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Posted: 7/23/2005 10:15:59 AM EDT
I just bought a Yugo M48 excellent grade at the funshow.I need some tips on cleanup, particulary the wood. How does one remove cosmoline from the wood without harming the wood? What are some good ways to make my stock look its best?
Here are the pics of the refinished rifle:       I used a mix of BLO, Tung oil, mineral spirits and japan drier. Thanks GonzoAR15-1 It turned out a little more glossy than I would have liked but it looks pretty good. |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 10:21:57 AM EDT
[#1]
I use WD40 to remove cosmoline from metal parts, wipe off as much as possible with rags or paper towels, for wood I use mineral spirits, you might need to heat the stock somewhat to get the cosmoline to sweat out of the wood. You can refinish many ways, a lot of guys use Tung Oil to refinish stocks.
You can put a stock out in the summer sun, some people will put a stock in an oven set at a very low temperature to help sweat the cosmo out. |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 10:25:30 AM EDT
[#2]
There are websites devoted to the Mauser 8MM. Try Googling it and see what you come up with. If that fails I know that foaming oven cleaner will work well for cleaning the cosmoline out of the stock. It will take a little time and possibly a couple of applications of the oven cleaner but you will have a nice piece of furniture when you are completed. As far as getting the cosmoline out of the action any grease cutting solvent works great. For example Acetone will dissovle the cosmoline without much trouble. Be certain to wear protective gloves and safety glasses, also work in a well ventilated area.
Good Luck AKASL LIVE FREE OR DIE WHITE MOUNTAINS NEW HAMPSHIRE |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 10:26:58 AM EDT
[#3]
Cover it in paper towls and leave it in your car for a few days on a hot and sunny afternoon.
Ben |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 10:29:04 AM EDT
[#4]
Find a local funiture refinishing shop and ask them if they'll drop your stock in the "tank" for a day or so.
Then refinish with a "paste" consisting of 25% BLO, 25% beeswax, 25% tung oil, 24% mineral spirits, and 1% japanese drier. |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 10:36:33 AM EDT
[#5]
Boil a ton of water and soak it. The cosmo will soften and start to leech out. It will also get rid of a lot of dents and blemishes in the wood. Its not like its a collector type of rifle so you may lose some markings as well but it wont matter.
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Posted: 7/23/2005 12:59:40 PM EDT
[#6]
For the wood on my enfields, I just used wood finish stripper and lots of paper towels and then steel wool to get all the old gunk off, then finished with boiled linseed oil. I didn't want a glossy wood finish.
The metal I just sprayed on breakfree, waiting a while, wiped with paper towels or whatever, and repeated until I got it cleaned up. If I was doing it over again I'd probably start with really hot water and dish soap and scrub most of it off first that way, then oil. |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 1:06:56 PM EDT
[#7]
Thanks guys I will update my post with picks when I get it all cleaned up.
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Posted: 7/23/2005 1:07:32 PM EDT
[#8]
my Mosin I soaked in diesel for about half an hour. Stripped the cosmo right off.
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Posted: 7/23/2005 1:19:00 PM EDT
[#9]
Parallax's C&R Board has a lot of good advice on cleaning up old milsurps, especially in the Stock Cleaning forum. p077.ezboard.com/bparallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforums
Hope this helps, John |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 1:44:23 PM EDT
[#10]
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Posted: 7/23/2005 1:47:03 PM EDT
[#11]
For my Yugo sks's I do the same and then scrub witha grill brush. Sand then stain or what ever finish you desire. Also I add Dawn dish soap to help cut the grease. |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 1:47:39 PM EDT
[#12]
EZ-off oven cleaner does a pretty good job on stocks.
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Posted: 7/23/2005 1:58:52 PM EDT
[#13]
extend bayonet and stick in front yard on a bright hot sunny day.
while it's baking go to walmart and buy some greased lightning and a cheap scrub brush spray liberaly let soak for about 10 min. lightly scrub with cheap scrub brush hose off while scrubbing. reapeat as needed. 3-4 times and the cosmoline will be gone. Keep in mind things like GL and easyoff are VERY damageing to the wood. DO NOT let it soak for more than 10 min or so. make DAMN sure you have the stock rinsed throughly to the point of driping soaking wet when you are done to remove the cleaner. while it's wet use your clothes iron to "steam out" dents and dings from the wood. let air dry refinish when dry. mike |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 3:09:40 PM EDT
[#14]
To remove the cosmoline from the metal parts, completely disassemble and throw them on a stock pot of boiling water. for the action and barrel, just ladle the hot water on the top and let it run down.
Wipe the softened cosmoline off with a rag soaked in mineral spirits. Use a toothbrush and a couple of cans of aerosol brake cleaner to get the goo out of the nooks and crannys. For the stock, use mineral spirits and steel wool to get as much cosmoline off as you can, then wipe off with paper towels. Repeat until you have the surface goop off. Then toss the stock and hand guard in the dishwasher and let it do it's thing. All the grease will be pulled out of the wood and most of the dents too. Use a wet washcloth and an iron to steam out any remaining dents. Repeat as necessary rewetting the washcloth until you are satisfied with the results. Let it dry for a couple of days then sand with 280 grit sand paper. Stain if you like, then apply a coat of Tung Oil. Let dry for 12-24 hours. Sand with 0000 steel wool. Wipe down with a tack cloth or rag with mineral spirits to remove dust and goobers. Apply 3-6 more coats of Tung oil, sanding with the steel wool and drying between coats as before. Stop when you are happy with the results. |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 3:13:54 PM EDT
[#15]
The Accurate Rifle had an article about this a few years ago....some kind of Railroad solvent was the best thing for removing cosmoline from wood
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Posted: 7/23/2005 3:16:34 PM EDT
[#16]
I disassembled my Yugo SKS 59/66 and laid all the metal parts on a towel out in the sun. I then sprayed about a whole can of WD40 on it and let it soak for a few hours. Another hour or so of wiping and it was pretty clean. I would recommend boiling the bolt in water on the stove for 15 minutes to get all the cosmoline out and free up the firing pin. If you don't, you may have occasional misfires....or worse a slam fire.
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Posted: 7/23/2005 3:26:03 PM EDT
[#17]
I used WD40, Easy-Off and Gun Scrubber to clean the cosmoline shit off of my Yugo M48, none really worked 100%.
I have soaked the wood in boiling water, let it dry, then heated them up and it still had cosmoline coming out of the wood. Last time I went shooting it was 80 degrees, I shot a couple hundred rounds through it, and once again it had cosmoline bubbling up out of the wood. It's sitting in the garage, I have shot a full can of Gun Scrubber on it and let it soak in. It's amazing that there is still cosmoline in the wood. |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 3:27:32 PM EDT
[#18]
I'd like to see someone slam fire a bolt gun |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 3:28:38 PM EDT
[#19]
Some people on gunboards.com recommend putting the whole rifle in a garbage bag on a very hot and sunny day. Leave the gun on the dashboard of your car (assuming it is in the sun) for three or four hours. Get it while it is sitll hot. A lot of cosmoline should leech out. Three or four cycles of this should get rid of a lot of cosmoline without the use of chemicals. Just make sure the bag is sealed, or your car will smell like cosmoline.
Galland |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 3:37:22 PM EDT
[#20]
i've done it  scared the living piss out of me. lucky for me i had the bolt down far enough when it fired or i'd have been wearing a bolt in my forhead.
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Posted: 7/23/2005 3:54:49 PM EDT
[#21]
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Posted: 7/23/2005 4:00:04 PM EDT
[#22]
He's got an SKS, and those things are notorious for slamfires. |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 4:10:14 PM EDT
[#23]
Yep, the cosmoline on some SKS is so thick inside the bolt, it can freeze the firing pin in a protruding position and cause a slam fire |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 4:13:40 PM EDT
[#24]
You shouldn't worry about the stock. I have a Yugo M48 surplus that I had to work to get the cosmoline out of the functioning parts in order for the firing pin to strike the cartridge hard enough to do anything. You need to give that bolt a serious gasoline bath.
Take this from someone with actual experience with that rifle. It's an excellent rifle though. Unfortanely ammo selection for it is quite limited unless you special order. Also if you want to mount a scope on it you can just forget it unlesss you're gonna drop a forward-mounted pistol scope into the sight ladder. |
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Posted: 7/23/2005 6:11:32 PM EDT
[#25]
Ok guys here is what I have done so far. I am using whatever is laying around the house because I couldnt get back out after the show today and I couldnt wait to get started. I completely stripped the rifle down. I wiped everything with rags to get the heavy shit off. Then I sprayed all the metal parts with CLP and scrubbed with toothbrush then let soak in more CLP. I tore down the bolt and doused everything with brake cleaner. I sprayed all the bolt parts with CLP and reassembled the bolt. I wiped all the heavy cosmo off the wood and gooped it up citristrip (a citrus based stripper). I let that soak for about an hour then scrubbed it with an abrasive pad then wiped it down with rags. Thats as far as I got today. I need to go get some mineral spirits to give it a good wipe down then I'll sand it and see how it looks. Then I will probably put on some sort of boiled linseed oil or tung oil finish on it. Thanks for all the advice. Pics coming when finished.
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Posted: 7/24/2005 3:19:51 AM EDT
[#26]
trust us on this. wrap it and let it sweat in the sun for a few days before you even think about refinishing the wood. Cosmoline has a good tendancy to absorb into wood like a sponge! the first rifle i did would actually sweat cosmoline out from under the finish in some areas.
mike |
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Posted: 7/24/2005 5:19:34 AM EDT
[#27]
You have to register, but there is a forum for that sort of thing at the link below.
p102.ezboard.com/fparallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforumsfrm34 |
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Posted: 7/24/2005 9:26:01 AM EDT
[#28]
Try this place: Surplusrifle.com , good reading there.
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Posted: 7/24/2005 9:51:30 AM EDT
[#29]
I recently bought an M48 myself. Take the wood off, wrap it in paper towels, and stick it in a black plastic garbage bag. Then put it in a hot sunny spot, like in the rear window of your car out in the sun, or out on the back porch. Let that black bag soak up the sun for a few hours, and flip the stock over every hour or so to make sure it gets the heat all over.
After a few hours, pull the wood out of the bag and wipe off the cosmo. Repeat three or four times to leach it out good. |
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Posted: 8/1/2005 2:52:43 PM EDT
[#30]
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