Do It Yourself Bore Cleaner & Lube

[hunter_47443]

Anybody make their own?
Thought about doing it myself.
Wondered if it is worth the trouble to buy all the stuff and mix it up.

Homemade Firearm Related Products

 

[SmileDocHill]

Nice link. I was a chemistry major prior to getting into grad school and reading that really brought me back.

 

[Litlratt]

Of the products that I have used from there, they are very good and well worth the effort.

 

[superstorm]

I've use hopps for years and have had no problems and it's fairly cheap.

 

[standeford]

I've used many gallons of Ed's Red. It is particularly good on plastic residue from shotgun wads. I add lanolin to mine, sometimes a
polysiloxane resin.

That and Sweet's, for copper, is all I use.

 

[jtb]

Another heavy user of Ed's Red. Cuts carbon for me better than Hoppes. A year or so ago I did some informal tests with copper solvents and found Wipe Out to be the hands down winner, Tipton's and Sweet's filling out the top three.

 

[hunter_47443]

Nice link. I was a chemistry major prior to getting into grad school and reading that really brought me back.

Thanks, I think I'll mix some up and try it.
Got a LOAD of guns, should be cheaper in the long run.

 

[Hoosier]

I use a few of these...Ed's Red is the most used. It's the best I am found to cut the carbon on a AR15 bolt and carrier.
Hoosier

 

[ghitch75]

for bores...nothing beats a Boresnake....15 buc's....and you won't blow up!!..gumout on a rag cuts everything else...

 

[Digital_photog]

Ed's Red is good. use a lot of it.

 

[pappy56]

I make and use Ed's red. It cleans at least as good as store bought.

KWL
pappy56

 

[wetidlerjr]

I use a homemade mix of 1/3 ATF, 1/3 synthetic motor oil and 1/3 WD40.
It works for me. YMMV

 

[SmileDocHill]

Not to thread jack but along these same lines of logic I use cotton gauze for patches (I'm a dentist so I already have them in bulk.) I don't know how commercially available they are but i once calculated the cost and it was at least 1/4 the cost of the cheapest patches I could find. Granted I cannot use them on my .223 (too small a bore) but they work on all of my ww2 military surp.'s. You have to get the kind that are not cotton filled (the cheaper ones anyway), they have to be the woven ones that stay intact like a patch and don't turn into a million little strands of cotton. It is NOT a compromise for the sake of money in my noobie/could be wrong opinion either. It is like the cross between a bore snake and a patch. If I can find a way to order them without having an account with a dental supplier I'll post it.

 

[JohnR]

I've used many gallons of Ed's Red. It is particularly good on plastic residue from shotgun wads. I add lanolin to mine, sometimes a
polysiloxane resin.

That and Sweet's, for copper, is all I use.

Ed's Red for me also, like the addition of lanolin as well.

 

[Electron don]

DIY Electrolytic Bore Cleaner

Making the Surplus: Homade Electronic Bore Cleaner

Straight forward instructions. Common stuff to make it.

 

[hunter_47443]

Making the Surplus: Homade Electronic Bore Cleaner

Straight forward instructions. Common stuff to make it.

Nice read, I've got some guns that could use that treatment on them.
Back To the Store
Also mixed up some Ed's Red yesterday and tried it out, works great!

 

[Litlratt]

Not to thread jack but along these same lines of logic I use cotton gauze for patches (I'm a dentist so I already have them in bulk.) I don't know how commercially available they are but i once calculated the cost and it was at least 1/4 the cost of the cheapest patches I could find. Granted I cannot use them on my .223 (too small a bore) but they work on all of my ww2 military surp.'s. You have to get the kind that are not cotton filled (the cheaper ones anyway), they have to be the woven ones that stay intact like a patch and don't turn into a million little strands of cotton. It is NOT a compromise for the sake of money in my noobie/could be wrong opinion either. It is like the cross between a bore snake and a patch. If I can find a way to order them without having an account with a dental supplier I'll post it.

Please do.

 

[SmileDocHill]

Correction from my previous post about patch source alternatives. The non-woven patch I am referring to is not cotton but synthetic. It is very similar in appearance to this MidwayUSA - Advanced Search
Mine are 2"x2" but are in actuality a 4x4 that has been folded into a 2x2 space to increase absorbency for their originally designed use. Mine are also not as smooth as the ones in the pics but rather have a waffle looking weave pattern to make up for synthetic mot being as absorbent as cotton. To compare apples to apples, each of my patches are about 4 of theirs in area but when you unfold mine more than once it gets a little weak. Patterson dental and Henry Schein and any medical or dental supplier carries the stuff. My rep. said (Patterson at least) they can setup cash accounts to be able to process transactions, he thinks that may work as a non-MD/DDS customer. I don't think they have systems in place to allow monitoring of the account for what you can and cannot buy.
Mine work out to .008 cents per patch (yes 8 tenths of a cent per patch). Some of them on midways site are not too far off from that so you are not going to retire any earlier by using these.
I'll start a GB feeler thread to see about interest.

 

[Stickfight]

I've used many gallons of Ed's Red. It is particularly good on plastic residue from shotgun wads. I add lanolin to mine, sometimes a
polysiloxane resin.

That and Sweet's, for copper, is all I use.

I read that lanolin is used as a protectant but what is polysiloxane resin for?

 

[saw223]

+1 on Ed's red, been using it for years.