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Posted: 10/15/2023 9:41:43 PM EDT
| Is there an easy way to clean the trigger group of an AR15? I don't like to douse it in cleaner/slovent because there is grease I put in the pin and inside the trigger and hammer axis. This would require a full disassembly too apply correctly again. Do you just wipe it clean from the outside? |
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Originally Posted By laxman09: Spray with compressed air. Lube as needed. Originally Posted By kingoftheriver: Air compressor is definitely your friend RCA This. I wipe out as much as I can, then blow it out, then relube. |
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| Air for sure. Non chlorinated brake cleaner is good but definitely strips out the lube. One thing that works in the interim is a shot of windex or other light household spray cleaner and a small artist's paint brush. Give it a squirt, use the brush to loosen up crud in the corners, another quick squirt with clean water, blow it out with compressed air. |
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Originally Posted By robertmegar: That what I do but it's getting sooty on the crevices from shooting a lot suppressed. My 300 gets caked with carbon in the lower shooting suppressed and I've found that my air compressor does a good job blowing that crud out. Then long wooden cleaning q tips for any hard to get spots. Usually don't need to do that though. |
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Originally Posted By FoxValleyTacDriver: My 300 gets caked with carbon in the lower shooting suppressed and I've found that my air compressor does a good job blowing that crud out. Then long wooden cleaning q tips for any hard to get spots. Usually don't need to do that though. I’m a long wooden q-tip fiend. I buy them by the thousands and will use about 50 each time I clean. I also started buying the swab-it foam Amazon knock offs. They are super cheap compared to the real (overpriced) Swab-It’s. |
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Originally Posted By MemeWarfare: Ain’t nobody got time fo that. 1. Invert over shop garbage can and irrigate liberally with non-chlorinated brake-clean 2. Blow out with compressed air 3. Lubricate Clean, lubed, and done in about 2 minutes. This, but carb cleaner. |
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Originally Posted By MemeWarfare: Ain’t nobody got time fo that. 1. Invert over shop garbage can and irrigate liberally with non-chlorinated brake-clean 2. Blow out with compressed air 3. Lubricate Clean, lubed, and done in about 2 minutes. This has worked well for me. |
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Originally Posted By TAG_Match: This has worked well for me. Originally Posted By TAG_Match: Originally Posted By MemeWarfare: Ain’t nobody got time fo that. 1. Invert over shop garbage can and irrigate liberally with non-chlorinated brake-clean 2. Blow out with compressed air 3. Lubricate Clean, lubed, and done in about 2 minutes. This has worked well for me. When really dirty....this is the way |
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Originally Posted By robertmegar: Is there an easy way to clean the trigger group of an AR15? I don't like to douse it in cleaner/slovent because there is grease I put in the pin and inside the trigger and hammer axis. This would require a full disassembly too apply correctly again. Do you just wipe it clean from the outside? Contaminants will sit in the grease with or without cleaning. If they’re in your trigger pins you will have to remove the grease to remove the contaminants. I wouldn’t do more than wipe down excessive contaminants and move on until you think the pins should be removed and cleaned. |
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Originally Posted By MemeWarfare: Ain’t nobody got time fo that. 1. Invert over shop garbage can and irrigate liberally with non-chlorinated brake-clean 2. Blow out with compressed air 3. Lubricate Clean, lubed, and done in about 2 minutes. Basically the same here After blowing out the brake cleaner I spray it with a spray lubricant (I use Tri-Flow) then blow out the excess lube and wipe it down. |
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| I mean, it takes <60 seconds to remove the grip and trigger pins…if it’s that bad just remove them and clean it. In between those times, a little CLP and some long wooden q tips work just fine. |
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Originally Posted By TN-MadDog: Basically the same here After blowing out the brake cleaner I spray it with a spray lubricant (I use Tri-Flow) then blow out the excess lube and wipe it down. Originally Posted By TN-MadDog: Originally Posted By MemeWarfare: Ain’t nobody got time fo that. 1. Invert over shop garbage can and irrigate liberally with non-chlorinated brake-clean 2. Blow out with compressed air 3. Lubricate Clean, lubed, and done in about 2 minutes. Basically the same here After blowing out the brake cleaner I spray it with a spray lubricant (I use Tri-Flow) then blow out the excess lube and wipe it down. Best degreaser. Leaves a thin oil coat instead of bone dry. For a finer point..............Floway is the best for this project. It is twice as expensive as brake cleaner. But because you use so little, and it is so much better, this is what I use on all my trigger groups. |
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Originally Posted By xciapup: Best degreaser. Leaves a thin oil coat instead of bone dry. For a finer point..............Floway is the best for this project. It is twice as expensive as brake cleaner. But because you use so little, and it is so much better, this is what I use on all my trigger groups. I find claims of something being a great degreaser and then also being good at lubricating after the fact to be suspect. If it was such a good degreaser... how is it going to leave grease behind. |
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Originally Posted By Millennial: I find claims of something being a great degreaser and then also being good at lubricating after the fact to be suspect. If it was such a good degreaser... how is it going to leave grease behind. Never said it was for lubricating. And KANO does not even mention this property in their description. And I agree with your position. Why CLP always seemed strange. Floway gives you a just a little more time between degreasing and surface rust. It cleans just as well. Machine Lubrication Tech 1 Machine Lubricant Analyst 1 International Council for Machine Lubrication |
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Originally Posted By Homesteader375: Air for sure. Non chlorinated brake cleaner is good but definitely strips out the lube. One thing that works in the interim is a shot of windex or other light household spray cleaner and a small artist's paint brush. Give it a squirt, use the brush to loosen up crud in the corners, another quick squirt with clean water, blow it out with compressed air. That's what I use. The non-chlorinated stuff is usually a mix of acetone and methanol which won't hurt anything (acetone doesn't disolve nylon). I use Gunzilla on a brush where I can and then squirt liberally with brake cleaner and then a few drops of oil. |
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I just fill up the sink with hot water, and put some simple green hd in it, and dip the lower in there and scrub it with a brush. Afterwards I run it through the clean water for a few seconds and then shake it and use a air cleaner and some q-tips to clean up. Afterwards just oil as desired. It's really just metal that's no different from cleaning any other kind of metal. Do you use brake cleaners on your pots and pans after cooking with them? Do you oil your grill after you clean it and spray it with water? So why would a firearm be any different or react differently to the same procedures? |
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Originally Posted By TGWLDR: I cannot recall a single instance where washing a lower receiver group in water even remotely sounded like a good idea. Try it one time. You'll be pleasantly surprised! Fill it up with hot water, some purple green hd or dawn dish soap, and scrub, wash with clean hot water, and then dry it out. It won't rust, and it'll be cleaner than it was before. Not a joke post btw. |
The only sort of "famous" youtuber who is probably one of the better youtube gun channels even clean his rifles and pistols with water and soap: Basics of Firearm Cleaning I clean it very similarly but instead of a bar of soap or separate water tub, I just combine it to a water/soap solution. Shooting suppressed will make it even dirtier so scrubbing it inside the water is a better idea. |
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Couple points: 1. Do NOT use chlorinated brake parts cleaner on ANYTHING EVER. That shit will cause metal fatigue and tiny cracks over time. Look it up. 2. Just blowing into a dirty receiver with a high-pressure air nozzle, will also force some grit into small places as well as displace some. Air should only be used to dry it all out after hitting it with whatever cleaner. 3. "Oil if it turns, grease if it slides". Grease is not necessary in the pin holes of trigger parts, oil is fine, grease should used mainly on slidy parts. So it works just fine to use the cleaning method many have described in this thread, non-chlorinated brake cleaner, followed by air, followed by spraying lube using a tube to get right in there where pins go through and get some inside, drip/wipe excess oil, then grease sliding parts lightly. ETA: Not sayin grease is wrong for pin holes, just saying if you don't want to break it all down during a clean, then oil is the way. When I first assemble a rilfe I usually grease the holes, and also if I do a deep clean where I take everything apart. But for in between, hosing it out and showering with oil is the way to go. |
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Originally Posted By dalle0001: Try it one time. You'll be pleasantly surprised! Fill it up with hot water, some purple green hd or dawn dish soap, and scrub, wash with clean hot water, and then dry it out. It won't rust, and it'll be cleaner than it was before. Not a joke post btw. Originally Posted By dalle0001: Originally Posted By TGWLDR: I cannot recall a single instance where washing a lower receiver group in water even remotely sounded like a good idea. Try it one time. You'll be pleasantly surprised! Fill it up with hot water, some purple green hd or dawn dish soap, and scrub, wash with clean hot water, and then dry it out. It won't rust, and it'll be cleaner than it was before. Not a joke post btw. I've done it for years with black powder guns. Never seen a need with an AR. |
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Originally Posted By Dragynn: Couple points: 1. Do NOT use chlorinated brake parts cleaner on ANYTHING EVER. That shit will cause metal fatigue and tiny cracks over time. Look it up. Uh, no. Either is fine, but I have more trouble finding chlorinated. No company is going to risk the liability of damaging automotive brake components, which are safety items. https://www.berrymanproducts.com/chlorinated-vs-non-chlorinated-brake-cleaner/ |
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Originally Posted By TGWLDR: I cannot recall a single instance where washing a lower receiver group in water even remotely sounded like a good idea. I don't always use water but in this case I used a garden hose. Attached File |
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Originally Posted By TGWLDR: I cannot recall a single instance where washing a lower receiver group in water even remotely sounded like a good idea. Works well. Just have to ensure everything is DRY and then lube it. Pretty common to clean out black powder firearm actions and lockwork by scrubbing submerged in soapy water. Personally, I find Brake Cleaner to be way easier. it evaporates in 87 seconds then spray some lube in there. |
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Originally Posted By Dragynn: Couple points: 1. Do NOT use chlorinated brake parts cleaner on ANYTHING EVER. That shit will cause metal fatigue and tiny cracks over time. Look it up.... Chloride/Chlorine induced stress corrosion cracking is not an issue at all for cleaning an ar15. a) Mostly only affects titanium alloys or high nickel content alloys (ie: austenitic stainless)... neither of which is a concern for cleaning an AR15. The receivers are aluminum, the tough hard bits are going to be alloy steel, springs aren't stainless, 416R stainless barrels are martensitic (not austenitic), and 17-4PH stainless parts are duplex (not austenitic), and any screws you have that are "stainless" should be a high strength corrosion resistant alloy and not garbage soft 18-8/304/316. The only thing I'd be concerned about is brake cleaner softening or melting polymer - and that's easy enough to check on a small obscure location before hosing it down. b) Even if you had susceptible stainless alloys on your AR15, which you shouldn't, it's simply not an issue at room temperatures. Chlorine induced SCC in ferrous nickel alloys occurs almost exclusively in temperatures over 60C/150F. |
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Originally Posted By xciapup: I don't always use water but in this case I used a garden hose. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/110877/Dirty_guns_jpg-3204256.JPG Originally Posted By xciapup: Originally Posted By TGWLDR: I cannot recall a single instance where washing a lower receiver group in water even remotely sounded like a good idea. I don't always use water but in this case I used a garden hose. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/110877/Dirty_guns_jpg-3204256.JPG That may be one case where I'd consider it. 
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Originally Posted By Millennial: Works well. Just have to ensure everything is DRY and then lube it. Pretty common to clean out black powder firearm actions and lockwork by scrubbing submerged in soapy water. Personally, I find Brake Cleaner to be way easier. it evaporates in 87 seconds then spray some lube in there. Originally Posted By Millennial: Originally Posted By TGWLDR: I cannot recall a single instance where washing a lower receiver group in water even remotely sounded like a good idea. Works well. Just have to ensure everything is DRY and then lube it. Pretty common to clean out black powder firearm actions and lockwork by scrubbing submerged in soapy water. Personally, I find Brake Cleaner to be way easier. it evaporates in 87 seconds then spray some lube in there. Yeah, I've spent many an hour scrubbing BP guns out in soapy water, just never a lower receiver group. Carb cleaner and compressed air followed by aerosol G96 is my preferred these days. |
Can't never could 'til try came along.
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Originally Posted By alpha0815: I’m a long wooden q-tip fiend. I buy them by the thousands and will use about 50 each time I clean. I also started buying the swab-it foam Amazon knock offs. They are super cheap compared to the real (overpriced) Swab-It’s. I, too, love the wooden q-tips. Buy them and pipe cleaners in bulk. |
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Originally Posted By MemeWarfare: Ain’t nobody got time fo that. 1. Invert over shop garbage can and irrigate liberally with non-chlorinated brake-clean 2. Blow out with compressed air 3. Lubricate Clean, lubed, and done in about 2 minutes. This here. Suppressed really cruds the trigger pack. Been doing it for years no issues. |
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Originally Posted By robertmegar: Is there an easy way to clean the trigger group of an AR15? I don't like to douse it in cleaner/slovent because there is grease I put in the pin and inside the trigger and hammer axis. This would require a full disassembly too apply correctly again. Do you just wipe it clean from the outside? If you switched to oil for where you apply the grease, you probably wouldn't notice, and it'll give you more flexibility to clean the area. |
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Originally Posted By bmwmc: Uh, no. Either is fine, but I have more trouble finding chlorinated. No company is going to risk the liability of damaging automotive brake components, which are safety items. https://www.berrymanproducts.com/chlorinated-vs-non-chlorinated-brake-cleaner/ Anything with a name starting with "chlor----" should be kept away from metal. Perhaps if you have nothing else and you must spray it then it is probably okay but definitely consistently using it will weaken the metal. Maybe not enough to really notice and most likely will take about as much time as simply shooting the barrel out but it's definitely weakening the metal. |
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Originally Posted By dalle0001: Anything with a name starting with "chlor----" should be kept away from metal. Perhaps if you have nothing else and you must spray it then it is probably okay but definitely consistently using it will weaken the metal. Maybe not enough to really notice and most likely will take about as much time as simply shooting the barrel out but it's definitely weakening the metal. Originally Posted By dalle0001: Originally Posted By bmwmc: Uh, no. Either is fine, but I have more trouble finding chlorinated. No company is going to risk the liability of damaging automotive brake components, which are safety items. https://www.berrymanproducts.com/chlorinated-vs-non-chlorinated-brake-cleaner/ Anything with a name starting with "chlor----" should be kept away from metal. Perhaps if you have nothing else and you must spray it then it is probably okay but definitely consistently using it will weaken the metal. Maybe not enough to really notice and most likely will take about as much time as simply shooting the barrel out but it's definitely weakening the metal. So you didn't read what the supplier has to say? That's why I posted a link. I'll repeat myself. No company is going to expose itself to the liability of damaging automotive brake components. Some auto parts are rated as Safety items, including brake components. |
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