Green 'scrubby pads'

azmark

New member
Has anyone tried the heavy duty green 3M cleaning pads to remove rust from blued surfaces? They have to be less abrasive than steel wool or even brass. The bluing is old and I want to avoid taking any of it off.
 
Here's a tip......heat the surface and apply Frog Lube. Allow it to soak in for 10min or so then polish the Froglube in with 0000 Steel Wool. It will remove all the rust and leave the metal/finish protected from rusting in the future.

Here's a pic of my Sister n Laws Bersa which should brought to me for cleaning after allowing it to get all rusty.

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After

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Blame any misspellings on Tapatalk
 
It stands to reason that the green scrub pads like Scotch Brite would remove rust. I work at a Home Depot and I rent out larger ones (like for a floor maintainer) for removing old glue and polishing floors all the time. They are best used when you want to get cleaning done without ripping up the vinyl. That said I have never used them for removing rust but I can see where they would work well. If you do use them let us know it turns out.
 
Seeing is believing !!

I have used them and find that they are more abrasive than 0000 steel wool. Compare there action on a scrap piece of metal and confirm. Let us knwwhat you find. .. ;)

Be Safe !!!
 
Green scotchbrite pads use aluminum oxide, the same thing they use on sandpaper. They are definitely more abrasive than very fine steel wool (0000).
 
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Scotchbrite pads, even the 0000 equivalent gray pads WILL strip bluing fast.

Here's how I removed rust in the shop:
Get a penetrating fluid like Kroil or CLP Breakfree. Even WD-40 will work.
Apply a good coat to the rust and let soak at least 24 hours.
The fluid will penetrate the rust and will soften and loosen it.

After soaking, apply more fluid and use a brass "toothbrush" to liberally scrub the area.
The brass will break up and remove the rust with no chance of further damaging the bluing.

If you have a hard, crusty spot, use a BRASS scraper made from brass sheet or a BRASS cartridge case with the mouth flattened and sharpened. Use the brass to scrape the crusty spot off then brush.
DO NOT use a penny or nickel. These are no longer made of copper or nickel and will damage the bluing.

After the rust is off, you'll have pitting and missing blue where the rust was. There's nothing you can do about that short of a full re-blue job.

After the rust is off, wipe the metal clean and apply a coat of CLP Breakfree. This will continue to "work" on any remaining rust and will prevent further rust.
 
The penny is now just zinc covered with 2.5% copper since about 1982, but the nickel's composition has remained 25% Ni, 75% Cu. In WWII, the nickel coin had silver and manganese added to free up nickel metal for wartime production, but that ended in 1945.

I don't have a problem with the nickel stripping blue off guns.

Earlier this year, the melt value of a nickel coin was closing in on 8 cents, which is quite a premium over face value.
 
Letting it work !!

Apply a good coat to the rust and let soak at least 24 hours.
Very good point and one that took me too many years to discover. You can actually see the rust, flowng off the metal. Being a tad patient, can actually save on material and labor. On some applications, I let it soak for a few days. ... ;)

Be Safe !!!
 
Scotchbrite pads can be used to clean up scratches on stainless guns like Ruger MKII's but I wouldn't use one on a blued firearm.
 
Scotchbrite is used to re-surface stainless guns and remove minor scratches and blemishes.
They work very well for that and are the preferred method for restoring stainless.

Since they'll abrade stainless and remove scratches, you can imagine what they'll do to bluing.
 
Has anyone tried the heavy duty green 3M cleaning pads to remove rust from blued surfaces? They have to be less abrasive than steel wool or even brass.

No they don't. Some of the pads are quite abrasive. There are different grades and the grading system varies by manufacturer.

The nice thing about steel wool is that 0000 steel wool is pretty much the same everywhere. Use it with plenty of light oil and if you have the slightest understanding of what the phrase "gentle rubbing" means, you won't scratch the bluing.
 
I used scotch brite on a Kimber hunter before sending it back to kimber for a refinish. It had some rust on it and the pads removed the rust and bluing. Don't think I would use it except if it were going to be re blued.
 
I have the colors of Scotch brite pads.
I have the grits of rolls of sand paper
I have the emery cloth.
I have the wet and dry paper
I have the Craytex
I have the different steel wools.
I have the different grit compounds
I have different grinding wheels.
I have the wire wheels
I have the disc pads
I have different files
I have the diamond sticks.
I have the random orbital sander
I have the belt sander
I have the vibrating sander

Some of it gets used, some does not.
And I have to keep replacing the rolls of sandpaper.

The colors of scotch brite, I buy at ENCO
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?PMPAGE=257&PMCTLG=00

If I have a piece of metal in the lathe that is I want shiny, I make a high r.p.m shallow cut and slowly feed with a round tool.
Then I do the file.
Then I do the sand paper and then finer sand paper.
Cover the ways so no grit gets on the ways.
Then I go to a fine scotch brite.
Then I go to a fine steel wool.
That is a shiny as I can get it.

If I have an old gun that is rusty and I want to keep the bluing, I rub oil on it with a fine scotch brite pad every night for a long time.

If some blue comes off, I can touch it up with Oxpho blue and put oil over it. Then later wash off the oil and then put more oil on it. Don't leave blue on it long term.
 
If you use ANY Scotchbrite pad on a blued gun the bluing WILL come off. Replacing it with Oxphoblue is a poor substitute for leaving the original bluing on the gun.
 
Bill, if you rubbed the bluing off a gun with white scotch brite, by the time you were done your muscles would be so big you would need new shirts.
It could be a new look for you:D
 
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