated with oil.

Or, if I take it out and shoot it oil is coming out everywhere and the darn thing is just super oily everywhere lol.

Any tips on how to wipe everything down somehow more thoroughly? I think what it is is that all the little nooks and crannies are still filled with oil, and when I shoot it it's all forced out.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
Lee
 
It's probably not a great idea to bathe most firearms in oil. There are parts of the gun that should remain oil-free.

Blowing them out with an air compressor is one way to remove excess oil--or you could just clean it again and not bathe it in oil when you're done. ;)

Be sure to use safety glasses if you take the air compressor approach to removing the excess oil.

I'm not familiar with an ultrasonic cleaner that requires bathing the gun in oil. What sort of a cleaner do you have?
 
When I bought solutions for cleaning my gun with an ultrasonic, it included a lubricant to use in the USC for the gun. The idea being that it would drive out any cleaning solution and then dry. It wasn't especially oily, but it took a while to dry and it always leaked out a bit for the first couple of firings. Now I just blow out the cleaning solution with an air compressor and liberally spray with Hornady One Shot. I also found that the USC didn't clean the barrel any better than my current method which is to soak it in Hoppes #9 overnight. That works very well. The USC does clean the frame and slide quite well since it gets into all the tight spots.

I only clean it this way once or twice a year, when my "sandpaper" grips come loose such that I have to replace them.
 
I use my ultrasonic primarily for antique clock movements. The first rule with them is to insure they are fully disassembled down to the lowest denominator meaning down to the gears, springs and etc. The second rule is to insure as much oil and expecially WD-40 are removed prior to cleaning it with your ultrasonic cleaning solution. You want to obtain as many useful cleaning applications for your solution as you can. In other words as many clock components cleaned, and as in your case as many gun components through your solution before it looses its cleaning effectiveness. Parts with WD-40 or heavy oil contamination will destroy your solution. You will want to remove those substances from the parts with a dip and swish in acetone, denatured alcohol, naptha, or other stuff prior to attempting to clean items in the ultrasonic.

I use a two step process. First is the cleaning cycle and then the rinse cycle. You will blow off or dry your parts after each step with a compressor or a hair blow dryer. There are even blower box for some applications. At the end you will oil only the parts requiring a minimum amount of oil or lubricant. Some rinsing solutions have a dry lube type product, but it does not replace general lubrication where it is required.

Above all only do these processes in a well ventilated area.

Many ultrasonics have a heating unit to heat up the cleaning solutions. It may or may not help. User's opinions vary.

To test the effectiveness of your ultrasonic unit, you can lay a single sheet of aluminum foil in the solution in your unit and run it for a minute or two. It should come out with dimples and small perforations all over the surface of the piece of foil.

I do not use my ultrasonic on my guns, but I do use it on my brass for reloading after I have deprimed it.

This link might also be of help: http://www.lrultrasonics.com/industries/weapons/
 
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I don't consider the ultrasonic cleaner to be a shortcut to cleaning a gun. Rather, I consider it a long cut.

What I mean is, because the ultrasonic fluid will get everywhere and remove all oil, you have to break down the gun completely, re-oil, wipe down, and so forth before thinking about reassembly.
 
Thanks for all the input, y'all!

Definitely good tip about using an air compressor.

JohnKSa: which parts should *not* get oil? Only part I know of is like a piston chamber in an HK P7, for example. Just curious.

You know, the whole reason I'm doing this is because when I shoot, I really basically never just want to shoot one gun. I prefer at least three or four. This is why I have a lot of guns--because I like to shoot them all :-)

Thing is, while I really enjoy cleaning one gun, cleaning two is pretty much work, and cleaning three or more is definitely a tedious chore. So I'm searching for ways to clean fast and easy. Call me lazy if you will, but I'm determined to find some shortcuts! lol.

lee
 
If you are using an ultrasonic cleaner on a handgun more than about every 10,000 or so rounds, you are cleaning it WAY too much.
 
Oil in the firing pin/striker channel is not desirable.

Oil in the chamber of the gun should be kept to a minimum--preferably it should be removed before firing.

Magazines generally need very little or no lubricant.

Most wood parts do better if they're not subjected to a lot of lubricant.

My general philosophy of oiling is that I don't put oil somewhere that I can't see or access unless the manual/manufacturer specifically states to do so. I like to be able to wipe out excess and I also like to be able to clean out any accumulation of old lubricant and/or the material it tends to collect.
 
Please don't take this the wrong way, but why do you bath it in oil? I've never heard of this and am just curious. On my semi auto's I just spray them down with a gun scrubber, then wipe down what I can and very lightly oil only what's needed. On my revolvers I just clean the bore and cylinder and then wipe down the outside. I usually clean my semi auto's like this once a year, but clean the bore every thousand rounds or so, the revolvers get cleaned this way about every 5-6 range trips.
 
I bought an ultrasonic cleaner, thought it would be the end all for brass and parts. I found it wasn't, it doesn't get brass as clean as wet tumbling and really dirty parts still need to be scrubbed. So it's now a cleaner for the wife's rings, it does that well. Happy wife happy life.
 
Like I said above, I do not use my ultrasonic for firearms since I believe they should be fully disassembled to clean properly. I do this with my antique clock works since it is necessary. Of course once a clock movement is cleaned and serviced, it will last for years.

I do use it for both my brass and nickel plated brass. You do have to separate the two. Both come out like new. If the brass is dirty, I will run it through my tumbler first. I then deprime and throw them in my L&R Ultrasonic. This way, the brass really gleams and you get the primer pockets clean as a whistle too. I have seen brass cleaned using pins, and it is just as nice.
 
I would use a very light aerosol oil like Remoil or Balistol, and just spray areas of concern after a US cleaning.

Then use compressed air to drive off excess and to spread the oil around a bit. Use a clean rag to wipe it down, then hit it with the air again. A couple times doing that should work. Done right, it will leave a thin coat like you would see if you wiped off the part with a rag that had a bit of oil on it.


Dipping the whole thing in oil seems like a bad idea.


Also, it is not something that need done very often at all, maybe around 10,000 rounds give or take a couple thousand.

And you don't need to clean a range gun every trip either, I don't clean until about the 500rd mark.
 
I do not use my ultrasonic for firearms since I believe they should be fully disassembled to clean properly
Click to expand...

Why? The whole point of using an USC, IMO, is to easily clean all the tight spots you can't normally get into to.

A gun is not a clock. it will still work well while dirty, while a clock can probably be affected by a little dirt in the wrong spot. Clocks are usually enclosed and thus protected from dust for the most part, so they don't have to be cleaned nearly as often as guns. I don't understand why clocks have to be fully disassembled to clean, but I doubt the reason pertains to guns. A gun is not like perfectly fitting, delicate clockwork.

Even if disassembling a gun would get it cleaner with an USC than not totally disassembling it, it sure gets it cleaner than just field stripping it and cleaning it.
 
You maybe correct GJSchulze, I kind of look at like some other have stated. Once you have a pistol taken down to the major components, it is not a major ordeal to wipe it down and lightly lubricate it.

When you place it in an ultrasonic, you will in a majority of cases at least have to remove grips and night sights I would think. There could be other pieces that dependent upon the cleaning solution could be harmed. It would vary from firearm to firearm.

I do appreciate your point.
 
One trick I've used after ultrasonic cleaning and drying is to use a cheap airbrush and CLP Breakfree or another favorite light oil.

You can regulate the airbrush to spray in a fine, light mist of lube, which will spread and creep to cover all surfaces.
This way you can more easily control how much lube goes in, and where it goes instead of the huge blast that aerosol cans spray in.

One caution: DO NOT breath the fumes of CLP.....you will NOT like it.

You can buy inexpensive airbrushes in any hobby shop and from companies like Harbor Freight.
Also buy a can or two of airbrush propellant and an adapter to hook the airbrush to the can.
 
How did we ever get along for so many years without all of this high tech cleaning? Sounds to me like if submerged in an oil bath a person ought to expect to have oil in every nook and cranny so oil running out eventually would be bound to happen . . . gravity is an amazing thing when liquids flow to the lowest point.

Not knocking it if it works for you but I've always found a conventional breakdown and cleaning and light oil rubdown sufficient. I can see an ultrasound for such things as clock works and such but with some of the materials used in today's handguns some aren't intended to be oiled.

Just curious . . . how do you clean your rifles? All this gives me a super idea as it would be a good excuse for buying a whirlpool bathtub. Put the old Winnie 94 in the tub, turn on the jets and hop in . . . sort of multi-tasking. Or, if the wife isn't home, I just might throw my plastic gun in the dishwasher and give it a good scrub down. :D:eek:
 
When you place it in an ultrasonic, you will in a majority of cases at least have to remove grips and night sights I would think
Click to expand...

I have a striker fired, polymer gun, so can't or no need to remove anything. Perhaps it's different for a 1911 if you have places where liquid can accumulate.

There are many people who claim their gun runs better dirty and never clean them. Some of them are competition shooters. I suspect most of us over clean our guns, but that may depend on the gun.
 
I suspect most of us over clean our guns
Click to expand...
Yep...With regards to ultrasonic cleaning [guns or brass for that matter] ... too much oil where you don't want it, and bone dry innards where you do [read rust magnet]. I'm old school with my guns; disassemble only when absolutely necessary, and clean em up after a range session. The cleaning takes five minutes...if that. No offense to those that like to take it five steps beyond this, but it's not for me.

Rod
 
jetinteriorguy said:
Please don't take this the wrong way, but why do you bath it in oil? I've never heard of this and am just curious.
Click to expand...
The shop at the range where I shoot used to have an ultrasonic cleaner. It finally died and they haven't replaced it, but when it was up and running it was a two-step process. The first step was the cleaner bath, the second step was to refill the reservoir with some kind of oil/lubricant and give the gun(s) a run through that.

I don't think I ever asked them why.
 
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