Gday all,
Someone at my local gun shop who also has a love of old milsurps mentioned that he uses an ultrasonic cleaner on bolts and the like.
They seem good but aren’t that cheap and can vary wildly in price. Do people think they are worth having?
I would be concerned about removing blueing. Cleaning brass and jewellery I can understand, no delicate surface coating.
Blueing is pretty tough in some ways , but surprisingly easy to remove. I’m not an expert on ultrasonic cleaners but I would be careful what additives you use.
Plus you realistically don’t need to clean any gun part that hardcore more than once. Do it gently by hand. Part of the experience.
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I’ve used my little Aldi one on a Winchester 150 bolt. Just a drop of dish washing liquid and warm water. Got a lot of crud out of it.
I wouldn’t use anything harsher on something blued.
In a pro quality one I’d be happy to put a bolt in with a watch cleaning solution, after all a Rolex is probably worth at least as much as any rifle I own, and they have plenty of fine blueing and guilding inside.
With @Supaduke on this. Do it once by hand, you’ll never have to do that hardcore clean again, as long as you follow maintenance cleaning after.
Plus, bolts are really easy to clean, it’s the barrelled action that’s really tedious and that won’t fit in your home ultrasonic anyway.
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Ok, cool. Sounds like it’s probably not worth it. I’m hoping I can get my Carcano bolt clean without disassembly as I’ve looked it up and it seems like a royal pain in the rear.
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The trick is , watch the video, and while you do it, take a stack of photos at each stage of dissamembly. Much easier when you know what everything should look like, orientation etc.
Also , most bolts have several stages of stripping.
Most can have the firing pin removed fairly simply without the need to take every last bit apart.
Carcano bolt is not scary.
For that purpose I agree. I have an ebay 1 and has come in handy. As an example i cleaned a gas jet for an old camp cooker. Part was unobtainable. Also clean my brass with it. Not like a case tumbler but does a reasonable job. The Aldi ones hsve a good rep for a cheapie.
Agree with all of the above they certainly have there uses and what you use a cleaning fluid is also essential. I have used one on old rusted parts with great success. I use them on my scuba gear cleans out salt on the inside and in the small holes. Last time I cleaned some cases after they had already been cleaned in the tumbler but then resized so had some oil on them I used high % ethanol so the water would be removed quickly and they would dry quickly.