How to dissolve cotton fibers?

O

Oleg Volk

Staff Alumnus
Today, I put my old bolt head back into the P1917 rifle. It is back to a fairly mushy trigger but, at least, the primer ignition is reliable. The "speed lock kit" is now out. Unfortunately, I attempted to do all that w/o a vise and so lost a small bit of my skin and a chunk of the cotton glove I was wearing. Now the fibers of that glove are inside the bolt and they increase the friction between parts to the opint where I can's move them at all. What's the best way to get rid of those fibers? I can't take the bolt apart because parts won't budge.

Also, how can I check if the bolt head got screwed into the bolt sleeve far enough? "Seems" to work but I am leery of just trying to fire a round.
 
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Things that come to mind for disolving cotten start with nitric acid, nothing you want anywhere near your bolt. You might have to take it back apart. Maybe, uhhh, methanol? A little help here, people? I'm fishin' hard...
 
I wonder if you could simply ignite them with a Bic lighter. If it's just a few cotton fibers, they might burn out before the flame got hot enough to do any damage to the bolt.

I'm fishing too. Anybody else?
 
Now is the time to consult one of the almost-in-laws, maybe someone who has proper wrenches and a soft vise and some headspace gauges? If I were you I would't mess with trying to dissolve cotton. Cotton is cellulose, like what they used to wrap Egyption mummies when they didn't have linen. I suppose you could dissolve the steel parts in acid then filter the solution to get rid of the cotton, but then how to reconstitute the bolt? :rolleyes:

I have wondered about the same thing for the little threads from Q Tips which sometimes get wrapped around the bowels of a pistol and have never come up with anything except picking them out with a dental pick. :cool:
 
¿ Bleach, then strip it down, and clean n reoil ? Chlorine bleach will eat cotton. It will also cause rusting of steel so you don't want to leave it there overly long.

Sam
 
Couple of things come to mind...

Nitric acid would possibly give you a less reactive form of gun cotton. Plus, the acid would attack the steel. Not good.

Ligher. From Oleg's description, I'm thinking that the cotton is fairly well hidden, and thus won't be easy to burn.

Bleach. A better solution, but still not good. It has to be in pretty high concentrations to actually dissolve it rapidly. If you have a swimming pool maintenance company year you, you might be able to get a small amount of "winterization" pool chlorine. Be very careful, though, as this crap doesn't know the difference between cotton and skin.

An adjunct to bleach, though, that might work well? Liquid plumber, or one of the other drain cleaners. They actually have the same active ingredient as the swimming pool bleach.

Perhaps the best solution, though, for home use?

Red Devil lye brew a hefty concentration, and dunk the bolt.

You're going to need all sorts of protective gear for this, though.
 
Top of my head solution

Since this hasn't happened to me, but whizzing the bolt with a propane torch sufficent to smell burnt cotton (cellulose carbonizes before the steel around it gets hot enough to lose its temper) aircool the bolt and then give it a bath in ATF (89cents a Quart) before attempting disassembly.
My 2 cents...which is about the value of my advice without experience to back it:rolleyes:
 
Last I looked Liquid Plumber active ingredient was sulphuric acid. No kin to Chlorine bleach.

Sulphuric will definately eat cotton, but again one wants to be quick to neutralize, clean and reoil.

Sam
 
Go for the sodium hydroxide method. Its like a hot tank for engine blocks. It might remove bluing as that's an iron oxide and slightly acidic.

Do not go bleach or ANY acid. Hydrogen embrittlement is a problem but all of the acids mentioned will attack metal and definitely bluing.

The remaining goop should be neutralized with sodium hydrogen carbonate (that's baking soda or sodium bicarbonate), rinsed with distilled water and coated well with a good penetrating oil like Kroil, Hoppes #9 or similar. No 3 in 1 oil here. You coat it when its still wet with water, never letting it dry as it will rust.

I clean files this way except using phosphoric acid after a good degreasing. Rinse with distilled water and then float Kroil on the metal. No rust and a nearly brand-new file!
 
Being in the Textile business I can think of only one thing that will completely dissolve cotton and that is Schweitzer's Reagent (a combination of cupramonium hydroxide and cupriethylene diamine), but what it will do to metal is probably not pretty.

I would suggest another attempt to dissassemble.
 
Okay, here goes

Here's a suggestion no more speculative than the rest.

Soak the bolt in Kroil or other penetrant, even breakfree, for a day or so. Then try again to disassemble.

Good luck.
 
Used lye to strip pain off of a car in the 40s, damn near ate the car. Yes, lye is base and corrosive as hell.

Sam
 
Lye or sodium hydroxide is benign to ferrous metals as long as there is no oxygen present. It will eat the fool out of aluminum as this is an amphoteric metal (acts as a Lewis acid or base). Look at its position on the periodic chart. All transition metals are fairly immune to alkai bases like sodium and potassium hydroxide.

Sodium hypochlorite of common bleach will attack natural fibers but since it has chlorine, it can also attack chromium, especially if the pH is allowed to drop. IIRC, this is about a pH of 6 for austentic stainless steels like 304, 316 etc.

Any corrosion can be mitigated by keeping the surface of the metal wet with water until you can flush the surface with a light penetrating oil. Metals have a higher affinity for such oils and they will displace the water.

It also dissolves skin so wear gloves and by all means, ALWAYS WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES! Hydroxides are very dangerous to the eyes, worse than most acids.
 
Sam,

I don't think there's any way that Liquid Plumber contains sulphuric acid as the active ingredient. It would be death on the thin metal pipes you find under sinks.

IIRC, from my recent use, Liquid Plumber contains sodium hypochlorite, which as Absolom mentioned is the pool shock chlorine, or what I called winterization chlorine (that's how we used it when I worked for the pool company out of college).

Its reaction time with ferrous metals is a lot longer than it is with aluminum.
 
Anything wet

will cause the cotton fiber to swell, at least for a short time. Your best bet is to use good old WD-40, as it lubricates, penetrates and displaces water.

The only thing I can think of to dissolve cotton without causing harm to your weapon is saliva. Yep, spit. Unfortunately, it would take forever to do any good.
Good luck!
 
Fire!

me thinks a candle flame judiciously applied would carbonize the threads to oblivion and not aneal the bolt

You really need the proper tools to work on a gun.
a spritz with clp, wait 10 minutes and use a vice to dissassemble the bolt

Using the right tool for the job is quite important
Last night i took apart the kitchen faucet,
my 8 inch wrench could not budge the cover
and i risked buggering the finish
My 24 inch wrench turned it off with no effort

Buy a 20 dollar bench vice
Maybe Santa should bring you a Black & Decker Workmate

Some of you seem to be advising hauling out the tactical chemicals for the slightest mechanical indiscretions

"Oleg, what happened to the sink and why is the cat missing all its fur? Were you draino-ing the P1917 again?"

;)
 
Have a pickup truck? A good welder can make you a great mount to attach a vise to a bumper hitch. Another great idea would be a receiver hitch mount as this would be easier to remove.

Get a 2x6 or a 2x8, cut it in half and double it over, securing the vise to the wood with 3" long lag screws. Then you can attach the 2x6(8) to any table/bench with a pair of clamps.
 
How about "freezing it" ??

Try freezing the bolt assembly, then warming up the bolt body on its OD with a hair dryer -- if you do it quick, the firing pin assy a may stay cooler (smaller) while the bolt body gets hotter (larger), that might give you a few 0.001" clearance to get it apart with. Now, how's that for a wild-ass idea :D ??
 
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